The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Snare, by Rafael Sabatini

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Title: The Snare

Author: Rafael Sabatini

Posting Date: January 2, 2009 [EBook #2687]
Release Date: June, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE SNARE

By Rafael Sabatini

CONTENTS

I. THE AFFAIR AT TAVORA

II. THE ULTIMATUM

III. LADY O'MOY

IV. COUNT SAMOVAL

V. THE FUGITIVE

VI. MISS ARMYTAGE'S PEARLS

VII. THE ALLY

VIII. THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER

IX. THE GENERAL ORDER

X. THE STIFLED QUARREL

XI. THE CHALLENGE

XII. THE DUEL

XIII. POLICHINELLE

XIV. THE CHAMPION

XV. THE WALLET

XVI. THE EVIDENCE

XVII. BITTER WATER

XVIII. FOOL'S MATE

XIX. THE TRUTH

XX. THE RESIGNATION

XXI. SANCTUARY

POSTSCRIPTUM

THE SNARE

CHAPTER I. THE AFFAIR AT TAVORA

It is established beyond doubt that Mr. Butler was drunk at the time.
This rests upon the evidence of Sergeant Flanagan and the troopers who
accompanied him, and it rests upon Mr. Butler's own word, as we shall
see. And let me add here and now that however wild and irresponsible a
rascal he may have been, yet by his own lights he was a man of honour,
incapable of falsehood, even though it were calculated to save his skin.
I do not deny that Sir Thomas Picton has described him as a "thieving
blackguard." But I am sure that this was merely the downright, rather
extravagant manner, of censure peculiar to that distinguished general,
and that those who have taken the expression at its purely literal value
have been lacking at once in charity and in knowledge of the caustic,
uncompromising terms of speech of General Picton whom Lord Wellington,
you will remember, called a rough, foulmouthed devil.

In further extenuation it may truthfully be urged that the whole hideous
and odious affair was the result of a misapprehension; although I cannot
go so far as one of Lieutenant Butler's apologists and accept the
view that he was the victim of a deliberate plot on the part of his