Lloyd and the men had helped the survivors away, and put up a tent for them, but that still left all the dead men lying about. The battle had been very satisfying, if not quite as long or as ordered as one might have wished. Temeraire was not sorry to have killed the soldiers, it was just as well they had, since otherwise they would have had to fight them again; and after all they had invaded. But he was sorry they were dead, and it made one rather sad to look at them.

Most of the ferals had not understood the difficulty, and a couple were even for eating them. Temeraire had flattened his ruff in horror as everyone else hissed disapprovingly, so the suggestion was quickly withdrawn. ‘Yes, that is enough of that kind of talk,’ Gentius said. ‘But we can't leave them lying about, either. That just isn't fitting; they were good enemies.’

So a couple of the Reapers had dug a grave, perhaps a little deep – some twenty feet – and the couriers had collected up the dead and put them inside. After they had filled the hole, Chalcedony had respectfully stuck one of the least-charred French flags upright into the mound, and they had all bowed their heads solemnly for a moment; then they had eaten some pigs.

They had then begun the careful work of picking through the remains of the camp. Most things had been burnt-up, but for the metal pots, buckles and cannon-shot, and most excitingly, a great solid lump of gold – a heap of sovereigns melted all together – which had been found in the charred remains of a chest. Reedly had nosed it out onto the ground in front of them, and many heads had craned to look at it in rapt admiration; it shone brilliantly in the morning sun.

‘Well, how is it to be shared out?’ Requiescat had asked, eyeing it covetously.

‘We must put it aside somewhere safe,’ Temeraire said, ‘and when the war is over, we shall take all the treasure we have won, like this, and have some splendid pavilions built all over the country, which we can all use whenever we like, which will be better than for each of us to have only enough of a share to buy a piece of a pavilion. And what is left over, we shall use to get medals, for everyone, and everyone will have a medal to suit their size.’

All approved of this arrangement, and a few dragons were detailed off – after complicated negotiations, which resulted in an escort of Reedly, Chalcedony, another Yellow Reaper and an Anglewing, when Reedly could easily have carried it alone – to accompany the chunk of gold to a place of safety back in the breeding grounds. The rest of them had fallen back to searching the camp with even more enthusiasm than before. Then they had uncovered the cannon.