Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/97

Rh numbers is no doubt a splendid achievement; but it is an achievement in which the lower nature of man, that which is termed brute force, has a considerable share. But to gain all the effect of a victory without fighting, to dislodge an enemy superior in numbers from a position of vital importance without firing a shot — that indeed is an exercise of the highest faculties of man's higher nature, a feat of intellectual power not often bestowed, but generally combined, when given, with that strength of nerve which knows when and how to dare.

The clocks of Kadalúr were striking half-past eight when Suffren anchored before the town. With the prescience of a true commander he had discovered that of the two enemies before him it was necessary to drive off the one before attacking the other. Were he to lend his sailors to join in an attack on General Stuart, he might at any moment be assailed at a disadvantage