ut Gilda was not cast in the same mould as was
this traitor.

Baffled in his crime, fear had completely unmanned him, but with every
cry of rage uttered by Stoutenburg she became more calm and less afraid.

"Once more, my lord," she said quietly in the brief interval of
Stoutenburg's ravings and while he was forced to draw breath, "do I
pledge my word to you that I had no hand in saving the Stadtholder's
life. That God chose for this another instrument than I, I do thank Him
on my knees."

While she spoke Stoutenburg had made a quick effort to regain some
semblance of composure, and now he contrived to say quite calmly and
with an evil sneer upon his face:

"That instrument of God is an I mistake not tied to a post with ropes
like an ox ready for the butcher's hand. Though I have but sorry chances
of escape myself and every minute hath become precious, I can at least
spend five in making sure that his fate at any rate be sorrier than
mine."

Her face became if possible even paler than before.

"What do you mean to do?" she murmured.

"The man who has betrayed me to the Prince of Orange is the same man who
laid hands upon you in Haarlem--is that not so?"

"I cannot say," she said firmly.

"The same man who was here in this room yesterday, bound and pinioned
before you?" he insisted.

"I do not know."

"Will you swear then that you never spoke to him of the Prince of
Orange, and of our plans?"

"Not of your plans ..." she protested calmly.

"You see that you cannot deny it, Gilda," he continued with that same
unnatural calm which seemed to her far more horrible than his rage had
been before. "Willingly or unwittingly you let that man know what you
overheard in the Groote Kerk on New Year's Eve. Then you bribed him into
warning the Prince of Orange, since you could not do it yourself."

"It is false," she reiterated wildly.

Once more that evil sneer distorted his pale face.

"Well!" he said, "whether you bribed him or not matters to me but
little. I do believe that willingly you would not have betrayed Nicolaes
or me or any of our friends to the Stadtholder, knowing what he is. But
you wanted to cross our plans, you wanted to warn the Stadtholder of his
danger, and you--not God--chose that man for your instrument."

"It is not true--I deny it," she repeated fearlessly.

"You may deny it with words, Gilda, but your whole attitude proclaims
the truth. Thank God!" he cried with a note of savage trium