ew my hand back, saying the burgher lads had taken some home
from me, and I wouldn't have the ring as a reward for that."

"Right, Nico, right."

"So she said too, put the little ring back in the box, found this one,
and here it is."

"A valuable gem!" murmured the baron, thinking: "This gift is a good
omen. The Hoogstratens and he are her nearest heirs, and if the silly
girl doesn't stay with her, it might happen--"

But he found no time to finish these reflections, Nicolas interrupted
them by saying:

"It's beginning to rain already. Don't the fogs on the meadows look like
clouds fallen from the skies? I am cold."

"Draw your cloak closer."

"How it rains and hails! One would think it was winter. The water in the
canals looks black, and yonder--see--what is that?"

A tavern stood beside the road, and just in front of it a single lofty
elm towered towards the sky. Its trunk, bare as a mast, had grown
straight up without separating into branches until it attained the
height of a house. Spring had as yet lured no leaves from the boughs,
but there were many objects to be seen in the bare top of the tree. A
small flag, bearing the colors of the House of Orange, was fastened to
one branch, from another hung a large doll, which at a distance strongly
resembled a man dressed in black, an old hat dangled from a third, and a
fourth supported a piece of white pasteboard, on which might be read in
large black letters, which the rain was already beginning to efface:

"Good luck to Orange, to the Spaniard death.
So Peter Quatgelat welcomes his guests."

This tree, with its motley adornments, offered a by no means pleasant
spectacle, seen in the grey, cold, misty atmosphere of the rainy April
morning.

Ravens had alighted beside the doll swaying to and fro in the wind,
probably mistaking it for a man. They must have been by no means
teachable birds, for during the years the Spaniards had ruled in
Holland, the places of execution were never empty. They were screeching
as if in anger, but still remained perched on the tree, which they
probably mistook for a gibbet. The rest of the comical ornaments and
the thought of the nimble adventurer, who must have climbed up to fasten
them, formed a glaring and offensive contrast to the caricature of the
gallows.

Yet Nicolas laughed loudly, as he perceived the queer objects in the top
of the elm, and pointing upward, said:

"What kind of fruits are hanging there?"