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Page 20
The people rushed into the prison, with the cry --
"Death to the traitors! To the gallows with Cornelius de
Witt! Death! death!"
Chapter 4
The Murderers
The young man with his hat slouched over his eyes, still
leaning on the arm of the officer, and still wiping from
time to time his brow with his handkerchief, was watching in
a corner of the Buytenhof, in the shade of the overhanging
weather-board of a closed shop, the doings of the infuriated
mob, a spectacle which seemed to draw near its catastrophe.
"Indeed," said he to the officer, "indeed, I think you were
right, Van Deken; the order which the deputies have signed
is truly the death-warrant of Master Cornelius. Do you hear
these people? They certainly bear a sad grudge to the two De
Witts."
"In truth," replied the officer, "I never heard such
shouts."
"They seem to have found out the cell of the man. Look,
look! is not that the window of the cell where Cornelius was
locked up?"
A man had seized with both hands and was shaking the iron
bars of the window in the room which Cornelius had left only
ten minutes before.
"Halloa, halloa!" the man called out, "he is gone."
"How is that? gone?" asked those of the mob who had not been
able to get into the prison, crowded as it was with the mass
of intruders.
"Gone, gone," repeated the man in a rage, "the bird has
flown."
"What does this man say?" asked his Highness, growing quite
pale.
"Oh, Monseigneur, he says a thing which would be very
fortunate if it should turn out true!"
"Certainly it would be fortunate if it were true," said the
young man; "unfortunately it cannot be true."
"However, look!" said the officer.
And indeed, some more faces, furious and contorted with
rage, showed themselves at the windows, crying, --
"Escaped, gone, they have helped them off!"
And the people in the street repeated, with fearful
imprecations, --
"Escaped gone! After them, and catch them!"
"Monseigneur, it seems that Mynheer Cornelius has really
escaped," said the officer.
"Yes, from prison, perhaps, but not from the town; you will
see, Van Deken, that the poor fellow will find the gate
closed against him which he hoped to find open."
"Has an order been given to close the town gates,
Monseigneur?"
"No, -- at least I do not think so; who could have given
such an order?"
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