tell me that if I would become a Dissenter of any kind, or belong to the
Salvation Army, I needn't be a martyr any longer, but should be saved at
once, I would have screamed "Yes--yes--_yes_!"

At last the animals did slow down, and Nell and I slid off our monsters
before they had stopped; but instead of improving our situation, we had
made it worse.

While we had been sailing round the ring, no one could approach
disagreeably near. The minute we tried to mingle with the crowd and
disappear in it, however, the impudent young soldiers mingled too,
having the evident intention of disappearing with us.

The things that happened next, happened so quickly, one after the other,
that they are still confused in my memory. At the time I knew only that
the soldiers were following and surrounding Nell and me; that my heart
was beating fast, that her cheeks were scarlet and her eyes very large
and bright, either with fear or anger, or both; that I felt an arm go
round my waist, and a man's rather beery breath close to my ear; that I
cried "Oh!" that rude girls were laughing; and then that Nell was boxing
a man's ears. I am not even quite sure that everything was in this exact
order! but just as I heard that sound of "smack--smack," I saw Sir
Alexander MacNairne not far off, and without stopping to remember that
we were supposed to be Frisian peasant girls, I called to him. I think I
said, "Oh, Sir Alexander MacNairne, come--please come!"

With that, he began to knock people about, and break a path through to
get to us; and some of them laughed, and some were angry. Even in those
few seconds I could see that he was a hot-tempered man, and that the
laughs made him furious. He said things in English, with just the
faintest Scotch "burr"; and as there were no Dutchmen of Mr. van Buren's
type in the rude crowd, the Scotsman had soon tumbled the men about like
ninepins--all except the soldiers--and got close to us.

But the soldiers were not to be thrown off so easily, even by such a big
man as Sir Alexander MacNairne, and Nell and I would have been in all
the horrors of a fight--a fight on our account, too--if Jonkheer
Brederode had not appeared in the midst, as suddenly and unexpectedly
as if he had dropped from the round, full moon.

He must have come from behind me, and my mouth was open to exclaim how
thankful I was to see him, when he hastily whispered, just loud enough
for Nell and me to hear, "Don't seem to know me." Then