took the others, and they haven't returned.

"Thank God for it; the little food he still has, will do more good in
dishes, than in their crops. Would you believe it? A fortnight ago
he paid fifty florins out of his savings for half a sack of peas, and
Heaven knows where he found them. Ulrich, Ulrich! Take Frau Van der
Werff up to Wilhelm. I'd willingly spare you the climb, but he's
watching for the carrier-pigeons that have been sent out, and won't
even come down to his meals. To be sure, they would hardly be worth the
trouble!"

It was a clear, sunny day. Wilhelm was standing in his look-out, gazing
over the green, watery plain, that lay out-spread below him, towards
the south. Behind him sat Andreas, the fencing-master's fatherless boy;
writing notes, but his attention was not fixed on his work; for as soon
as he had finished a line he too gazed towards the horizon, watching for
the pigeon his teacher expected. He did not look particularly emaciated,
for many a grain of the doves' food had been secretly added to his
scanty ration of meat.

Wilhelm showed that he felt both surprised and honored by Frau Van der
Werff's visit, and even promised to grant her request, though it was
evident that the "saying yes" was by no means easy for him.

The young wife went out on the balcony with him, and he showed her in
the south, where usually nothing but a green plain met the eye, a wide
expanse over which a light mist was hovering. The noon sun seemed to
steep the white vapor with light, and lure it upward by its ardent rays.
This was the water streaming through the broken dyke, and the black
oblong specks moving along its edges were the Spanish troops and herds
of cattle, that had retreated before the advancing flood from the outer
fortifications, villages and hamlets. The Land-scheiding itself was not
visible, but the Beggars had already passed it. If the fleet succeeded
in reaching the Zoetermere Lake and from thence.

Wilhelm suddenly interrupted his explanation, for Andreas had suddenly
started up, upsetting his stool, and exclaimed:

"It's coming! The dove! Roland, my fore man, there it comes!"

For the first time Wilhelm heard the boy's lips utter his father's
exclamation. Some great emotion must have stirred his heart, and in
truth he was not mistaken; the speck piercing the air, which his
keen eye had discovered, was no longer a mere spot, but an oblong
something--a bird, the pigeon!

Wilhelm seized the flag on