"There will be no credit in thrashing them with such odds as that," Dick
Ryan grumbled.

"I suppose, Ryan," Major Harrison said, "if you had been in Sir Arthur's
place you would have preferred remaining at Leirya until Junot could have
gathered all his forces, and obtained a reinforcement of some fifty
thousand or so from Spain, then you would have issued a general order
saying, that as the enemy had now a hundred thousand troops ready, the
army would advance and smite them."

"Not so bad as that, Major," the young ensign said, colouring, as there
was a general laugh from the rest; "but there does not seem much
satisfaction in thrashing an enemy when we are three to one against him."

"But that is just the art of war, Ryan. Of course, it is glorious to
defeat a greatly superior army and to lose half your own in doing so; that
may be heroic, but it is not modern war. The object of a general is, if
possible, to defeat an enemy in detail, and to so manoeuvre that he is
always superior in strength to the force that is immediately in front of
him, and so to ensure victory after victory until the enemy are destroyed.
That is what the general is doing by his skilful manoeuvring; he has
prevented Junot from massing the whole of the army of Portugal against us.

"To-morrow we shall defeat Laborde, and doubtless a day or two later we
shall fight Loison; then I suppose we shall advance against Lisbon, Junot
will collect his beaten troops and his garrison, there will be another
battle, and then we shall capture Lisbon, and the French will have to
evacuate Portugal. Whereas, if all the French were at Rolica they would
probably smash us into a cocked hat, in spite of any valour we might show;