According to Grim, who should know, that cavalry division was the
kingpin of Feisul's plan. He had intended to lead a raid in person,
swooping down the French flank to their rear; but the three staff
traitors, Daulch, Hattin and Aubck, sent forward the previous evening to
place the division and hold it ready, had simply tipped the French off
to the whole plan and at the critical moment of Feisul's arrival on the
scene had ordered the sauve-qui-peut. I don't believe the French used
more than a can or two of gas. I don't believe they had more than a few
cans of it so far advanced.
But the sauve-qui-peut might have been useless without Feisul's capture,
for he was just the man to rally a routed army and snatch victory out of
a defeat. Nobody knew better than Feisul the weakness of the French
communications, and the work of those three traitors was only half done
when the cavalry took to its heels. The one man who could possibly save
the day had to be bagged and handed over.
I didn't realize all that, of course, in the twinkling of an eye, as
they say you do in a climax. Maybe I've never faced a climax. I'm no
psychologist and not at all given to review of sudden situations in the
abstract.
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