They'll have orders to land on the coast, to join the Irish patriots, to take control of the operations, and then to march on--" He was going to say "march on Dublin," but he stopped.

He was playing a daring game.

If he had not been sure of his man, he would not have been so frank and fearless.
He did not, however, mislead Dyck greatly.

Dyck had been drinking a good deal, but this knowledge of a French invasion, and a sense of what Boyne was trying to do, steadied his shaken emotions; held him firmly in the grip of practical common sense.

He laughed, hiccuped a little, as though he was very drunk, and said: "Of course the French would like to come to Ireland; they'd like to seize it and hold it.