Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/115

Rh of meat from the bones, and feeling new life renewed within them.

“Now,” said Gysbert, when they had finished, “let me tell thee all about my last trip through the besieging lines yesterday,  and the messages I bore. Mynheer Van der Werf sent very discouraged word to our  good Prince of Orange. The city, he said, was on the brink of starvation, the bread was  gone, and the malt-cakes would hold out but  four days more. Moreover, the people had fulfilled the promise made in the beginning  of the siege,—they had held out two months  with food and one month without, and human  strength could do no more.

“Mynheer Paul Buys, himself, was at the farmhouse and took the message and the pigeons. He said the number of birds was now sufficient and I need bring no more unless  these should all return before the siege was  over. Then he sent by word of mouth, this reply to the burgomaster. ‘The Prince begs you to hold out a few days more, as