Bonaparte continued: "I shall embark forty thousand Frenchmen on the Danube." "Excuse me, citizen First Consul, but the Danube is an Austrian river." "I shall have taken Vienna." Sir John stared at Bonaparte.
"I shall have taken Vienna," continued the latter.

"I shall then embark forty thousand Frenchmen on the Danube; I find Russian vessels at its mouth ready to transport them to Taganrog; I march them by land along the course of the Don to Pratisbianskaia, whence they move to Tzaritsin; there they descend the Volga in the same vessels that have transported the forty thousand Russians to Asterabad; fifteen days later I have eighty thousand men in western Persia.

From Asterabad, these united corps will march to the Indus; Persia, the enemy of England, is our natural ally." "Yes; but once in the Punjab, the Persian alliance will do you no good; and an army of eighty thousand men cannot drag its provisions along with it." "You forget one thing," said Bonaparte, as if the expedition were already under way, "I have left bankers at Teheran and Caboul.

Now, remember what happened nine years ago in Lord Cornwallis' war with Tippo Saib.

The commander-in-chief fell short of provisions, and a simple captain--I forget his name." "Captain Malcolm," said Lord Tanlay.
"That's it!" cried Bonaparte.