He would buy it. Oh yes! There
should be no plundering, no irregularity, no disregard of general
orders. He would buy the wine and pay for it - but himself he would
fix the price, and see that the monks of Tavora made no profit out
of their defenders.
Thus he thought as he considered the map. Presently, when having
taken leave of Fernando Souza - that prince of hosts - Mr. Butler
was riding down through the town with Sergeant Flanagan and ten
troopers at his heels, his purpose deepened and became more fierce.
I think the change of temperature must have been to blame. It was
a chill, bleak evening. Overhead, across a background of faded blue,
scudded ragged banks of clouds, the lingering flotsam of the
shattered rainstorm of yesterday: and a cavalry cloak afforded but
indifferent protection against the wind that blew hard and sharp
from the Atlantic.
Coming from the genial warmth of Mr. Souza's parlour into this, the
evaporation of the wine within him was quickened, its fumes mounted
now overwhelmingly to his brain, and from comfortably intoxicated
that he had been hitherto, the lieutenant now became furiously drunk;
and the transition was a very rapid one. It was now that he looked
upon the business he had in hand in the light of a crusade; a sort
of religious fanaticism began to actuate him.
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