What was left would not have been of much use for a real camp: the field was a wet and smoky mess covered with heaps of debris and the cracked stumps of trees poked inconveniently out of the ground at odd intervals. No dragon could have comfortably stretched out within it, not without a great deal more work to clear it out. There were still a few small fires crackling, around which the men dug rings to keep them from spreading, and after a little shovelling, a handful of tents were put up. From aloft the scene would look convincing enough, especially with the stuffed redcoats, coats and breeches filled with straw, which Admiral Roland's men had arranged about some of the fires.

‘I like those,’ Perscitia said, eyeing the figures, and paced back a few steps to examine them more critically. ‘One must be quite close to notice, and I dare say if one were moving quickly, it would be quite impossible.’

‘I hope it will do for the Fleurs, any road,’ Admiral Roland said. ‘And now, the lot of you to the herds, and then to sleep. Laurence, do you want your officers?’

‘I would not have them removed from other posts, if they have been placed,’ Laurence said, ‘but I defer to your judgment, Admiral.’ Temeraire tipped his head and put his ear toward Laurence, puzzled a little to hear his tone, which seemed to him a little odd.

‘Are you not happy?’ Temeraire asked anxiously, while he waited for his dinner; the herdsmen at the pen were conferring about the rations, throwing occasional anxious glances towards the sixty dragons patiently arranged outside the fence. Laurence had been so very quiet, since the conference. ‘We are together again, and we will soon beat Napoleon; I am sure the generals cannot help but see, when that is done, that we have done everything correctly. I see now,’ he added, ‘why they were ready to be so wicked. They are just so very afraid of losing. And I cannot really blame them for being afraid, because they do not seem to be very clever; but they should at least be clever enough to see that they ought to let us manage things, since they are not very good at it themselves.’

‘I would not for the world diminish your spirits,’ Laurence said, after a moment. ‘I am very glad indeed to be with you again, and for the prospect of action; but I will counsel you against that degree of overconfidence, which only lends itself to disappointment. That,’ he added, lower, ‘was perhaps, as much as anything, the cause of the Prussian loss.’

‘Well, they were very slow,’ Temeraire said. ‘And it seems to me that so are these fellows, but at least now that cannot matter, since we are to fight here. We do not need to hurry anywhere. But whyever is it taking so long?’ He stretched his head out over the fence. ‘What is the difficulty?’