Thirty minutes later the prisoner was under arrest in the fort. The Earl’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction over the intelligence he had received through the arrest. For the second time he summoned the man-at-arms. “As soon as it is late enough I want you to dispatch a messenger to Patroon Van Volkenberg, and to the other members of my council, notifying them individually that there will be a meeting of my privy-council at ten o’clock to-morrow.” Then he turned to me. “The clouds are breaking, Le Bourse. I doubt not there will be a flash of light and a clap of thunder hard upon ten o’clock.” CHAPTER XIII VAN VOLKENBERG IN DISGRACE At ten o’clock the next morning the governor’s privy-council was assembled. The members of the board were seated along both sides of a huge mahogany table, carved around the edges in the old Dutch style. Governor Bellamont sat at one end of the table; on his right hand was Colonel De Peyster, then accorded by everyone the handsomest man in the province. At the end opposite to Nicholas Bayard sat the patroon. He was quiet in his manner and evidently much dejected over the miscarriage of his plan, though, as yet, he could have had no idea as to how it had gone wrong. When the soldiers arrested Bradford, they found him alone, busily engaged in setting up type with which to print the patroon’s paper. By the time the arrest was made, Louis Van Ramm had evidently returned to the manor-house to inform his chief that all the arrangements necessary to the plan had been successfully made. The patroon therefore, on his arrival in the town, must have expected to see his posters placed conspicuously in many public places. He found instead, only the locked door of the printing office and no posters. Immediately after this disappointment he presented himself at the council table in the fort. The Earl of Bellamont informed the members of his privy-council that he had summoned them thus hurriedly in order to communicate to them some important information. Then, drawing towards him a bundle of papers which lay close at hand, he addressed his advisors in these words: “Gentlemen and Friends: Shortly after his most gracious majesty was pleased to appoint me to the governorship of this province, he called me to a private interview, in which he spoke of certain affairs in New York. He spoke in these words, as nearly as I could remember them when I wrote down the substance of our conversation shortly after our interview.