"You are right," Ned said; "and I do not blame you for being discreet. I know this cross eyed man you speak of, and know that he is the secretary of one of the most cruel and bloody of the Council; and it was but yesterday that I escaped from his hands almost by a miracle. And I would now, if I could, baffle the villain again. I suppose they are still at his house?" "They are. They have ordered breakfast to be prepared for them, and it may be another hour before they set out." "My plan is this, then," Ned said. "If I could get half a dozen determined men to join me, we would go back along the road towards Antwerp three miles or so, and lie in wait until they came along, and then rescue their prisoners from them. If we could get a horse for the man to ride with his wife behind him, all the better. We could pretend to be robbers; there are plenty of starving peasants that have been driven to that, and if we attack them three miles away they would have no suspicion that the people of the village had any hand in it." "I will see about it," the landlord said warmly. "When my son-in-law's little house was burnt down last winter, Mynheer Von Bost advanced him money to rebuild it, and charged no interest. He lives but a quarter of a mile out of the village, and I think he will be your man, and would be able to lay his hands on the others. I will run over to him and be back in a quarter of an hour." In the meantime Ned ordered his horse to be saddled, and when the landlord returned he was ready to start. "My son-in-law will join you," he said. "He has two brothers whom he will bring with him. They both work in Von Bost's factory. He bids me tell you to go on for two miles, and to stop where the first road comes in on the right hand side. They will join you there, and will then go on with you as far as you may think fit. They have got guns, so you can lie in ambush. He will bring a horse with him with a pillion. He could have got more men, but he thinks the fewer to know the secret the better, as there may be inquiries here; and in these days none can trust his own neighbour. And now farewell, young sir. I know not who you are, but you must have a good heart to venture your life in a quarrel for people of whom you know nothing." "I am a Protestant myself, landlord, and I have had uncles and other relations murdered by the Blood Council. Moreover I have a special feud with the chief of these villains." So saying Ned shook the landlord's hand and rode off. He halted when he came to the point indicated. In less 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."