window, and looked down at the groups gathered
below.

No one noticed her, for the men who stood there sorrowing, and the
weeping women, among whom were Maria and Barbara, were listening with
many tokens of sympathy to the eager words of a young man, and had eyes
and ears for him alone. Henrica recognized in the speaker the musician
Wilhelm, but only by his voice, for the morion on his curls and the
blood-stained coat of mail gave the unassuming artist a martial, nay
heroic air.

He had advanced a long way in his story, when Henrica unseen became a
listener.

"Yes, sir," he replied, in answer to a question from the burgomaster,
"we followed them, but they disappeared in the village and all remained
still. To risk storming the houses, would have been madness. So we
kept quiet, but towards two o'clock heard firing in the neighborhood
of Leyderdorp. 'Junker von Warmond has made a sally,' said the captain,
leading us in the direction of the firing. This was what the Spaniards
had wanted, for long before we reached the goal, a company of
Castilians, with white sheets over their armor, climbed out of a
ditch in the dim light, threw themselves on their knees, murmured a
'Pater-noster,' shouted their San Jago and pressed forward upon us. We
had seen them in time for the halberdiers to extend their pikes, and
the musketeers to be down amid the grass. So the Spaniards had a warm
reception, and four of them fell in this attack. We were superior in
numbers, and their captain led them back to the ditch in good order.
There they halted, for their duty was probably to detain us and then
have us cut down by a larger body. We were too weak to drive them from
their position, but when the east began to brighten and they still did
not come forward, the captain advanced towards them with the drummer,
bearing a white flag, and shouted to them in Italian, which he had
learned to speak a little in Italy, that he wished the Castilian
gentlemen good-morning, and if there was any officer with a sense of
honor among them, let him come forth and meet a captain who wished to
cross swords with him. He pledged his word, that his men would look on
at the duel without taking any share in it, no matter what the result
might be. Just at that moment two shots were fired from the ditch and
the bullets whizzed close by the poor captain. We called to him to save
his life, but he did not stir, and shouted that they were cowards and
assassins, like their k