But Mike found the situation only somewhat amusing. The advantage to the arrangement was that each realm—including his own U.S.—enjoyed a great deal of autonomy to manage its own affairs. The disadvantage, of course, was that when faced with a real external threat the resultant beast was as unlikely to fight effectively as . . .
Mike’s smile widened, and grew more crooked.
Jesse entered the room. “What’s so funny?”
“Just the man I wanted to see. I have a technical question for you, O great experienced pilot. What do you think would really happen if Pegasus took a flying leap off a cliff?”
Jesse snorted. “Are you kidding? Horsemeat for dinner, that’s what. Mind you don’t break your teeth on all the splintered bones and little rocks mixed into the mess.”
“Yeah, that’s about what I figured.”
“Ready to eat?” asked Jesse. “The guard tells me there’s a very nice new restaurant just opened down the street. Um. Using the term ‘street’ loosely, anyway.”
Mike sighed regretfully. “No, you go ahead, Jesse. I’ll scrounge up what I can here. Oh, and, by the way—figure we’ll be here at least another day.”
Jesse cocked an eyebrow. Mike’s whimsical smile came back. “I’ll be in the radio room most of the time, I imagine, whenever I’m not meeting some of the people who showed up here for the Chamber of Princes.”
“Doing what?”
“Trading horses—before we all wind up a lot of mangled horsemeat.”
Chapter 30
The prince of Orange looked older than a man still short of his fiftieth birthday. As he ushered her to a chair in his private chambers, Rebecca was struck by the haggardness in his face. His drawn expression contrasted sharply with what was obviously the man’s normal appearance. Frederik Henrik had an almost archetypical “Dutch” face: rather handsome, if on the fleshy side; pale-complected; brown hair offset by a very gingery goatee and flaring set of mustachios. Only his eyes were a bit exotic. Instead of the normal blue or green or brown, they seemed some off-color combination of slate gray and hazel.
It was a face which, Rebecca suspected, was normally full of ruddy good cheer. But not now.
That was hardly surprising, of course. The double Spanish victories—first the naval triumph at the Battle of Dunkirk, followed by the lightning seizure of Haarlem—had driven his country to its knees in less than two weeks. Panic was sweeping everywhere, with refugees now pouring into Amsterdam. One after another of the frontier fortresses and towns were reportedly surrendering to advancing Spanish troops—and the Counter-Remonstrant towns no less readily than others, once assured that the Spanish would leave their churches alone and refrain from reprisals against the inhabitants.
According to all reports, the United Provinces were coming apart at the seams. The Spanish seizure of Haarlem had cut Holland itself in half. Then, the cardinal-infante—whether from his own acumen or because he was listening to Oquendo—had not made the mistake of the Spanish who had seized Haarlem after a long siege in 1572. On that occasion, the Spanish commander, Don Fadrique de Toledo—the duke of Alva’s son, in spirit as well as flesh—had frittered away his strength by attacking northern Holland. The cardinal-infante would leave northern Holland for a later time. Leaving enough of a garrison to hold Haarlem, he was now driving south on Leiden, and everyone Rebecca had talked to seemed to think that city’s fall was inevitable.
Most of Zeeland and Utrecht had already fallen, it seemed, as well as the southern half of Gelderland. And the northern provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, still largely Catholic and long resentful of the heavy thumb of the Counter-Remonstrants, had erupted in full revolt. The United Provinces, born sixty years earlier in a rebellion against Spain, now found three of its provinces rebelling in favor of Spanish rule.
That left the prince of Orange the effective ruler of one and a half provinces—Overijssel and what was left of Gelderland—along with the city of Amsterdam. But Amsterdam—on this no one seemed to have any doubt—would very soon be completely surrounded and under siege itself.
After taking a seat on a chair a few feet away, Frederik Hendrik gave Rebecca a wan smile. “So, Madame Stearns. We meet at last.” His French was fluent and impeccable. “I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have cursed myself for listening to the advisers who urged me to keep a distance from you.”