“No, your Grace, though I wish I did,” William said.

“My own view is that the purpose of war is to fight, to smash the foe,” Lieutenant General Bell said.

“If we could do that, nothing would make me happier,” Joseph the Gamecock said. “Do you see us doing it against General Hesmucet and the host he has assembled by Rising Rock?”

Had Bell nodded to that, Joseph would have lost his temper. But the cripple who still wanted to be a soldier shook his big, leonine head. “It is as my comrade says,” he answered. “I wish I did, but I do not.”

“All right, then,” Joseph told him. “We are in accord.” He had his doubts about that, but, for once, did not state them. He made more allowances for Bell than for most men-certainly more than he made for King Geoffrey. “That being so, I intend to make my fight in the way I mentioned. I have sent orders to the north and west to have estate-holders get their serfs out to start building fieldworks for us.”

“Already, sir? So soon?” Roast-Beef William asked in surprise.

“Already. So soon,” Joseph the Gamecock said grimly. “You’re our master tactician, Lieutenant General, so think tactically here. If we are going to make this kind of fight, shouldn’t we get ready for it ahead of time? Otherwise, our soldiers would have to do the digging themselves, as the southrons do.”

“Here I agree with you completely,” Bell said. “Not fitting for Detinans to do such labor when we can call on the subjected blonds.”

“Just so,” Joseph said; he was, for once, as well pleased to have escaped argument. “Unless this campaign very much surprises me, we shall need those works.”

“If Hesmucet thinks he and the southrons can storm straight through us, he had better think again,” Bell said. “I have to be strapped onto a unicorn to stay aboard, but I expect I may have one last charge left in me.”