hand, there was no getting them within distance of those walls.

There was nothing for it but to blockade the castle while sending
after King Rene for assistance and authority. The worst of it was, that
starving the garrison would be starving the captives; and likewise, so
far up on the mountain, a troop of eighty or ninety men and horses
were as liable to lack of provisions as could be the besieged garrison.
Villages were distant, and transport not easy to find. Money was never
abundant with Duke Sigismund, and had nearly all been spent on the
entertainments at Nanci; nor could he make levies as lord of the
country-folk, since the more accessible were not Alsatian, but
Lorrainers, and to exasperate their masters by raids would bring fresh
danger. Indeed, the two nearest castles were on Lorraine territory;
their masters had not a much better reputation than the Balchenburgs,
and, with the temptation of war-horses and men in their most holiday
equipment, were only too likely to interpret Sigismund's attack as an
invasion of their dukedom, and to fall in strength upon the party.

All this Gebhardt represented in strong colours, recommending that this
untenable position should not be maintained.

Sigismund swore that nothing should induce him to abandon the unhappy
ladies.

'Nay, my Lord Duke, it is only to retreat till King Rene sends his
forces, and mayhap the French Dauphin.'

'To retreat would be to prolong their misery. Nay, the felons would
think them deserted, and work their will. Out upon such craven counsel!'

'The captive ladies may be secured from an injury if your lordship holds
a parley, demands the amount of ransom, and, without pledging yourself,
undertakes to consult the Dauphin and their other kinsmen on the
matter.'

'Detained here in I know not what misery, exposed to insults endless?
Never, Gebhardt! I marvel that you can make such proposals to any belted
knight!'

Gebhardt grumbled out, 'Rather to a demented lover! The Lord Duke will
sing another tune ere long.'

Certainly it looked serious the next day when Sir Robert Douglas had had
the greatest difficulty in hindering a hand-to-hand fight between the
Scots and Alsatians for a strip of meadow land for pasture for their
horses; when a few loaves of black bread were all that could be
obtained from one village, and in another there had been a fray with the
peasants, resulting in blows by way of payment for a lean cow and calf
and four sheep.