"Oh, yes! and shot at ... but the Spaniards are bad shots and ... I am here." Again he laughed gaily, light-heartedly like a ’prentice after an escapade, and the two men who sat nearest him--the Procurator-General and the Baron van Groobendock--surreptitiously took hold of his hand and pressed it warmly. III "So much for the past, seigniors," resumed Leatherface, after awhile: "my duty is done. I leave the planning of the future to wiser heads than mine." "No! no!" quoth the Vice-Bailiff emphatically. "Have we not said that we want you to lead us?" "I?" retorted the other gaily. "What do I know of leadership? I am only His Highness’ watch-dog. Let me follow a leader and bear my share in the present trouble. I am not fit to command...." A murmur went round the room, and the Procurator-General rejoined earnestly: "The men will obey no one but you. Take off your mask, friend, and let us all look upon the face of a man." "You have all despised me too much in the past to heed my counsels now." "There you spoke a lie, man," said Messire van Deynse, the brewer. "We have all honoured the man whom we called Leatherface, as the bravest amongst us all. We do not know who you are--we only know you as a gallant gentleman to whom next to William of Orange himself we owe every triumph which our cause hath gained over our execrated tyrants. Therefore I pray you to unmask and let us know at least to whom--next to God Himself--we owe the life of the noble Prince of Orange, and also to whom we must look in future for guidance and leadership." Once more the murmur went round the room: words of warm approval came from every side, whilst among the younger men the cry was raised and repeated insistently: "Unmask!" "Unmask!" cried Laurence van Rycke. "Be you criminal or ne’er-do-well in the eyes of others, you are a hero in our sight." "Unmask! unmask!" they reiterated unanimously. The man with the leather mask then advanced to the very edge of the platform, and, putting up his hand, he asked for silence.