At length, the living stream poured back through the
galleries and stairs to the arched gateway, from which it
was seen issuing like waters from a spout.

At the head of the first group, man was flying rather than
running, his face hideously distorted with satanic glee:
this man was the surgeon Tyckelaer.

"We have it! we have it!" he cried, brandishing a paper in
the air.

"They have got the order!" muttered the officer in
amazement.

"Well, then," his Highness quietly remarked, "now I know
what to believe with regard to Mynheer Bowelt's honesty and
courage: he has neither the one nor the other."

Then, looking with a steady glance after the crowd which was
rushing along before him, he continued, --

"Let us now go to the Buytenhof, Captain; I expect we shall
see a very strange sight there."

The officer bowed, and, without making any reply, followed
in the steps of his master.

There was an immense crowd in the square and about the
neighbourhood of the prison. But the dragoons of Tilly still