a much
paler face and with a much more frightened mien than Craeke had shown.

"Well!" asked Cornelius, foreboding some mischief from the double breach
of the strict rule of his house.

"Oh, sir, fly! fly quick!" cried the servant.

"Fly! and what for?"

"Sir, the house is full of the guards of the States."

"What do they want?"

"They want you."

"What for?"

"To arrest you."

"Arrest me? arrest me, do you say?"

"Yes, sir, and they are headed by a magistrate."

"What's the meaning of all this?" said Van Baerle, grasping in his hands
the two bulbs, and directing his terrified glance towards the staircase.

"They are coming up! they are coming up!" cried the servant.

"Oh, my dear child, my worthy master!" cried the old housekeeper, who
now likewise made her appearance in the dry-room, "take your gold, your
jewelry, and fly, fly!"

"But how shall I make my escape, nurse?" said Van Baerle.

"Jump out of the window."

"Twenty-five feet from the ground!"

"But you will fall on six feet of soft soil!"

"Yes, but I should fall on my tulips."

"Never mind, jump out."

Cornelius took the third bulb, approached the window and opened it, but
seeing what havoc he would necessarily cause in his borders, and, more
than this, what a height he would have to jump, he called out, "Never!"
and fell back a step.

At this moment they saw across the banister of the staircase the points
of the halberds of the soldiers rising.

The housekeeper raised her hands to heaven.

As to Cornelius van Baerle, it must be stated to his honour, not as a
man, but as a tulip-fancier, his only thought was for his inestimable
bulbs.

Looking about for a paper in which to wrap them up, he noticed the
fly-leaf from the Bible, which Craeke had laid upon the table, took it
without in his confusion remembering whence it came, folded in it the
three bulbs, secreted them in his bosom, and waited.

At this very moment the soldiers, preceded by a magistrate, entered the
room.

"Are you Dr. Cornelius van Baerle?" demanded the magistrate (who,
although knowing the young man very well, put his question according to
the forms of justice, which gave his proceedings a much more dignified
air).

"I am that person, Master van Spennen," answered Cornelius, politely, to
his judge, "and you know it very well."

"Then give up to us the seditious papers which you secrete in your
house."

"The seditious papers!" repeated Cornelius, quite d