‘To be fair,’ Granby said, ‘there is not much they can do; they haven't the men yet. Admiral Roland tried to persuade them we ought to be ferrying in the troops, but to their minds, such action will only make a mess, and cause mutiny everywhere when the men won't go aboard.’

‘They might retreat,’ Tharkay said, ‘rather than wait to be routed.’

‘Well,’ Granby said, and Laurence felt much the same; it was one thing to retreat from the coast, having failed to prevent a landing, but another matter entirely to let London be taken without a shot.

‘Is there any hope that you are mistaken?’ Laurence asked Temeraire, a little later, after the ferals had been settled into the camp.

‘They are moving their men somewhere,’ Temeraire said, practically, ‘and I cannot think where he would move them, other than to London, where your army is. There are plenty of cows around here, so it would not be only for food. But if you like I will ask Moncey and the others to go and see if they can work out where they have gone, for certain.’

Before this plan could be wholly put into effect, however, it was rendered unnecessary: Elsie came flying desperately into camp, nearly skidding across the ground. ‘Hurry, oh, hurry,’ she cried, ‘they are not attacking tomorrow, they are attacking tonight.’

Hollin came scrambling off her back and said, ‘It is all true, sir; the scouts have seen them formed up not an hour's march away, and there are ten Fleur de Nuits arming themselves to the teeth in their camp.’

Laurence now had opportunity to see for himself how quickly an army of dragons might go, when their own camp moved. First, the herd of cattle were sent bellowing down the road in a cloud of dust, with the herdsmen beating them along, with a few aerial shepherds for encouragement. ‘We will meet you at Harpenden,’ Temeraire said to the chief herdsmen, ‘or send you word there, of where to bring the cows, and along which road.’

‘Aye, sir,’ the man said, touching his forelock quite automatically, and cheerfully shouting to his men, he kicked his mule and moved along.

The handful of tents were struck and bundled up, stakes and all, into a crumpled heap upon one large cloth; cooking gear was thrown in too, the great cauldrons all filled with roundshot. The middleweight dragons seized the guns, and the militia and the remaining hands clambered up onto the smaller beasts using ropes to secure themselves. ‘It needs less rope, you see,’ Temeraire explained, ‘for the little ones to carry, and the men say they like it better if they can sit astride, instead of being cross-legged.’