"This time I came within a hair's breadth of being caught, Myga! But don't worry, sweetheart, they only nearly got me--I'd have been swinging from the hangman's noose by now if things hadn't passed off so well!" "Oh Jan, and you actually say that you love me! Do you really want to save me from this town? Merciful God, you'll perish and so will I, and my father's dead too. Good God! What's to become of me? Who'll protect me? Who'll help me?" "You're right, you're right, poor dear. And your father has died and now I'm there to comfort you in your distress. But I had to cruise off the coast of Dunkirk to send those pirates to the bottom--oh, it's hard, Myga, and yet I could do no other and I can do no other tonight either. Each of us has to be prepared to give his life to uphold the sacred honour of the fatherland. Ah, Myga, Myga, love me just a little even though I am a bad provider. Your poor father, Michael..." "Leave my poor dead father out of this, Jan! He's alright where he is. He's at rest now and need no longer fear anyone. The dead are to be envied in these bloody, fearsome times!" "Myga, don't talk that way. Your father's death was a great loss, but now you're my problem. Now you can go with me to Amsterdam, now nothing holds you back in this sad town of Antwerp. Myga, follow your heart, for happy days are just around the corner for us, my betrothed. Soon I'll be coming to fetch you--watch out--with an elegant wedding procession fit for a queen. Perhaps they'll ring the bells and beat the drums, perhaps they'll mark the blissful hour with cannon-fire in which I take you away from Antwerp. You will see if it's not true, what I am telling you now in the strictest confidence." "What fantasies, Jan Norris! Tell me how all this is going to come about. No, don't tell me, as it's all sheer tomfoolery. Tell me about this danger you have just escaped from by the skin of your teeth. I won't be able to get it out of my head tonight and that's your fault, reckless madcap Jan."