happy, oh! so happy!"

Then it was Gerard's turn to support that dear head, with its great
waves of hair flowing loose over him, and nurse her, and soothe her,
quivering on his bosom, with soft encouraging words and murmurs of love,
and gentle caresses. Sweetest of all her charms is a woman's weakness to
a manly heart.

Poor things! they were happy. To-morrow they must part. But that was
nothing to them now. They had seen Death, and all other troubles seemed
light as air. While there is life there is hope; while there is hope
there is joy. Separation for a year or two, what was it to them, who
were so young, and had caught a glimpse of the grave? The future was
bright, the present was Heaven: so passed the blissful hours.

Alas! their innocence ran other risks besides the prison and the grave.
They were in most danger from their own hearts and their inexperience,
now that visible danger there was none.

CHAPTER XVIII

Ghysbrecht Van Swieten could not sleep all night for anxiety. He was
afraid of thunder and lightning, or he would have made one of the party
that searched Peter's house. As soon as the storm ceased altogether,
he crept downstairs, saddled his mule, and rode to the "Three Kings" at
Sevenbergen. There he found his men sleeping, some on the chairs, some
on the tables, some on the floor. He roused them furiously, and heard
the story of their unsuccessful search, interlarded with praises of
their zeal.

"Fool! to let you go without me," cried the burgomaster. "My life on't
he was there all the time. Looked ye under the girl's bed?"

"No; there was no room for a man there."

"How know ye that, if ye looked not?" snarled Ghysbrecht. "Ye should
have looked under her bed, and in it too, and sounded all the panels
with your knives. Come, now, get up, and I shall show ye how to search."

Dierich Brower got up and shook himself. "If you find him, call me a
horse and no man."

In a few minutes Peter's house was again surrounded.

The fiery old man left his mule in the hands of Jorian Ketel, and, with
Dierich Brower and the others, entered the house.

The house was empty.

Not a creature to be seen, not even Peter. They went upstairs, and
then suddenly one of the men gave a shout, and pointed through Peter's
window, which was open. The others looked, and there, at some little
distance, walking quietly across the fields with Margaret and Martin,
was the man they sought. Ghysbrecht, with an exulting ye