The Snare | Page 3

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This Etext prepared by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.

THE SNARE
BY RAFAEL SABATINI

CONTENTS
I. THE AFFAIR AT TAVORA
II. THE ULTIMATUM
III. LADY O'MOY
IV. COUNT SAMOVAL
V. THE FUGITIVE
VI. MISS ARMYTAGE'S PEARLS
VII. THE ALLY

VIII. THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICER
IX. THE GENERAL ORDER
X. THE STIFLED QUARREL
XI. THE CHALLENGE
XII. THE DUEL
XIII. POLICHINELLE
XIV. THE CHAMPION
XV. THE WALLET
XVI. THE EVIDENCE
XVII. BITTER WATER
XVIII. FOOL'S MATE
XIX. THE TRUTH
XX. THE RESIGNATION
XXI. SANCTUARY
POSTSCRIPTUM

THE SNARE
CHAPTER I
THE AFFAIR AT TAVORA
It is established beyond doubt that Mr. Butler was drunk at the time.
This rests upon the evidence of Sergeant Flanagan and the troopers who

accompanied him, and it rests upon Mr. Butler's own word, as we shall
see. And let me add here and now that however wild and irresponsible
a rascal he may have been, yet by his own lights he was a man of
honour, incapable of falsehood, even though it were calculated to save
his skin. I do not deny that Sir Thomas Picton has described him as a
"thieving blackguard." But I am sure that this was merely the
downright, rather extravagant manner, of censure peculiar to that
distinguished general, and that those who have taken the expression at
its purely literal value have been lacking at once in charity and in
knowledge of the caustic, uncompromising terms of speech of General
Picton whom Lord Wellington, you will remember, called a rough,
foulmouthed devil.
In further extenuation it may truthfully be urged that the whole hideous
and odious affair was the result of a misapprehension; although I
cannot go so far as one of Lieutenant Butler's apologists and accept the
view that he was the victim of a deliberate plot on the part of his
too-genial host at Regoa. That is a misconception easily explained. This
host's name happened to be Souza, and the apologist in question has
very rashly leapt at the conclusion that he was a member of that
notoriously intriguing family, of which the chief members were the
Principal Souza, of the Council of Regency at Lisbon, and the
Chevalier Souza, Portuguese minister to the Court of St. James's.
Unacquainted with Portugal, our apologist was evidently in ignorance
of the fact that the name of Souza is almost as common in that country
as the name of Smith in this. He may also have been misled by the fact
that Principal Souza did not neglect to make the utmost