If the Ministry had given the Major his head, so to speak, Agincourt
at least might have been repeated.
But since it enforced him to wait on the enemy's movements, at least
(said he) let us be sure that our defence is secure. Concerning the
Troy battery he had not a doubt; but over the defences of Looe he
could not but feel perturbed. To be sure, Looe's main battery stood
out of reach of harm, but with the compensating disadvantage of being
able to inflict none. This seemed to him a grave engineering
blunder: but to impart his misgivings to an officer so sensitive as
Captain Aeneas Pond of the East and West Looe Volunteer Artillery was
a delicate matter, and cost him much anxious thought.
At length he hit on a plan at once tactful and so bold that it
concealed his tact. Between Looe and Troy, but much nearer to Looe,
lies Talland Cove, a pretty recess of the coast much favoured in
those days by smugglers as being lonely and well sheltered, with a
nicely shelving beach on which, at almost any state of the tide, an
ordinary small boat could be run and her cargo discharged with the
greatest ease. A shelving ridge on the eastern side of the cove had
only to be known to be avoided, and the run of sea upon the beach
could be disregarded in any but a strong southerly wind.
Now, where the free-traders could so easily land a cargo, it stood to
reason that Bonaparte (were he so minded) could land an invading
force.
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