Temeraire snorted angrily. Laurence had read him sections of that book; it was all about people who had died in especially unpleasant ways. But Laurence only said, ‘Sir, there are abundant proofs for any man, that a nation which gives its dragons liberty and brings them into the life of the state, winning their loyalty directly and not by intermediaries, profits to so great an extent that no enemy can hope to mount an aerial force to compete with them without following the same course. If you do not care to learn from the example of China—’

One of the young officers on Wellesley's staff, who had walked out with him, made a rude noise. ‘You need not sniff, either,’ Temeraire said. ‘China may not have as many guns, but there are thousands of dragons in their army.’

‘Thousands indeed,’ Wellesley said, sceptically.

‘Six thousand, two hundred and eighty-eight, my mother told me,’ Temeraire said. No one said anything for a moment, and he supposed that perhaps it seemed odd to be so precise, so he explained, ‘Because that is a lucky number. Of course they have many more dragons who can fight, but those dragons are not officially in the army.’

‘And,’ Laurence said to Wellesley, ‘if the population of France is not so great as that of China, should they achieve even the same proportion of dragons to men and arable land, using the same techniques of husbandry which you may be sure Lien has conveyed to Bonaparte, their nation will shortly be equipped to field a military force of a thousand. Would you care to face that in five years, with the Corps at its present rate of growth?’

‘Damn you, I am in no mood to be lectured at with figures, as though I were in a boardroom in Whitehall,’ Wellesley said. ‘Very well. Your beasts will have their keep, and above that the same wages as any other man in service under the Navy Board—’

‘A shilling a day will keep a seaman's wife and children, and let him carouse on shore a little when he comes into port, but it will not do as much for a dragon.’ Laurence said.

‘And we don't want little coins that we must keep track of, either, and cannot hold onto,’ Minnow put in. ‘A proper mess that would be.’

Temeraire nodded. ‘No, and what we really want is to be able to go where we like. That is what I want promised, also. If we may go where we like, and do any work that is offered to us, then even should the Government offer us unfair wages, we can work for someone else instead. And the same for harnessed dragons too,’ he added.

‘Any work that is offered to you?’ Wellesley said. ‘By all means. As for going where you like—’