than all this crowd of burghers, with their cries, their
agitation, and their threats. The men on their horses, indeed, stood like
so many statues, under the eye of their chief, Count Tilly, the captain of
the mounted troops of the Hague, who had his sword drawn, but held it
with its point downwards, in a line with the straps of his stirrup.
This troop, the only defence of the prison, overawed by its firm attitude
not only the disorderly riotous mass of the populace, but also the
detachment of the burgher guard, which, being placed opposite the
Buytenhof to support the soldiers in keeping order, gave to the rioters
the example of seditious cries, shouting, --
"Hurrah for Orange! Down with the traitors!"
The presence of Tilly and his horsemen, indeed, exercised a salutary
check on these civic warriors; but by degrees they waxed more and
more angry by their own shouts, and as they were not able to
understand how any one could have courage without showing it by
cries, they attributed the silence of the dragoons to pusillanimity, and
advanced one step towards the prison, with all the turbulent mob
following in their wake.
In this moment, Count Tilly rode forth towards them single-handed,
merely lifting his sword and contracting his brow whilst he addressed
them: --
"Well, gentlemen of the burgher guard, what are you advancing for,
and what do you wish?"
The burghers shook their muskets, repeating their cry, --
"Hurrah for Orange! Death to the traitors!"
"'Hurrah for Orange!' all well and good!" replied Tilly, "although I
certainly am more partial to happy faces than to gloomy ones. 'Death to
the traitors!' as much of it as you like, as long as you show your wishes
only by cries. But, as to putting them to death in good earnest, I am
here to prevent that, and I shall prevent it."
Then, turning round to his men, he gave the word of command, --
"Soldiers, ready!"
The troopers obeyed orders with a precision which immediately caused
the burgher guard and the people to fall back, in a degree of confusion
which excited the smile of the cavalry officer.
"Holloa!" he exclaimed, with that bantering tone which is peculiar to
men of his profession; "be easy, gentlemen, my soldiers will not fire a
shot; but, on the other hand, you will not advance by one step towards
the prison."
"And do you know, sir, that we have muskets?" roared the commandant
of the burghers.
"I must know it, by Jove, you have made them glitter enough before my
eyes; but I beg you to observe also that we on our side have pistols, that
the pistol carries admirably to a distance of fifty yards, and that you are
only twenty-five from us."
"Death to the traitors!" cried the exasperated burghers.
"Go along with you," growled the officer, "you always cry the same
thing over again. It is very tiresome."
With this, he took his post at the head of his troops, whilst the tumult
grew fiercer and fiercer about the Buytenhof.
And yet the fuming crowd did not know that, at that very moment when
they were tracking the scent of one of their victims, the other, as if
hurrying to meet his fate, passed, at a distance of not more than a
hundred yards, behind the groups of people and the dragoons, to betake
himself to the Buytenhof.
John de Witt, indeed, had alighted from his coach with his servant, and
quietly walked across the courtyard of the prison.
Mentioning his name to the turnkey, who however knew him, he said,
--
"Good morning, Gryphus; I am coming to take away my brother, who,
as you know, is condemned to exile, and to carry him out of the town."
Whereupon the jailer, a sort of bear, trained to lock and unlock the
gates of the prison, had greeted him and admitted him into the building,
the doors of which were immediately closed again.
Ten yards farther on, John de Witt met a lovely young girl, of about
seventeen or eighteen, dressed in the national costume of the Frisian
women, who, with pretty demureness, dropped a curtesy to him.
Chucking her under the chin, he said to her, --
"Good morning, my good and fair Rosa; how is my brother?"
"Oh, Mynheer John!" the young girl replied, "I am not afraid of the
harm which has been done to him. That's all over now."
"But what is it you are afraid of?"
"I am afraid of the harm which they are going to do to him."
"Oh, yes," said De Witt, "you mean to speak of the people down below,
don't you?"
"Do you hear them?"
"They are indeed in a state of great excitement; but when they
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