While these thoughts moved in his mind, he answered De Broglio’s words in a different way.
“You think we may stand the storm for this bout? It is hard to guess. We have walls; but they have, as against us, an almost numberless force and are of a fighting fury that all men know. Yet it is to be thought that they must fight without hope of honour or praise, from the very numbers in which they come; and we can take some pleasure in that. For if the fort fall, it is no more than all men will look to see. There is no glory for them. But if they fail they will have their measure of shame, at which they must vomit much.”
“Well,” De Broglio said, “you are right enough, and, be that as it may, it is our part to keep them out to the last hour that we can, both for the cause we serve and that our t
