"Come, come, Monseigneur, for here they are also going to
murder the Grand Pensionary."

But the young man had already opened his eyes again.

"To be sure," he said. "These people are really implacable.
It does no one good to offend them."

"Monseigneur," said the officer, "may not one save this poor
man, who has been your Highness's instructor? If there be
any means, name it, and if I should perish in the attempt
---- "

William of Orange -- for he it was -- knit his brows in a
very forbidding manner, restrained the glance of gloomy
malice which glistened in his half-closed eye, and answered,
--

"Captain Van Deken, I request you to go and look after my
troops, that they may be armed for any emergency."

"But am I to leave your Highness here, alone, in the
presence of all these murderers?"

"Go, and don't you trouble yourself about me more than I do
myself," the Prince gruffly replied.

The officer started off with a speed which was much less
owing to his sense of military obedience than to his