Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/132

108 water deepened to such an extent that he was forced to swim. Moreover, unwarmed by any sun it was icy cold, and his limbs grew  numb and his teeth chattered.

For a moment panic seized him, and he felt sure he would never get out alive, but  would drown in this horrible place. Then his natural courage again asserted itself, and  he pressed steadily forward. At length the course of the hidden stream changed again,  a faint glimmer of daylight appeared, and in  another moment he stood outside the walls  of Leyden, protected from the gaze of the  Spanish camp only by a few bushes. No Dirk Willumhoog was to be seen, but there  remained not a shadow of doubt that this was  his mode of ingress to and exit from the city  of Leyden.

Gysbert lay down in the sunlight, and warmed his numbed body in its welcome heat. In half an hour’s time he had started on his return trip, and found it twice as easy as  travelling in the opposite direction. Far