Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/144

120 crept up softly, and guided by the sounds, reached an open doorway and peeped in.

Tossing and moaning on a bed, lay the gaunt form of a man. One glance sufficed to convince Gysbert that it was William of Orange, and that he was desperately ill. Why the great head of his country should be thus  deserted by every one of his attendants in his  trouble, was more than Gysbert could fathom. A natural hesitancy, however, kept him from intruding on the privacy of the sick man’s  bedroom, and he stood outside for a time,  watching and wondering if there were anything he might do.

The Prince lay in a huge, four-post bed, raised on a sort of diasdais [sic] or platform. At his feet on the coverlet sat a little brown and  white spaniel, who whined plaintively as if  in answer to his master’s groans. When Gysbert appeared in the doorway, the animal  sprang up barking furiously, and tried to  wake his master. But the Prince was at the time in a sort of stupor, and paid no heed to