They have treasured it in their memories, and during the night succeeding the day on which the burgomaster acted so manly a part, a letter arrived from the Prince, full of joyous and encouraging news.  The noble man had recovered, and was striving with all his power to rescue brave Leyden.  The Beggars had cut the Landscheiding, their vessels were pressing onward—­help was approaching, and the faithful citizen who brought the letter, had seen with his own eyes the fleet bringing relief and the champions of freedom, glowing with martial ardor.  The two Van der Does, by the same letter, were appointed the Prince’s commissioners in place of the late Herr Van Bronkhorst.  Van der Werff no longer stood alone, and when the next morning “Father William’s” letter was read aloud and the messenger’s news spread abroad, the courage and confidence of the tortured citizens rose like withering grass after a refreshing rain.

But they were still condemned to long weeks of anxiety and suffering.

During the last days of September they were forced to slaughter the cows hitherto spared for the infants and young mothers, and then, then?

Help was close at hand, for the sky often reddened, and the air was shaken by the roar of distant cannon; but the east wind continued to prevail, driving back the water let in upon the land, and the vessels needed a rising flood to approach the city.

Not one of all the messengers, who had been sent out, returned; there was nothing certain, save the cruelly increasing unendurable suffering.  Even Barbara had succumbed, and complained of weakness and loathing of the ordinary food.

Maria thought of the roast-pigeon, which had agreed with Bessie so well, and went to the musician, to ask if he could sacrifice another of his pets for her sister-in-law.

Wilhelm’s mother received the burgomaster’s wife.  The old lady was sitting wearily in an arm-chair; she could still walk, but amid her anxiety and distress a strange twitching had affected her hands.  When Maria made her request, she shook her head, saying:  “Ask him yourself.  He’s obliged to keep the little creatures shut up, for whenever they appear, the poor starving people shoot at them.  There are only three left.  The messengers took the others, and they haven’t returned.

“Thank God for it; the little food he still has, will do more good in dishes, than in their crops.  Would you believe it?  A fortnight ago he paid fifty florins out of his savings for half a sack of peas, and Heaven knows where he found them.  Ulrich, Ulrich!  Take Frau Van der Werff up to Wilhelm.  I’d willingly spare you the climb, but he’s watching for the carrier-pigeons that have been sent out, and won’t even come down to his meals.  To be sure, they would hardly be worth the trouble!”

It was a clear, sunny day.  Wilhelm was standing in his look-out, gazing over the green, watery plain, that lay out-spread below him, towards the south.  Behind him sat Andreas, the fencing-master’s fatherless boy; writing notes, but his attention was not fixed on his work; for as soon as he had finished a line he too gazed towards the horizon, watching for the pigeon his teacher expected.  He did not look particularly emaciated, for many a grain of the doves’ food had been secretly added to his scanty ration of meat.