“Friend,” he said, “you cook my food, do you not, and look after me?  Well, I have a few of these about me, and if you prove kind they may as well find their way into your pocket as into those of your betters.  Do you understand?”

The man nodded, took the money, and thanked him.

“Now,” went on Dirk, “while you clean the room, tell me about this escape, for small things amuse those who hear no tidings.”

“Well, Mynheer,” answered the man, “this is the tale of it so far as I can gather.  Yesterday they captured two fellows, heretics I suppose, who made a good fight and did them much damage in a warehouse.  I don’t know their names, for I am a stranger to this town, but I saw them brought in; a young fellow, who seemed to be wounded in the leg and neck, and a great red-bearded giant of a man.  They were put upon their trial this morning, and afterwards sent across, the two of them together, with eight men to guard them, to call upon the Professor—­you understand?”

Dirk nodded, for this Professor was well known in Leyden.  “And then?” he asked.

“And then?  Why, Mother in Heaven! they came out, that’s all—­the big man stripped and carrying the other on his back.  Yes, they killed the Professor with the branding iron, and out they came—­like ripe peas from a pod.”

“Impossible!” said Dirk.

“Very well, perhaps you know better than I do; perhaps it is impossible also that they should have pushed the door to, let all those Spanish cocks inside do what they might, and bolted them in; perhaps it is impossible that they should have spitted the porter and got clean away through the outside guards, the big one still carrying the other upon his back.  Perhaps all these things are impossible, but they’re true nevertheless, and if you don’t believe me, after they get away from the whipping-post, just ask the bridge guard why they ran so fast when they saw that great, naked, blue-eyed fellow come at them roaring like a lion, with his big sword flashing above his head.  Oh! there’s a pretty to-do, I can tell you, a pretty to-do, and in meal or malt we shall all pay the price of it, from the Governor down.  Indeed, some backs are paying it now.”

“But, friend, were they not taken outside the gaol?”

“Taken?  Who was to take them when the rascally mob made them an escort five hundred strong as they went down the street?  No, they are far away from Leyden now, you may swear to that.  I must be going, but if there is anything you’d like while you’re here just tell me, and as you are so liberal I’ll try and see that you get what you want.”