Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/289

Rh singular spectacle, till all at once the truth flashed on him. The Spaniards were retreating! Under cover of darkness, they were silently sneaking away, fleeing panic-stricken from the unknown terror of that  hideous sound in the night,—fleeing like  cowards at the very moment when fortune  had rendered their entrance to the coveted  city as easy as stepping over a log!

Truly had God’s providence operated in a marvellous manner! At the crash of the falling wall, the terrified citizens of Leyden  believed that the Spaniards had at last effected their entrance in some horrible way. The Spanish, on the other hand, felt certain that the citizens were making a final, desperate sortie. And between this new danger on one side, and the fierce Sea Beggars and the  inward-surging ocean on the other, they  deemed retreat to be their only course, short  of complete extermination, and they fled  away in the night.

For two hours Gysbert sat in his little