Publisher's Synopsis
Known for a series of wildly popular, action-packed romance adventure novels such as Scaramouche and Captain Blood, Rafael Sabatini's work deftly combines the sensuality of his Italian heritage with the more mannered approach to life inculcated in him by his British upbringing. The Snare, set against the dramatic backdrop of the Peninsular War, brings together battlefield action and behind-the-scenes intrigue in a pulse-pounding story that action-adventure fans will surely appreciate.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.
