CHAPTER XXXIVMustapha had called a Council of War. Angelica’s escape, which was much to her, and which disturbed Hassan’s mind more than it would have been vexed by a larger loss, was nothing to him. He thought of the passing days, and of the report which Soliman expected to have with each galley he sent home, either for supplies, or with a cargo of wounded men.
Like the Grand Master, he had had reports from the Viceroy’s Court, where he had many spies. They were not as sure as those the Grand Master read, being gossip brought from the street and the palace stairs, and observations of those who came and went, and of what galleys were in the ports, and of the enlisting of men.
But they told much, and suggested more; and Mustapha resolved that, for the final stages of the reduction of Malt
