Buckingham smiled.
“It is an army almost non-existent, Your Highness,” he said.
The Prince slightly flushed.
“My lord, I do not admit that—I am expecting help from Brandenburg and Spain.”
“I trust that they will not be needed, Highness,” replied Arlington. “Peace, we hope, will render them unnecessary.”
“I do hope, my lord, an honourable peace may be come by, but the terms the King of France offers are not to be considered——”
“Yet those in desperate straits can scarce be choosers,” answered Buckingham.
“We have not come to desperation, my lord; the Emperor alone is sending me fifteen thousand men.”
The Duke shrugged his shoulders.