ps for his own,
urged his crew to row away from the point where the engagement appeared
to be raging most furiously. Already round shot and bullets came flying
across the water, and a stray one might chance to hit the boat. The men
appeared undecided which way to go, when one of them cried out, "There's
a boat astern! She may, perchance, be that of an enemy, and if so we
shall to a certainty be knocked on the head."

"Row then for your lives!" cried Van Arenberg, for he had equally to
fear the Hollanders and Spaniards; the latter, not aware of his
treachery, might, before he could show his pass, shoot him down or run
him through with their pikes, while his own countrymen would treat him
as a hated renegade. The crew, needing no second bidding, bent to their
oars with all the strength they possessed. Their flight was, however,
discovered by the boat they had seen, which immediately gave chase.
Jaqueline believed that their pursuers were Spaniards, and was as eager
to escape as the baron, but sturdily as the crew of the villagers whom
he had hired plied their oars, the others came on faster. The night was
so dark that it was impossible to distinguish objects ahead. At any
moment they might find themselves stranded on the shore, or stopped by
some impassable shallow. The baron now urged the men to be cautious,
now to row with might and main.

Ever and anon the glare from the burning villages, and from fires on the
dykes, showed that the boat in chase was gaining on them.

"It were far better to stop and fight," cried the chief man of the crew.
"As to escaping, there is no chance of that in the end, for the fellows
astern have a much lighter boat than ours."

"Fifty guilders if you beat them off," cried the baron. "Lady, you must
lie down at the bottom of the boat, or you may chance to be struck by a
shot, or injured by the pikes of our pursuers, should they overtake us."

"I fear less the weapons of our foes than I do your designs," answered
Jaqueline, with a tone of scorn, retaining her seat. There was little
time to hold parley on the subject. In another moment the boat was
alongside, and a voice in Dutch shouted, "Yield! inform us whither you
are bound."

"Treachery! treachery!" cried the baron. "They are Spaniards; we may
yet escape them."

But Jaqueline recognised the voice. "Karl," she exclaimed, "save me,
save me!" and she sprang towards the boat.

Van Arenberg would have prevented her reaching