A Signal Victory by David Stacton

Author:David Stacton [David Stacton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571320134
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

XIX

They were glad to see him back. But they did not like what he had to tell them.

Nor did Nachancan care for what he had learned. It was so plain to see that disillusionment in what before had been always interested eyes. When that special sparkle goes, in a man of confident maturity, even though he does not know it himself, one can see it, and it is as distressing, as futile, to be touched by that, as by the look children have, who, always having seen the world for the first time, no matter what we do to protect them, no matter how we love them, no matter how they love themselves, then see it for the second, and though they are still delightful children, still that look which turns a knife in the heart, which makes us tremble for the safety of the joy of being, is never quite the same again.

At that age, six or seven, they first learn about the Performance, that imitation of life with which we solace ourselves even when we are gay and most absorbed, for the impossibility of life itself. It can be very beautiful, the performance, but it is never quite the same thing as life itself, as those first years of experiencing our future lines, which then seem reality, but are only the rehearsal.

And yet that is why we admire a good performance, because we also went through the rehearsal, we feel for the players, and know that in their parts we should not have done so well.

But if a man of forty learns what the world is, particularly if it is a world in which he believed, that is different. That is a little sad.

Guerrero had been young so long; and Nachancan, so long old. They had been father and son for so long. But now experience had made them equals. It left them with so much not to say. It made them father and son the more, in that collaboration which is possible, only when we have learned enough of the world not to hate our parents. When and if that point has been reached, a man and his son may be blood brothers.

That point had been reached. And it saved them time. They found that they agreed.

Guerrero had found the disunity of the peninsula a shock, but there was no time to indulge in such a thing as shock. Montejo was on his way. The city would have to be defended. The strategy of the bay would have to be planned. And, since he could not hold the natives against a determined force, he sent out messengers every day and planned a ruse. It might work and it might not. But if it did work it would give him a little more time to intrigue among the provinces.

Montejo was coming by sea, Davila by land, and they expected to meet at the Bay of Chetumal itself. Montejo, though willing to fight, would not fight unless he had to.

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