"Death sooner." "With all my heart." And the burgomaster retired. * * * * * Martin went with all speed to Sevenbergen; there he found Margaret pale and agitated, but full of resolution and energy. She was just finishing a letter to the Countess Charolois, appealing to her against the violence and treachery of Ghysbrecht. "Courage!" cried Martin on entering. "I have found him. He is in the haunted tower; right at the top of it. Ay! I know the place: many a poor fellow has gone up there straight, and come down feet foremost." He then told them how he had looked up and seen Gerard's face at a window that was like a slit in the wall. "Oh Martin! how did he look?" "What mean you? He looked like Gerard Eliassoen." "But was he pale?" "A little." "Looked he anxious? Looked he like one doomed?" "Nay, nay; as bright as a pewter pot." "You mock me. Stay! then that must have been at sight of you. He counts on us. Oh! what shall we do? Martin, good friend, take this at once to Rotterdam." Martin held out his hand for the letter. Peter had sat silent all this time, but pondering, and yet contrary to custom, keenly attentive to what was going on around him. "Put not your trust in princes," said he. "Alas! what else have we to trust in?" "Knowledge." "Well-a-day, father! your learning will not serve us here." "How know you that? Wit has been too strong for iron bars ere to-day." "Ay, father; but nature is stronger than wit, and she is against us. Think of the height! No ladder in Holland might reach him." "I need no ladder; what I need is a gold crown." "Nay. I have money for that matter. I have nine angels. Gerard gave them me to keep; but what do they avail? The burgomaster will not be bribed to let Gerard free." "What do they avail? Give me but one crown, and the young man shall sup with us this night." Peter spoke so eagerly and confidently, that for a moment Margaret felt hopeful; but she caught Martin's eye dwelling upon him with an expression of benevolent contempt. "It passes the powers of man's invention," said she, with a deep sigh. "Invention?" cried the old man. "A fig for invention. What need we invention at this time of day? Everything has been said that is to be said and done that ever will be done. I shall tell you how a Florentine knight was shut up in a tower higher than Gerard's: yet did his faithful squire stand at the tower foot and get him out, with no other engine than that in your hand, Martin, and certain kickshaws I shall buy for a crown." Martin looked at his bow, and turned it round in his hand; and seemed to interrogate it. But the examination left him as incredulous as before. Then Peter told them his story, how the faithful squire got the knight out of a high tower at Brescia. The manœuvre, like most things that are really scientific, was so simple, that now their wonder was they had taken for impossible what was not even difficult.