When I woke at daybreak the next morning I saw Montoria, who was passing by the wall.
“I believe that the bombardment is going to begin,” he said to me; “there is a great activity in the enemy’s lines.”
“They will try to demolish this redoubt,” I said, getting up lazily. “How gloomy the sky is, Augustine! Day dawns very sadly.”
“I believe they will attack on all sides at once, until they have made their second parallel. Do you know that Napoleon in Paris, knowing the resistance shown by this city in the first siege, was furious with Lefebre Desnouettes because he assaulted the plaza by the Portillo and the Castle Aljafería? He called for a plan of Saragossa, and they gave it to him, and he showed that the city should be attacked by Santa Engracia.”
“By this place? A black day is indeed dawning for us if the orders of Napoleon are carried out. Tell me, have we anything to eat here?”
“I did not show it to you before because I wished to surprise you,” he said to me, showing me a basket which served as the tomb of two cold roast fowls, some comfits and fine preserves.
“You brought these last night? Indeed! How could you go out of the redoubt?”
“I got leave from the general for an hour, and Mariquilla prepared this feast. If Candiola knows that two of the hens from his chicken-corral have been killed and roasted to regale two of the defenders of the city, the devil will be to pay. Let us eat then, Señor Araceli, while we await the bombardment. Here it comes. One bomb! Another, another!”