One
aisle was crammed with provisions, another was littered with sick
and wounded, while in the centre a great number of helpless
people had taken up their abode, and had even lit their cooking
fires upon the mosaic floors. There were many at prayer, so I
knelt in the shadow of a pillar, and I prayed with all my heart
that I might have the good luck to get out of this scrape alive,
and that I might do such a deed that night as would make my name
as famous in Spain as it had already become in Germany. I waited
until the clock struck three, and then I left the cathedral and
made my way toward the Convent of the Madonna, where the assault
was to be delivered. You will understand, you who know me so
well, that I was not the man to return tamely to the French camp
with the report that our agent was dead and that other means must
be found of entering the city. Either I should find some means
to finish his uncompleted task or there would be a vacancy for a
senior captain in the Hussars of Conflans.
I passed unquestioned down the broad boulevard, which I have
already described, until I came to the great stone convent which
formed the outwork of the defence.
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