coming, and met him at the door.

The artist's face revealed few traces of the want he had endured, but
his whole frame was trembling with excitement and his face changed color
every moment, as he instantly, and in the utmost haste, told Georg the
purpose of his early visit.

Shortly after the arrival of the city messengers, a Spanish envoy had
brought Burgomaster Van der Werff a letter written by Junker Nicolas
Matanesse, containing nothing but the tidings, that Henrica's sister had
reached Leyderdorp with Belotti and found shelter in the elder Baron
Matanesse's farm-house. She was very ill, and longed to see her sister.
The burgomaster had given this letter to the young lady, and Henrica
hastened to the musician without delay, to entreat him to help her escape
from the city and guide her to the Spanish lines. Wilhelm was undergoing
a severe struggle. No sacrifice seemed too great to see Anna again, and
what the messenger had accomplished, he too might succeed in doing. But
ought he to aid the flight of the young girl detained as hostage by the
council, deceive the sentinels at the gate, desert his post?

Since Henrica's request that Georg would escort her sister from Lugano
to Holland, the young man had known everything that concerned the latter,
and was also aware of the state of the musician's heart.

"I must, and yet I ought not," cried Wilhelm. "I have passed a terrible
night; imagine yourself in my place, in the young lady's."

"Get a leave of absence until to-morrow," said Georg resolutely. "When
it grows dark, I'll accompany Henrica with you. She must swear to return
to the city in case of a surrender. As for me, I am no longer bound by