By Pike and Dyke: a Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic by G. A. Henty (easy novels to read TXT) 📗

than half an hour he saw three men coming from the other direction. As one of them was leading a horse he at once rode on to meet them.

"We have made a detour through the fields," the young man leading the horse said. "It would not have done for anyone in the village to have seen us journeying this way."

"Quite right," Ned agreed. "There are babblers everywhere, and the fewer who know aught of a matter like this the better. Now, where had we best ambuscade?"

"There is a little wood by the roadside half a mile on, and we had best move there at once, for they may be along at any time now."

Two of the men were armed with muskets, and all three carried flails. They moved briskly forward until they got to the woods.

"You had best fasten up the horse among the trees," Ned said, "and then take your station close to the road. I will ride out from the trees as I come up and engage them in talk, so that you and your brother can take a steady aim. Don't fire until you are sure of each bringing down a man, then rush out and engage them with your flails. I will answer for their leader myself."

"We won't miss them, never fear, young sir. We have too much practice at the ducks in the winter to miss such a mark as that."

After seeing the horse tied up, and the men take their stations behind trees, Ned went a few yards further and then waited the coming of the party with the prisoners. He had not a shadow of compunction at the fate that was about to befall these officials. They had hauled away hundreds to the gallows, and the animosity that prevailed between the two parties was so intense that neither thought of sparing the other if they fell into their hands. As for Genet, Ned felt that his own life would not be safe as long as this man lived. He might for aught he knew have other missions of the same nature as that he had just fulfilled, and he felt sure that whatever disguise he might adopt this man would detect him did they meet, and in that case not only his own life but that of many others might be sacrificed.

In about ten minutes the sound of horses' hoofs was heard. Ned waited till they came within a few paces, and then suddenly rode out from the wood. Genet, who was riding ahead of the others, reined in his horse suddenly.

"What are you doing, fellow?" he began angrily, "riding out thus suddenly upon us?" Then his voice changed as he recognized Ned. "What, is it you again?" he exclaimed. "This time at least you shall not escape me."

He drew a pistol and fired. Ned was equally quick, and the two shots rang out together. Ned's cap flew from his head, the bullet just grazing his skin, while Genet fell forward on his saddle and rolled to the ground, shot through the heart. Almost at the same instant two guns were discharged from the wood, and two of the officials fell. The other two, behind whom the prisoners were strapped, set spurs to their horses; but Ned rode in front of them, and the men dashing from the trees seized the reins.

"Surrender!" Ned shouted, "or you are dead men."

The two officers shouted lustily that they surrendered, but Ned had the greatest difficulty from preventing their assailants from knocking out their brains with their flails.

"There is no plunder to be obtained from them, comrades," he said loudly. "They are only poor knaves riding behind the master. Get them off their horses, and strap their hands with their own belts, and toss them in among the trees; but you can search their pockets before you do so. I will see what their leader has got upon him."

As soon as the two prisoners were dragged away Ned addressed Mynheer Von Bost, who with his wife was standing almost bewildered by the sudden event that had freed them.

"This is no robbery, Mynheer, but a rescue. We have a horse and pillion here in the wood in readiness for you, and I should advise you to ride at once with your wife for Sluys or some other seaport, and thence take ship either into Holland or to England. Your lives will assuredly be forfeited if you remain here."

"But who are you, sir, who has done us this great service?"

"I am serving under the Prince of Orange," Ned replied; "and have been doing business for him at Brussels. I have twice narrowly escaped with my life from the hands of the leader of that party, and was in the village when they arrived and seized you. Finding how deep was the regret that so kind a master should be thus led away to execution, I determined if possible to save you, and with the aid of these three men, two of whom are workmen of yours, and the other a farmer you befriended last year when his house was burnt down, we have succeeded in doing so."

The three men now came out of the wood.

"My brave fellows," the manufacturer said, "I and my wife owe our lives to you and to this gentleman."

"You are heartily welcome, sir," the young farmer said. "You have saved me from ruin, and one good turn deserves another. I and my brothers were only too glad to join when we heard that this gentleman was determined to try to release you. If it had not been for him it would never have entered our heads till it was too late."

