ng wind of what was afoot, sent his servants, who
stopped the marriage, and carried Gerard off to the burgomaster's
prison. In the room where he was confined were very various documents,
which the prisoner got hold of.

Gerard escaped from the prison, and vowing he had done with Tergon, bade
farewell to Margaret, and set off for Italy. Once across the frontier in
Germany he was safe from Ghysbrecht's malice. He also had in his keeping
the piece of parchment which gave certain lands to Peter Brandt, and
which Ghysbrecht had hitherto held.

_II.--To Rome_

It is likely Gerard would never have reached Rome but for his faithful
comrade Denys, a soldier making his way home to Burgundy, whom he met
early on the road. Gerard, at first, was for going on alone, but his
companion would not be refused.

"You will find me a dull companion, for my heart is very heavy," said
Gerard, yielding.

"I'll cheer you, mon gars."

"I think you would," said Gerard sweetly; "and sore need have I of a
kindly voice in mine ear this day."

"Oh, no soul is sad alongside me. I lift up their poor little hearts
with my consigne; 'Courage, tout le monde, le diable est mort.' Ha! Ha!"

"So be it, then," said Gerard. "We will go together as far as Rhine, and
God go with us both!"

"Amen!" said Denys, and lifted up his cap.

The pair trudged manfully on, and Denys enlivened the weary way. He
chattered about battles and sieges, and things which were new to Gerard;
and he was one of those who _make_ little incidents wherever they go. He
passed nobody without addressing him. "They don't understand it, but it
wakes them up," said he. But, whenever they fell in with a monk or
priest, he pulled a long face and sought the reverend father's blessing,
and fearlessly poured out on him floods of German words in such order as
not to produce a single German sentence. He doffed his cap to every
woman, high or low, he caught sight of, and complimented her in his
native tongue, well adapted to such matters; and at each carrion crow or
magpie down came his crossbow, and he would go a furlong off the road to
circumvent it; and indeed he did shoot one old crow with laudable
neatness, and carried it to the nearest hen-roost, and there slipped in
and sat it upon a nest. "The good-wife will say, 'Alack, here is
Beelzebub a hatching of my eggs.'"

But the time came for parting and Denys, with a letter from Gerard to
Margaret Brandt, reached Tergon, and found E