Crowding sail upon the Dover Lass they the next day enter that ocean lake of Holland called the Zuyder Zee, and passing Enkhuyzen, get news that Alva is preparing to cut off Haarlem from succor and provisions. That evening, getting off Amsterdam, they lie off and on, ready to sneak past the place in the darkness into the Y, and by the next morning would reach Haarlem before Alva and save the girl from the danger of the siege. But that night the providence of God in numbing, freezing weather and chilling breath just from the Arctic, is upon them. The placid water becomes ice. The breeze is not strong enough to give them headway to crush through it. The next morning all about them is a vast sheet of deep blue ice, and imprisoned within it is their vessel and three others of the Gueux, fortunately all near together, perhaps bound upon a similar errand. They are now helpless, they cannot retreat, they cannot go forward. The city of Amsterdam, filled with Alva’s army, is looking at them, only four miles away. CHAPTER XV. THE BATTLE ON SKATES. Oliver comes down excitedly from the masthead and whispers: “I can see the spire of the great church at Haarlem. We’re only twenty miles away from—the woman I love—hurry.” “If the ice holds,” mutters Guy, “we’ll get to the next world before Haarlem. We can only stay here and die on our vessels. The Spaniards will come over the ice to attack us. We shall be overwhelmed by numbers.” “We must have counsel with our brother Gueux,” says ’t Hoen. “Come with me. You can skate, First of the English?” “Very well,” answers Guy. “Will the ice hold?” “Yes, infantry now, by night accursed Spanish cannon.” So buckling on sharp iron Friesland skates, the two fly over the smooth frozen Zuyder Zee, and in a few seconds are at the vessels of the Gueux. Here holding quick consultation, the captains decide to fight it out to the death together, no matter what force is brought against them; surrender would be suicide. A few minutes more and they make up their minds just how to do this fighting, and electing Guy commander-in-chief, he takes action very quickly. In five minutes not only the crew of the Dover Lass are on the ice, but the crews of the other Gueux vessels, amounting in all to about five hundred men, and are working for their lives with ice picks, crowbars, ice saws and any and every implement they can use, cutting a passage around the three Gueux vessels and a water lane from the Dover Lass to bring her up to them. By almost superhuman exertions, in something like three hours they have not only got the Dover Lass in company with the other Gueux vessels, but have cut out the ice immediately surrounding them, making the vessels float as in a little inland lake, though surrounded by an impenetrable floe.