"May I ask your name, sir?" Von Bost said to Ned. "My wife and I would like to know to whom we owe a lifelong debt of gratitude. I will take your advice and ride at once for Sluys. I have many friends there who will conceal us and get us on board a ship. My arrangements have long been made for departure, and my capital transferred to England; but I thought I should have had sufficient notice of danger to take flight. Where can I hear of you, sir?"

"My name is Edward Martin. My father is an English captain, who lives at Rotherhithe, close by London. At present, as I said, I am in the service of the Prince of Orange; but my home is still in England. And now, sir, I think you had best be riding at once. I presume that there are byroads by which you can avoid passing through any towns on your way to Sluys. It is better not to delay a minute, for at any moment some party or other of soldiers may come along."

The men had by this time brought out the horse. Von Bost mounted, and his wife was assisted on to the pillion behind him.

"Goodbye, good friends," he said. "God grant that no harm come to you for this kind deed."

The moment he had ridden off Ned and his companions lifted the bodies of the three men who had fallen and carried them into the wood.

"We had best turn their pockets inside out," Ned said, "and take away everything of value upon them."

"This fellow has a well lined purse," the young farmer said as he examined the pocket of Genet; "and here are a bundle of papers in his doublet."

"Give me the papers," Ned said, "they may be useful to me, and doubtless they contain lists of other victims whom I may be able to send warning to in time for them to escape."

"What shall we do about the horses?"

"I would take off the saddles, bridles, and accouterments, throw them into a ditch together with the men's arms and pile a few bushes over them, then drive the horses across the fields till they reach some grazing ground near the river; the farmers there will doubtless appropriate them in time. Now, as to these two prisoners, they are the only trouble."

"You need not trouble about them," the farmer said, "we have made them safe. We are not going to risk our lives and those of our wives and families, as we should have done if we had left those fellows alive to identify us. There is sure to be a search sooner or later, and those two men would have led the party to every house within miles round, and would have been sure to recognize one or other of us. We are ready to risk our lives to save Mynheer Von Bost, but we are not willing to throw them away needlessly."

Ned could hardly blame the men, who had indeed stabbed their captives the instant they dragged them among the trees, for doubtless the risk they would have run of detection would have been great had they permitted them to live. They had now only to regain their village without observation and to keep their own secret, to be free from all risk whatever. Putting Genet's papers in his doublet Ned again mounted his horse and rode off.

Two hours later he reached St. Nicholas. He could now have ridden straight on to Bergen op Zoom, the port at which he hoped to be able to find a boat, but he thought that Genet's papers might contain matters upon which it might be necessary for him to act at once. He had now no fear of detection, for with the death of Genet all search for himself would be at an end. Putting up his horse at an inn he ordered a meal to be prepared at once, and calling for a flask of wine in the meantime, sat down at a table in the corner of the great parlour and examined the papers.

First there was a list of twelve names, among whom was that of Von Bost. One of these, as well as that of the manufacturer, had been crossed out. With them were official documents ordering the arrest of the persons named, together in most cases with that of their wives and one or more members of their family. Besides these was a document with the seal of the Council, ordering all magistrates and others to render every assistance required by the bearer in carrying out the duties with which he was charged.

Then there was a long list of persons resident in St. Nicholas, Sluys, and Axel, against whom denunciations of heresy or of suspected disloyalty to Philip had been laid. There was a note at the bottom of this list: "Inquire into the condition of life and probable means of each of these suspected persons."

"It is somewhat lucky for all these people," Ned said to himself, "that I happened to fall in with Mynheer Genet. The question now is how to warn them. I see there are three orders of arrest against people here, and ten names on the suspected list. At any rate I can warn them myself."

As soon as he had finished his meal Ned inquired the addresses of the three persons ordered to be arrested. They were all, as he had expected, leading men in the place; for it was the confiscation of the goods of the victims, quite as much as any question of religion or loyalty, that was at the bottom of a large proportion of the arrests and executions. The first Ned called upon was, like Von Bost, a cloth manufacturer. He was rather a pompous man, and when Ned was shown in said:

"Now, young man, my time is valuable, so let us have no useless talking. What is it you want?"

"Your time perhaps is more valuable than you think," Ned said quietly, "seeing that you have not got much of it left."

"What do you mean, sir?" the