alf way across!

Of course they had all guessed it, thought on it all through the night
while they polished the arms--the swords and the pistols and the
cullivers--which had been served out to them. They had guessed of
course--the foreign mercenaries who were always in the thick of every
conspiracy and well paid for being so--they had been the first to guess
and they had told the country louts who only grinned enjoying the
prospect of the fun.

But now they were betrayed. Lucas of Sparendam had come back with the
news, and even Jan stopped in his hideous task in order to listen to
what he had to say.

"It all happened yesterday," quoth Lucas as soon as he had recovered his
breath, "the rumour began in the lower quarters of the town. Nobody
knows who began it. Some say that a foreigner came into the city in the
early morning and sat down at one of the taverns to eat and drink with
the Prince's soldiers."

"A foreigner?"

Jan turns to look on the prisoner and encounters his mocking glance.
Smothering a curse he resumes his task of adjusting the rope upon the
gibbet, but his fingers are unsteady and his work doth not progress.

"Yes, a foreigner," continued Lucas volubly, "though it all has
remained very mysterious. The Prince's soldiers spoke of it amongst
themselves ... the foreigner had said something about a guet-apens, a
plot against the Stadtholder's life on his way to the North ... then
one of the officers heard the rumour and carried it to one of his
superiors.... By the evening it had reached the Stadtholder's ears."

"Then what happened?" they all asked eagerly.

"Nothing for some hours," replied Lucas, "but I know that spies were
sent round in every direction, and that by midnight there was general
talk in the city that the Stadtholder would not continue his journey to
the North. When the captain of the guard came to him for orders the
Prince said curtly: 'We do not start to-morrow!' As soon as I heard of
this I made preparations. It was then an hour after midnight. I was
still alert and listening: all around me--as I made ready to leave the
city--I heard rumours among the soldiers and spies of the Stadtholder,
of their knowledge of a lonely spot--a deserted molens--near Ryswyk
where they declared many men did lately congregate. I heard too that
soon after dawn the Prince's guard would make straight for the molens,
so I put on my snow shoes and started to run, despite the darkness and
the fog, for we