ther's first marriage"--and
Foy hung his head--"of course it is a subject on which I have no right
to talk, but, father, speaking as one man to another--he _is_ sadly
placed and innocent, whatever others may have been, and I don't wonder
that he feels sore about the story."

As he spoke the door opened and Lysbeth entered.

"How goes it with Adrian, wife?" Dirk asked hastily.

"Better, husband, thank God, though the doctor stays with him for this
night. He has lost much blood, and at the best must lie long abed; above
all none must cross his mood or use him roughly," and she looked at her
husband with meaning.

"Peace, wife," Dirk answered with irritation. "Foy here has just read
me one lecture upon my dealings with your son, and I am in no mood to
listen to another. I served the man as he deserved, neither less nor
more, and if he chose to go mad and vomit blood, why it is no fault of
mine. You should have brought him up to a soberer habit."

"Adrian is not as other men are, and ought not to be measured by the
same rule," said Lysbeth, almost repeating Foy's words.

"So I have been told before, wife, though I, who have but one standard
of right and wrong, find the saying hard. But so be it. Doubtless the
rule for Adrian is that which should be used to measure angels--or
Spaniards, and not one suited to us poor Hollanders who do our work, pay
our debts, and don't draw knives on unarmed men!"

"Have you read the letter from your cousin Brant?" asked Lysbeth,
changing the subject.

"No," answered Dirk, "what with daggers, swoonings, and scoldings it
slipped my mind," and drawing the paper from his tunic he cut the silk
and broke the seals. "I had forgotten," he went on, looking at the
sheets of words interspersed with meaningless figures; "it is in our
private cypher, as Elsa said, or at least most of it is. Get the key
from my desk, son, and let us set to work, for our task is likely to be
long."

Foy obeyed, returning presently with an old Testament of a very scarce
edition. With the help of this book and an added vocabulary by slow
degrees they deciphered the long epistle, Foy writing it down sentence
by sentence as they learned their significance. When at length the task
was finished, which was not till well after midnight, Dirk read the
translation aloud to Lysbeth and his son. It ran thus:

"Well-beloved cousin and old friend, you will be astonished to see my
dear child Elsa, who brings you this paper