16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
Doctor's friends had arranged a change in
government, and since the Viceroy was away
everything was moving rapidly and smoothly
towards the desired end, troops were being
moved and bridges secured, all the necessary
precautions for a peaceful change, when Dutourd
appeared. He said the Doctor was an
English agent and that the whole operation
was set a-going with the help of English gold
by purchased traitors. Nobody took much notice
of such an enthusiast, a Frenchman into
the bargain, stained with the crime of their
revolution and Napoleon's against the Pope.
But a vile official, one Castro, the black thief,
thought he might seize upon it to curry favour
with the Viceroy, and he made a great noise,
hiring a mob to shout in the streets and stone
foreigners. The whole city was alive with it.
The chief general cried off; the movement collapsed;
and his friends advised the Doctor to