This was quickly agreed to and the two men sat down in the hotel dining-parlour. Strange found Mr Briscall to be a pleasant dinner companion who was happy to tell all he knew of Lord Wellington and the Army.

“Soldiers are not in general religious men,” he said, “but then I never expected that they would be and I have been greatly helped by the circumstance that all the chaplains before me went on leave almost as soon as they arrived. I am the first to stay – and the men are grateful to me for that. They look very kindly on any one who is prepared to share their hard life.”

Strange said he was sure of it.

“And what of you, Mr Strange? How do you get on?”

“I? I do not get on at all. No one wants me here. I am addressed – on the rare occasions when any one speaks to me at all – quite indiscriminately as Mr Strange or Mr Norrell. No one seems to have any notion that these might be distinct persons.”

Briscall laughed.

“And Lord Wellington rejects all my offers of help as soon as I make them.”

“Why? What have you offered him?”

Strange told him about his first proposal to send a plague of frogs to fall on the French from the sky.

“Well, I am really not at all surprized he refused that!” said Briscall, contemptuously. “The French cook frogs and eat them, do they not? It is a vital part of Lord Wellington’s plan that the French should starve. You might as well have offered to drop roast chickens on their heads or pork pies!”

“It is not my fault,” said Strange, a little stung. “I would be only too glad to take Lord Wellington’s plans into consideration – only I do not know what they are. In London the Admiralty told us their intentions and we shaped our magic accordingly.”

“I see,” said Briscall. “Forgive me, Mr Strange – perhaps I have not understood very well – but it seems to me that you have a great advantage here. In London you were obliged to rely upon the Admiralty’s opinion as to what might be happening hundreds of miles away – and I dare say the Admiralty was quite often mistaken. Here you can go and see for yourself. Your experience is no different from my own. When I first arrived no one took the least notice of me either. I drifted from one regiment to another. No one wanted me.”

“And yet now you are a part of Wellington’s Staff. How did you do it?”

“It took time, but in the end I was able to prove my usefulness to his lordship – and I am sure you will do the same.”

Strange sighed. “I try. But all I seem to do is demonstrate my superfluousness. Over and over again!”