"
"I feel that it is idle."
"Let the Council judge. I implore you, General, let the Council
judge."
"Very well." O'Moy shrugged, and took up a sheet of the dispatch
which lay before him. "You will admit, sir, I think, that the
beginning of these troubles coincided with the advent of the
Principal Souza upon the Council of Regency." He waited in vain
for a reply. Forjas, the diplomat, preserved an uncompromising
silence, in which presently O'Moy proceeded: "From this, and from
other evidence, of which indeed there is no lack, Lord Wellington
has come to the conclusion that all the resistance, passive and
active, which he has encountered, results from the Principal Souza's
influence upon the Council. You will not, I think, trouble to deny
it, sir."
Forjas spread his hands. "You will remember, General," he answered,
in tones of conciliatory regret, "that the Principal Souza represents
a class upon whom Lord Wellington's measures bear in a manner
peculiarly hard."
"You mean that he represents the Portuguese nobility and landed
gentry, who, putting their own interests above those of the State,
have determined to oppose and resist the devastation of the country
which Lord Wellington recommends.
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