"Where is thy daughter?" he asks as soon as the other is within earshot.
"In chapel, I imagine," replies de Vargas.
"No woman should be abroad this night," says Alva dryly. "Send for her and order her to remain within her apartments."
"She has been tending the wounded, and will wish to do so again."
"Well! let her keep to the castle-yard then."
"You are not anxious, Monseigneur?"
"No. Not anxious," replies Alva with a fierce oath, "we can subdue these rebels of course. But I would I had brought Spanish soldiers with me, rather than these Walloon louts. They let themselves be massacred like sheep or else run like poltroons. Vitelli declares he has lost over a thousand men and at least a thousand more are prisoners in the various guild-houses--probably more. We ought never to have lost ground as we did," he adds sullenly, "but who would have thought that these louts meant to fight?"
"Who, indeed?" retorts de Vargas with a sneer, "and yet here we are besieged in our own citadel, and by a handful of undisciplined peasants."
"Nay! their triumph will be short-lived," exclaims Alva savagely. "We have over two thousand men inside the Kasteel and surely they cannot be more than three thousand all told unless..." He broke off abruptly, then continued more calmly: "Darkness closed in on us ere reprisals could commence ... if I had more Spaniards with me, I would try a sortie in the night and catch these oafs in their sleep ... but these Walloons are such damnable fools and such abominable cowards.... But we'll fight our way through in the morning, never fear!"
"In the meanwhile cannot we send to Dendermonde for reinforcements? The garrison there is all Spanish and..."