"Will you come home with me, Gerard?" said little Kate.

"I have no home."

"You shall not say so. Who is more welcome than you will be, after this
cruel wrong, to your father's house?

"Father! I have no father," said Gerard sternly. "He that was my father
is turned my gaoler. I have escaped from his hands; I will never come
within their reach again."

"An enemy did this, and not our father."

And she told him what she had overheard Cornelis and Sybrandt say. But
the injury was too recent to be soothed. Gerard showed a bitterness of
indignation he had hitherto seemed incapable of.

"Cornelis and Sybrandt are two ill curs that have shown me their teeth
and their heart a long while; but they could do no more. My father it is
that gave the burgomaster authority, or he durst not have laid a finger
on me, that am a free burgher of this town. So be it, then. I was his
son. I am his prisoner. He has played his part. I shall play mine.
Farewell the burgh where I was born, and lived honestly and was put in
prison. While there is another town left in creation, I'll never trouble
you again, Tergou."

"Oh! Gerard! Gerard!"

Margaret whispered her: "Do not gainsay him now. Give his choler time to