conversation with them; and I heard some of their grievances. Sore
and heavy to be borne were they, and no wonder the sufferers were
savage and desperate.

The man whom Gisborne had wounded across his face would fain have got
out of me the name of his aggressor, but I refused to tell it.
Another of the group heard his inquiry, and made answer--"I know the
man. He is one Gisborne, aide-de-camp to the General-Commandant. I
know him well."

He began to tell some story in connection with Gisborne in a low and
muttering voice; and while he was relating a tale, which I saw
excited their evil blood, and which they evidently wished me not to
hear, I sauntered away and back to my lodgings.

That night Antwerp was in open revolt. The inhabitants rose in
rebellion against their Austrian masters. The Austrians, holding the
gates of the city, remained at first pretty quiet in the citadel;
only, from time to time, the boom of the great cannon swept sullenly
over the town. But if they expected the disturbance to die away, and
spend itself in a few hours' fury, they were mistaken. In a day or
two, the rioters held possession of the principal municipal
buildings. Then the Austrians poured forth in bright flaming array,
calm and smiling, as they marched to the posts assigned, as if the
fierce mob were no more to them then the swarms of buzzing summer
flies. Their practised manoeuvres, their well-aimed shot, told with
terrible effect; but in the place of one slain rioter, three sprang
up of his blood to avenge his loss. But a deadly foe, a ghastly ally
of the Austrians, was at work. Food, scarce and dear for months, was
now hardly to be obtained at any price. Desperate efforts were being