Some members of his staff made a hasty survey of the situation.

There were some three hundred men available, and, in all probability, Dom Corria could not muster one-sixth of that number.

It was a crisis that called for vigor.
The cavalry lance was twenty miles from its base, and there was no knowing what accident might reunite the scattered Liberationists.

One column, at least, of the Nationalists had failed to keep its rendezvous, or this last desperate stand at Las Flores would have proved a sheer impossibility.
So the house must be rushed, no matter what the cost.

This was a war of leaders.