The Snare
Publisher Description
The Snare is a Adventurous Book. 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. In further extenuation it may truthfully be urged that the whole hideous and odious affair was the result of a misapprehension; although I cannot go so far as one of Lieutenant Butler's apologists and accept the view that he was the victim of a deliberate plot on the part of his too genial host at Regoa. That is a misconception easily explained. This host's name happened to be Souza, and the apologist in question has very rashly leapt at the conclusion that he was a member of that notoriously intriguing family, of which the chief members were the Principal Souza, of the Council of Regency at Lisbon, and the Chevalier Souza, Portuguese minister to the Court of St. James's. Unacquainted with Portugal, our apologist was evidently in ignorance of the fact that the name of Souza is almost as common in that country as the name of Smith in this.
Customer Reviews
Mostly weak, with some touches from his mature period
This is an odd combination of the immature Sabatini with flashes of his mature mastery. It’s especially odd as the immediate predecessor to his breakout novel, Scaramouche. It’s oddly parallel to his previous novel, The Sea Hawk, starting with a weak plot about a feckless male relative (a brother-in-law rather than a brother this time). Also like The Sea Hawk, it ends with an excellent denouement (which, for once, I did not see coming), followed by a weaker anti-climax. The anticlimax also suggests confusion on Sabatini’s part as to who his protagonist really was, which seemed to weaken the narrative. (Any reader of Sabatini’s later work would, of course, realize that it was the reserved, well-dressed man.) There are, though, some excellent cameos.