The Cloister and the Hearth: A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

  CHAPTER XVIII

  GHYSBRECHT VAN SWIETEN could not sleep all night for anxiety. He wasafraid of thunder and lightning: or he would have made one of the partythat searched Peter's house. As soon as the storm ceased altogether, hecrept down stairs, saddled his mule, and rode to the "Three Kings" atSevenbergen. There he found his men sleeping, some on chairs, some onthe tables, some on the floor. He roused them furiously, and heard thestory of their unsuccessful search, interlarded with praises of theirzeal.

  "Fool! to let you go without me," cried the burgomaster. "My life on'the 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 shouldhave looked under her bed and in it, too; and sounded all the panelswith your knives. Come, now, get up, and I shall show ye how tosearch."

  Dierich Brower got up, and shook himself: "If you find him, call me ahorse 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, withDierich Brower and the others, entered the house.

  The house was empty.

  Not a creature to be seen, not even Peter. They went up-stairs, and thensuddenly one of the men gave a shout, and pointed through Peter'swindow, which was open. The other looked, and there, at some littledistance, walking quietly across the fields with Margaret and Martin,was the man they sought. Ghysbrecht with an exulting yell, descended thestairs, and flung himself on his mule; and he and his men set off in hotpursuit.