soldiers will not fire a shot; but, on the other hand, you
will not advance by one step towards the prison."

"And do you know, sir, that we have muskets?" roared the
commandant of the burghers.

"I must know it, by Jove, you have made them glitter enough
before my eyes; but I beg you to observe also that we on our
side have pistols, that the pistol carries admirably to a
distance of fifty yards, and that you are only twenty-five
from us."

"Death to the traitors!" cried the exasperated burghers.

"Go along with you," growled the officer, "you always cry
the same thing over again. It is very tiresome."

With this, he took his post at the head of his troops,
whilst the tumult grew fiercer and fiercer about the
Buytenhof.

And yet the fuming crowd did not know that, at that very
moment when they were tracking the scent of one of their
victims, the other, as if hurrying to meet his fate, passed,
at a distance of not more than a hundred yards, behind the
groups of people and the dragoons, to betake himself to the
Buytenhof.

John de Witt, indeed, had alighted from his coach with his
servant, and quietly walked across the courtyard of the