Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/126

102 and unbearable, and sickness, death and the plague raged in Leyden. Jacqueline had her heart and hands full with her newly assumed duties. But Gysbert, not having lately any mission to execute beyond the  walls, found time hanging rather heavily on  his hands. One muggy, oppressive morning he determined, for lack of anything better to  do, to seek some secluded spot and indulge  in a refreshing swim in one of the less-frequented canals.

Beaching a shaded spot sufficiently isolated for his purpose, he divested himself of his garments, plunged in, and remained for  half an hour swimming about idly in the cool  water. At length concluding that his bath had been long enough, he drew himself out  and was about to resume his clothes, when  he happened to glance down the road that  led by the canal. About a hundred yards ahead, a black-cloaked figure whose rear view  struck him as somewhat familiar, was hurrying stealthily along.