cried the ill-treated noble, his spirits rising once more.
"I conclude that he is by this time out of these grounds, and on his way
to the inn where we are residing; and I must beg you to understand,
Mynheer, that we shall forthwith proceed to the Hague, and lay a formal
complaint before our Ambassador of the way in which we distinguished
foreigners have been treated."

"I will take the consequences," answered Mynheer Bunckum; and turning to
his servants, he said, "We have no evidence against the man; conduct him
to the confines of the estate, and with such kicks as you feel disposed
to bestow, let him go his way."

"I protest, I loudly protest against this treatment!" cried the Baron.

But the sturdy Frieslander with his companions, utterly regardless of
all the Baron could say, dragged him along till they reached the
outskirts of the estate, when, placing him before them, they bade him
run for his life, which to the best of his power he endeavoured to do to
save himself from the kicks they had threatened to bestow. On he ran,
not once looking behind him, followed by the derisive laughter of the
sturdy Frieslander and his companions.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Mynheer Bunckum's head butler or steward, a person who was looked upon
with great respect on account of the embroidered coat he wore, was
passing, shortly after the events narrated in our last chapter, the
ruined building in which the Count, unable to release himself, still lay
concealed, when a groan reached his ear. Not being a believer in ghosts
or goblins, on hearing it he exclaimed, "Oh, oh! that's a human voice;
somebody must have tumbled down the well. Whoever that somebody is, I
will get him out; but how that is to be done is the question." He
hunted about till he discovered a hay-rake with a long handle. "This
will serve me as a fishing-rod, and I should not be surprised to find a
fish at the end of it." The steward accordingly went to an opening in
the wall just above the well; he plunged down the rake and quickly
brought it up without anything at the end. "I must try again," he said,
and he passed it round the wall. "I have got something now," he
exclaimed, and he began to haul away. "A heavy fish at all events," he
cried out. Though a muscular man, as most Frieslanders are, he had a
hard job to haul up the rake. At last, stooping down, his hand came in
contact with the collar of a man's coat. He hauled and hauled away; his
rake had caugh