is gallop
across the breezy plain, unencumbered by the trampling of a guard!'
cried the Prince. 'There is the making in me yet of another Lepanto!
But two provinces remain faithful to our standard: his highness of
Orange and the Archduke having filched, one by one, from their
allegiance the hearts of these pious Netherlanders; who can no better
prove their fear of God than by ceasing to honour the king he hath
been pleased to set over them. Nevertheless, with Luxembourg and
Namur for our vantage-ground, and under the blessing of his holiness,
the banner under which I conquered the infidel, shall, sooner or
later, float victorious under this northern sky!'

"Such was the tenour of his discourse as we entered a wood, halfway
through which, the itinerary I had consulted informed me we had to
cross a branch of the Dyle. But on reaching the ferry-house of this
unfrequented track, we found only two sumpter-mules tied to a tree
near the hovel, and a boat chained to its stump beside the stream. In
answer to our shouts, no vestige of a ferryman appeared; and behold
the boat-chain was locked, and the current too deep and strong for
fording.

"Where there is smoke there is fire! No boat without a boatman!"
cried the Prince; and leaping from his horse, which he gave me to
hold, and renewing his vociferations, he was about to enter the
ferry-house, when, just as he reached the wooden porch, a young girl,
holding her finger to her lips in token of silence, appeared on the
threshold!"

"She of the turkois eyes and flaxen ringlets, for a hundred
pistoles!"--cried Gonzaga. "Such then was the bird's nest that made
him so mad a truant!"

"As she retreated into the house," resumed Nignio, without noticing
the interruption, "his highness followed, hat in hand, with the
deference due to a gouvernante of Flanders. But as the house was
little better than a shed of boards, by drawing a trifle nearer the
porch, not a syllable of their mutual explanation escaped me.

"'Are you a follower of Don John?'--was the first demand of the
damsel. 'Do you belong to the party of the States?'--the next; to
both which questions, a negative was easily returned. After listening
to the plea, fluently set forth by the prince, that he was simply a
Zealand burgess, travelling on his own errand, and sorely in fear of
falling in (God wot) with either Protestants or Papists, the damsel
appeared to hail the arrival of so congenial an ally as a blessing;
acquain