Book: Victory of Eagles
Quotes of Book: Victory of Eagles
He settled for writing a letter, in a quiet corner, while Temeraire dictated his own:"Gentlemen, I am very happy to accept your commission, and we should like to be the eighty-first regiment, if that number is not presently taken. We do not need any rifles, and we have got plenty of powder and shot for our cannons," Laurence wrote with a vivid awareness of the reactions this should produce, "but we are always in need of more cows and picks and sheep, and goats would also do, if a good deal easier to come by. Lloyd and our herdsmen have done very well, and I should to commend them to your attention, but there are a lot of us, and some more herdsmen would be very useful.""Pepper, put in pepper," another dragon said, craning her head over; she was a middle-weight, yellowish striped with gray, some kind of cross-breed. "And canvas, we must have a lot of canvas-" "Oh, very well, pepper," Temeraire said, and continuing his list of requests added, "I should very much like Keynes to come here, and also Gong Su, and Emily Roland, who has my talon-sheaths, and the rest of my crew; and also we need some surgeons for the wounded me. Dorset had better come, too, and some of the other dragon-surgeons. You had all better not stay where you are at present-""Temeraire, you cannot write so to your superior officers," Laurence said, breaking off. book-quoteHe coiled himself neatly and waited without fidgeting, as was polite; but at length, when Majestatis showed no signs of waking-after ten minutes, or perhaps five-very nearly five-Temeraire coughed; then he coughed again, a little more emphatically, and Majestatis sighed and said, without opening his eyes, "So you are not leaving, I suppose?""Oh," Temeraire said, his ruff prickling, "I thought you were only sleeping, not ignoring me deliberately; I will go at once.""Well, you might as well stay ," Majestatis said, lifting his head and yawning himself away. "I don't bother to wake up if it isn't important enough to wait for, that's all. book-quoteYou are not wrong," Laurence said. He had assumed as much himself, after all, in his Navy days: had thought the Corps full of wild, devil-may-care libertines, disregarding law and authority as far as they dared, barely kept in check-- to be used for their control over the beasts, and not respected."But if we have more liberty than we ought," Laurence said, after a moment, struggling through, "it is because they have not enough: the dragons. They have no stake in victory but our happiness; their daily bread and nation would give them just to have peace and quiet. We are given licence so long as we do what we ought not; so long as we use their affections to keep them obedient and quiet, to ends which serve them not at all-- or which harm.""How else do you make them care?" Granby said. "If we left off, the French would only run right over us, and take our eggs themselves.""They care in China," Laurence said, "and in Africa, and they care all the more, that their rational sense is not imposed on, and their hearts put into opposition with their minds. If they cannot be woken to a natural affection for their country, such as we feel, it is our fault, and not theirs. book-quoteinspirationaltemeraire
