en
originally intended.

The big weighing machines had been pushed into corners, and all round
the sloping walls swords, cullivers and muskets were piled in orderly
array, also a row of iron boxes standing a foot or so apart from one
another and away from any other objects in the room.

The silence which reigned over the surrounding landscape did not find
its kingdom inside this building, for a perpetual hum, a persistent
buzzing noise as of bees in their hives, filtrated through the floor and
the low ceiling of this room. Men moved and talked and laughed inside
the molens, but the movement and the laughter were subdued as if muffled
in that same mantle of mist which covered the outside world.

The two men in the weighing-room were sitting at a table on which were
scattered papers, inkhorns and pens, a sword, a couple of pistols and
two or three pairs of skates. One of them was leaning forward and
talking eagerly:

"I think you can rest satisfied, my good Stoutenburg," he said, "our
preparations leave nothing to be desired. I have just seen Jan, and
together we have despatched the man Lucas van Sparendam to Delft. He is
the finest spy in the country, and can ferret out a plan or sift a
rumour quicker than any man I know. He will remain at Delft and keep the
Prinzenhof under observation: and will only leave the city if anything
untoward should happen, and then he will come straight here and report
to us. He is a splendid runner, and can easily cover the distance
between Delft and this molens in an hour. That is satisfactory is it
not?"

"Quite," replied Stoutenburg curtly.

"Our arrangements here on the other hand are equally perfect,"
resumed Beresteyn eagerly, "we have kept the whole thing in our own
hands ... Heemskerk and I will be at our posts ready to fire the
gunpowder at the exact moment when the advance guard of the Prince's
escort will have gone over the bridge ... you, dagger in hand, will be
prepared to make a dash for the carriage itself ... our men will attack
the scattered and confused guard at a word from van Does.... What could
be more simple, more perfect than that? Yourself, Heemskerk, van Does
and I ... all of one mind ... all equally true, silent and
determined.... You seem so restless and anxious.... Frankly I do not
understand you."

"It is not of our preparations or of our arrangements that I am
thinking, Nicolaes," said Stoutenburg sombrely, "these have been thought
out well enough. Not