Page:Biographical catalogue of the portraits at Weston, the seat of the Earl of Bradford (IA gri 33125003402027).pdf/45

 those whom Maria von Grotius frequently visited on her marketing expeditions to Gorcum. The bearers of the chest were exorbitant in their demands, but Lieschen was very anxious to be relieved of their presence, and made little haggling about the price. No sooner had they departed than the poor girl hastened into the shop where the ribbon-dealer and his wife were busy selling their wares, and stepping noiselessly up to the latter, whispered the truth in her astonished ear. The startled Vrouw became deathly pale, and seemed like to faint, but she left the shop with Lieschen, and then what a moment of condensed and mingled hope and terror! Lieschen kneeled down and knocked. 'Master, dear master,' she exclaimed. No answer. 'Oh my God, he is dead,' cried the girl, while her companion stood quaking with terror and calling out it was a bad business. But hark! A feeble cry from the inside, 'Open quick, I was not sure of your voice.' The chest was opened, and Grotius arose, almost as from a tomb. The still terrified shopwoman took Lieschen and her master into an upper room through a trap-door, and then began to tell him how alarmed she was, and that she feared, if he were found, her husband would be imprisoned in his stead, and all their property forfeited. 'No, no,' said Grotius, 'before I got into this trunk I prayed earnestly to God, who has preserved me hitherto, but rather than ruin you and your husband, I would get into the box again, and go back to Loevenstein.' 'Oh no,' said the kind-hearted woman, 'we will do all in our power to serve you'; and off she flew to her brother-in-law, a clothier of Gorcum, whom she found in conversation with the very officer who had been Lieschen's fellow-passenger, and who had annoyed her by sitting on the trunk. Drawing her relative aside, the mercer's wife explained the whole state of the case, and bade him follow her to the warehouse without a moment's delay, when she would introduce him to the fugitive.