Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/142

118 strange that I did not think of it at first!” And the worse it became, the more it pleased  him, since it might mean ultimate relief and  victory to the city. Finally he found himself wading through several inches of water, and  he took infinite, boyish delight in slopping  through its muddy depths, splashing the  drops from side to side as he walked. In due time he reached Delft, and stopped to  get a hearty meal at a baker’s shop, with a  few coins he had in his pocket. Thus refreshed and rested, he continued on his way.

Darkness at length overtook him, and abandoning all hope of reaching Rotterdam that night, he crept into a farmer’s barn, and  in the hayloft slept the sleep of healthy  weariness, till the first streaks of dawn  tinted the horizon. Trudging on his road again, without either a breakfast or the prospect of one, it was noon before he reached  the goal of his desire, Rotterdam, where lay  ill and despairing the idol of his boyish  dreams, William, Prince of Orange-Nassau.