found for landing and burning a town--which was
the object continually debated at the officers' board. In fact, the
weather did not favour it; and, moreover, the whole line of coast was
guarded by patrolling parties, ready to give warning to the
train-bands stationed at convenient distances, so that the crews ran
no inconsiderable risk of being surprised and cut to pieces if they
landed, not to speak of having their galleys taken behind them by the
British cruisers. And none knew better than M. de la Pailletine that
the slaves, if left without sufficient guard to coerce them, were as
likely as not to murder their overseers and hand their galleys over
to the first enemy they met.

Nothing of any consequence, therefore, was done for six weeks; and at
the end of that time Captain Salt sought out the Commodore, and
announced that he had received a letter from a friend in Paris
summoning him thither on private business. The Commodore, who had
really grown to like the Englishman, expressed his regret.
He suspected nothing.

CHAPTER XII.

WILLIAM OF ORANGE.

On the third day after Captain Salt departed for Paris certain events
befell at The Hague which demand our attention.

The campaign of 1691 in Flanders was conducted on both sides with the
utmost vigour and the least possible result. Between May and
September the armies marched and counter-marched, walked up to each
other and withdrew with every expression of defiance. No important
action was fought, though for some time less than a league divided
their hostility. William, whose patience was worn out almost sooner
than the shoe-leather of his subjects, left the command in
Marlborough's hands, and retired to his park at Loo, whence, in the
beginning of July, he posted to The Hague to attend a meeting of the
States-General.

On the 17th day of that month, and at ten o'clock in the morning--at
which time the King was taking the air in his famous park on the
outskirts of the town--a couple of old gentlemen were advancing upon
The Hague from the westward, along the old Scheveningen road.
They walked slowly, by reason of their years, but with a certain
solemnity of pace which indicated that, in their own opinion at
least, they were bound upon an errand of importance. At intervals
they paused to mop their faces; and at every pause they regarded the
landscape with contempt. One of these old gentlemen was thin and
wiry, with a jaw that protruded like a bulld