as a rampart to them. This noise,
which roared outside of the walls of the prison, as the surf dashing
against the rocks, now reached the ears of the prisoner.

But, threatening as it sounded, Cornelius appeared not to deem it worth
his while to inquire after its cause; nor did he get up to look out
of the narrow grated window, which gave access to the light and to the
noise of the world without.

He was so absorbed in his never-ceasing pain that it had almost become a
habit with him. He felt with such delight the bonds which connected his
immortal being with his perishable frame gradually loosening, that it
seemed to him as if his spirit, freed from the trammels of the body,
were hovering above it, like the expiring flame which rises from the
half-extinguished embers.

He also thought of his brother; and whilst the latter was thus vividly
present to his mind the door opened, and John entered, hurrying to the
bedside of the prisoner, who stretched out his broken limbs and his
hands tied up in bandages towards that glorious brother, whom he now
excelled, not in services rendered to the country, but in the hatred
which the Dutch bore him.

John tenderly kissed his brother on the forehead, and put his sore hands
gently back on the mattress.

"Cornelius, my poor brother, you are suffering great pain, are you not?"

"I am suffering no longer, since I see you, my brother."

"Oh, my poor dear Cornelius! I feel most wretched to see you in such a
state."

"And, indeed, I have thought more of you than of myself; and whilst they
were torturing me, I never thought of uttering a complaint, except once,
to say, 'Poor brother!' But now that you are here, let us forget all.
You are coming to take me away, are you not?"

"I am."

"I am quite healed; help me to get up, and you shall see how I can
walk."

"You will not have to walk far, as I have my coach near the pond, behind
Tilly's dragoons."

"Tilly's dragoons! What are they near the pond for?"

"Well," said the Grand Pensionary with a melancholy smile which was
habitual to him, "the gentlemen at the Town-hall expect that the
people at the Hague would like to see you depart, and there is some
apprehension of a tumult."

"Of a tumult?" replied Cornelius, fixing his eyes on his perplexed
brother; "a tumult?"

"Yes, Cornelius."

"Oh! that's what I heard just now," said the prisoner, as if speaking to
himself. Then, turning to his brother, he continued,--

"Are th