Ordering them all well provided with food, she told them to return to their homes, and there await the stolen cattle which she would see were returned. Then she noiselessly gathered her armed retainers about the several doorways leading to the breakfast-hall. The soldier who had restlessly paced the court and cursed the Spaniards was in advance, and his eyes were hungry and his breath came hard. The Countess entered the room, and calmly seated herself at the table, facing the Duke.
"Gentlemen," she said, "a few moments ago I spoke of the promise of your Emperor, that my subjects should be unmolested by his soldiers. I have just learned that it has been broken. Your men have taken my people's cattle, which are necessary to them. Of course, you knew nothing of this, and my messenger here will carry your orders to return them." She was icily polite, and the command in her last words was more than a Spaniard could take.
"Your messenger is kind," the Duke observed.
"My dear Countess," said Henry of Brunswick, "do not allow the loss of a few cattle, peasants' cattle, to disturb you. How little a woman knows of war, to be sure! Why, soldiers are prone to roughness even in their own land, and a few such escapades cannot be prevented. The Duke and myself sincerely regret the occurrence, and will do our best to stop them in the future."
She looked from one to the other. "Am I to understand, then, that the Emperor's orders have no weight with you?" she asked, angrily.
"As you like," said Alva.
"And that you will not restore to my people their own?"
"It is impossible," explained Brunswick.
"Then, as God lives, princes' blood shall pay for oxen's!"
And from the doors the curtains parted, and the flashing of swords cut the light. The tramp of heavy feet resounded in the castle, and without a word a score of tall brawny warriors encircled the table and enclosed the generals. Behind the chair of Alva, unnoticed, stood the restless soldier, his face, his arms, his body, afire with hate. They say that gaunt, patient, hungry revenge is of the South, that the Northman never feels it, but when a man has lost wife, children, home, peace, liberty, and he sees the instrument of all before him—Heaven shall lightly judge his deed in such a moment!