d the church. Several other boys followed, but the
new-comer of whom they were afraid, a man scarcely thirty years old, had
legs of considerable length, and knew how to use them bravely.

"Stop, boys!" he shouted in an echoing voice of command. "Stop! What has
Happened here?"

Every one in Leyden respected the learned and brave young nobleman, so
all the lads who had not instantly obeyed Van Swieten's warning shout,
stood still until Herr von Nordwyk reached them.

A strange, eager light sparkled in this man's clever eyes, and a subtle
smile hovered around his moustached lip, as he called to the musician:

"What has happened here, Meister Wilhelm? Didn't the clamor of Minerva's
apprentices harmonize with your organ-playing, or did--but by all the
colors of Iris, that's surely Nico Matanesse, young Wibisma! And how he
looks! Brawling in the shadow of the church--and you here too, Adrian,
and you, Meister Wilhelm?"

"I separated them," replied the other quietly, smoothing his rumpled
cuffs.

"With perfect calmness, but impressively--like your organ-music," said
the commander, laughing.

"Who began the fight? You, young sir? or the others?"

Nicolas, in his excitement, shame, and indignation, could find no
coherent words, but Adrian came forward saying: "We wrestled together.
Don't be too much vexed with us, Herr Janus."

Nicolas cast a friendly glance at his foe.

Herr von Nordwyk, Jan Van der Does, or as a learned man he preferred to
call himself, Janus Dousa, was by no means satisfied with this
information, but exclaimed:

"Patience, patience! You look suspicious enough, Meister Adrian; come
here and tell me, 'atrekeos,' according to the truth, what has been going
on."

The boy obeyed the command and told his story honestly, without
concealing or palliating anything that had occurred.

"Hm," said Dousa, after the lad had finished his report. "A difficult
case. No one is to be acquitted. Your cause would be the better one, had
it not been for the knife, my fine young nobleman, but you, Adrian, and
you, you chubby-cheeked rascals, who--There comes the rector--If he
catches you, you'll certainly see nothing but four walls the rest of this
beautiful day. I should be sorry for that."

The chubby-cheeked rascals, and Adrian also, understood this hint, and
without stopping to take leave scampered around the corner of the church
like a flock of doves pursued by a hawk.

As soon as they had vanished, the comma