less than six.  Night fell before the fortification was nearly completed.  Unfortunately it was bright moonlight.  The cannon from the fortress continued to play upon the half-finished works.  The Walloons, and at last the citizens, feared to lift their heads above their frail rampart.  The senators, whom Champagny had deputed to superintend the progress of the enterprise, finding the men so indisposed, deserted their posts.  They promised themselves that, in the darkest hour of the following night, the work should be thoroughly completed.  Alas! all hours of the coming night were destined to be dark enough, but in them was to be done no manner of work for defence.  On Champagny alone seemed devolved an the labor and all the responsibility.  He did his duty well, but he was but one man.  Alone, with a heart full of anxiety, he wandered up and down all the night.  With his own hands, assisted only by a few citizens and his own servants, he planted all the cannon with which they were provided, in the “Fencing Court,” at a point where the battery might tell upon the castle.  Unfortunately, the troops from Brussels had brought no artillery with them, and the means of defence against the strongest fortress in Europe were meagre indeed.  The rampart had been left very weak at many vital points.  A single upturned wagon was placed across the entrance to the important street of the Beguins.  This negligence was to cost the city dear.  At daybreak, there was a council held in Oberstein’s quarters.  Nearly all Champagny’s directions had been neglected.  He had desired that strong detachments should be posted during the night at various places of Security on the outskirts of the town, for the troops which were expected to arrive in small bodies at the citadel from various parts, might have thus been cut off before reaching their destination.  Not even scouts had been stationed in sufficient numbers to obtain information of what was occurring outside.  A thick mist hung over the city that eventful morning.  Through its almost impenetrable veil, bodies of men had been seen moving into the castle, and the tramp of cavalry had been distinctly heard, and the troops of Romero, Vargas, Oliveira, and Valdez had already arrived from Lier, Breda, Maestricht, and from the forts on the Scheld.

The whole available force in the city was mustered without delay.  Havre had claimed for his post the defence of the lines opposite the citadel, the place of responsibility and honor.  Here the whole body of Walloons were stationed, together with a few companies of Germans.  The ramparts, as stated, were far from impregnable, but it was hoped that this living rampart of six thousand men, standing on their own soil, and in front of the firesides and altars of their own countrymen; would prove a sufficient bulwark even against Spanish fury.  Unhappily, the living barrier proved more frail than the feeble breastwork which the hands of burghers and women had constructed.  Six thousand men were disposed along