etting the men take you; it would have been
better than this. Oh, Gerard! I am very, very sorry for what I have
done." Then she began suddenly to rave.

"No! no! such things can't be, or there is no God. It is monstrous. How
can my Gerard be dead? How can I have killed my Gerard? I love him. Oh,
God! you know how I love him. He does not. I never told him. If he knew
my heart, he would speak to me, he would not be so deaf to his poor
Margaret. It is all a trick to make me cry out and betray him; but no!
I love him too well for that. I'll choke first." And she seized her own
throat, to check her wild desire to scream in her terror and anguish.

"If he would but say one word. Oh, Gerard! don't die without a word.
Have mercy on me and scold me, but speak to me: if you are angry with
me, scold me! curse me! I deserve it: the idiot that killed the man she
loved better than herself. Ah I am a murderess. The worst in all the
world. Help! help! I have murdered him. Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!"

She tore her hair, and uttered shriek after shriek, so wild, so
piercing, they fell like a knell upon the ears of Dierich Brower and his
men. All started to their feet and looked at one another.

CHAPTER XVI

Martin Wittenhaagen, standing at the foot of the stairs with his arrow
drawn nearly to the head and his knife behind him, was struck with
amazement to see the men come back without Gerard: he lowered his bow
and looked open-mouthed at them. They, for their part, were equally
puzzled at the attitude they had caught him in.

"Why, mates, was the old fellow making ready to shoot at us?"

"Stuff!" said Martin, recovering his stolid composure; "I was but trying
my new string. There! I'll unstring my bow, if you think that."

"Humph!" said Dierich suspiciously, "there is something more in you than
I understand: put a log on, and let us dry our hides a bit ere we go."

A blazing fire was soon made, and the men gathered round it, and their
clothes and long hair were soon smoking from the cheerful blaze. Then it
was that the shrieks were heard in Margaret's room. They all started up,
and one of them seized the candle and ran up the steps that led to the
bedrooms.

Martin rose hastily too, and being confused by these sudden screams, and
apprehending danger from the man's curiosity, tried to prevent him from
going there.

At this Dierich threw his arms round him from behind, and called on the
others to keep him. The man that had the can