"How? The English have taken the city already!" exclaimed Don Roderigo.
"They opened a breach in the wall close to the sea, and stormed it under the fire of their ships. We had blocked up the gap in the night before the assault, and the defence was rude and cost them many men, but they carried everything before them at the point of the bayonet."
"When was the assault?"
"At dawn on the third."
"And you had entered the city before that?"
"Yes, three days before. We were not at the breach, but were posted near the citadel, and beat off a party that tried to scale the wall, but we were cut off and surrounded by the English before we knew that they had forced the breach. We fired on them, and they would have massacred us but for Don Carlos, who kept them back, and ran in through our fire waving a handkerchief. He told us that resistance was useless, as the English had already captured the Plaza, and had all our positions in reverse, so we surrendered."
"Then you were made prisoner," said Marcelino.
"Yes, but Don Carlos spoke for me, and they let me go on promising that I would not serve against them any more in this war."
"And Sobremonte, what does he do?" asked Don Roderigo. "He had some force collected not far off, and we expected that he would prevent the English from attempting an assault."
"Sobremonte does nothing."