His vessel will be useless for several months on account of the ice, and besought by Oliver, who has divided his time between nursing his wounded comrade and making desperate attempts to elude the vigilance of Alva’s troops and get to Haarlem, Chester finally makes his way across Waterland to Egmont. Here Diederick Sonoy, who holds North Holland for the Prince of Orange, is getting together an expedition to attack the Diemerdyk at some vulnerable point and fortify it, cutting off Amsterdam and the Spaniards from supplies, as they have been cutting off Haarlem.
“Pardieu!” remarks Oliver, as they make the journey over frozen lakes and by villages half buried in snow, “if I had had my altar piece with me I could have finished it between skirmishes. I’ve done nothing [[186]]for my art, nothing—even for my love.” He wrings his hands desperately.
“What have I done for mine?” mutters Guy.
“Diable!” says the painter, who guesses what is in his companion’s mind. Alva’s treasure will be undisturbed until the Duke leaves the Low Countries. Not even riot of unpaid troops will make him disgorge it. It is salted down for the winter.
“You are sure the Duke has no hint of your having the keys made?” interjects Guy uneasily.
“Certainly not—for I never had them manufactured—I felt I was suspected even when I reached Malines—so I gave no order about the keys, and before I fled from Brussels destroyed the drafts,” answers Oliver. A moment after he adds, with a smile: “As for Alva’s daughter, she is probably mourning for Colonel Guido Amati de Medina.”
This idea of her grieving for his death makes Guy desperate, and he is crazy to get within glance of Hermoine’s bright eyes. This is almost impossible until the ice leaves his vessel free.
To kill time he takes to killing Spaniards, joining the expedition Sonoy on the very first indication of spring gets together for the assault on the Diemerdyk.
This consists of a number of galleys and flat-bottomed boats filled with eight hundred soldiers, which moves soon after the frost of winter passes away and the inland waters become navigable.
The point of attack has been carefully selected where the dyke is narrowest and most susceptible of defense against troops coming from Amsterdam. On one side of the little narrow causeway are the waters of the Y, on the other is the Diemer Lake, cutting off Amsterdam from Muyden, and provisions and supplies coming from Utrecht and the South.