The Black Tulip

to time his brow with his handkerchief, was watching in a corner of the Buytenhof, in the shade of the overhanging we

order which the deputies have signed is truly the death-warrant of Master Corneliu

the officer, "I neve

he man. Look, look! is not that the window

ng the iron bars of the window in the room whi

the man called o

ho had not been able to get into the prison,

d the man in a rage,

ay?" asked his Highne

ing which would be very fortun

it were true," said the young man;

ook!" said

us and contorted with rage, showed

, they have he

street repeated, with

After them, a

Mynheer Cornelius has really

will see, Van Deken, that the poor fellow will find t

ven to close the town

think so; who could hav

at makes your H

n an offhand manner; "and the greatest men hav

ood run cold, as somehow or other he w

rth like thunder, for it was now quite certain th

ain street, which leads to the Tol-Hek, giving directions to the

he had left the prison and death behind, and before him there was life and

once he

ed John, putting his head

!" cried the co

he voice of the

have to say!" urged

closed, that'

s not usual to clo

t lo

f the window, and indeed

with me the order for the commutation of the pu

nt that the driver was no longer urging hi

his door in all haste to join them at the Buytenhof. He uttered a cry of surprise, and ran after two other men before him, whom he overtook about a hundred yar

he meanwhile arri

ried the

reshold of his lodge; "it's all very well

to be sure!" sa

, yes! but if you

ot you got the key?"

I hav

s become

have taken

ho

ho had a mind that no on

window, and risking all for gaining all; "my good man, it is for me, Joh

said the gatekeeper, rushing towards the carriage; "bu

he

morn

wh

in young man, of

did you give

d me an order, si

wh

lemen of the

nelius calmly, "our do

same precaution has been

do

mands man to do all that is in his power to pre

ng round the vehicle the Grand P

nt for the deed; you had the will to save us, and that, in t

gatekeeper, "do y

n called out to the coachman, "and take the

three men whom we left looking after the carriage, and who

tly meant mischief with

m, they placed themselves across the street, bra

p! s

is horses into increased speed, unt

ccasioned by the rearing of the horses. The whole vehicle for a moment shook and stopped; but immediately after, passing over

us, "I am afraid we

allop!" ca

is order, the coachman

is the matter a

e!" said t

at the extremity of the street along which the carriage was to proceed

o the coachman; "it is useless

re!" five hundred voices we

the carriage to the people who were coming to meet it. The former carried in their arms the bruised body

which the two brothers ha

strongly his master urged him, he r

e above the mass of moving heads like a floating island. But in another instant it came to a dea

he dark eyes of the young man, who with intense interest watched the scene which wa

r, what is going on there

ible, to a certainty

ing the Grand Pensionary from the carriage,

most violent indignation," said the young man, with th

out of the carriage,-Cornelius, who is already quite

Cornelius, an

, before having set foot on the ground, whilst still on the bottom step of the carriage, was st

d, into the middle of which one might have followed his bloody track, a

ght impossible-grew even paler than before, and

and, wishing to avail himself of this s

here they are also going to

had already open

ople are really implacable. It d

r man, who has been your Highness's instructor? If there be

forbidding manner, restrained the glance of gloomy mali

go and look after my troops, that t

ness here, alone, in the pre

elf about me more than I do myse

of military obedience than to his pleasure at being relieved from the necess

d the stone steps of a house nearly opposite that where his former pupil concealed himself

! where is

ked off his hat with a b

d him, and was now hastening to the spot in order not to lose the opportunity of serving the Grand

y and grief, and put one o

d one of the soldiers of the burgher g

im with his pike in the face

rough the stream of blood which blinded him, what

ther murderer, putting his musket to

un did no

hands, struck John de Witt down with the butt-end. John staggered and fell dow

ull of anguish that the young m

tol with the muzzle to his face; and this time the shot took ef

or strike him with blows of the sledge-hammer, or stab him with a knife or swords, every on

brothers, the mob dragged their naked and bloody bodies to an exte

ike the living flesh, cut the dead in pieces, and then went about the town

is shocking scene; but at the very moment when they were hanging the two martyrs on the gibbet he passed through the terrible mob, which was too

gatekeeper, "do yo

man, he

ing me that key only one quarter of an hour

hat?" aske

eers de Witt; whereas, finding the gate locke

ice which seemed to be t

g round, observed

u are not yet out of the Hague? This

s is the third gate at which I have pres

ill open this one for

truck on hearing Captain Van Deken addressing by the title of Monseigneur

t, he hastened to open the gate, w

il himself of my hors

l use my own steed, which is

or summoning the servants, he sounded it with a shrill and prolonged call, on which an

setting his spurs into its flanks, started off for the Leyden road. Having reached i

topping, "that those rascals have kill

ke it much better if these two difficulties were still in you

cannot be helped now, and we have had nothing to do with it. Let us push on, Captain, that we may

he remainder of the journey, kept at the same respectful dista

rse, "to see the figure which Louis will cut when he is apprised of the manner in which his dear friends De Witt have bee

who had been but the day before very uncertainly established in his new power, but for whom the burghers of the Hagu