It was clear that while the fray had been raging, Maria von Duyk had been carried off.

Chapter 15:  The End of a Feud.

After the first cry of rage and grief at the discovery of the abduction of Maria van Duyk, there was a moment’s silence.  Rupert broke it, laying his hand on the shoulder of Van Duyk, who had dropped despairingly into a chair.

“We will find her,” he said, “wherever she be.  Let us lose no moments in sorrow.  Call up the burgomaster, or whoever leads the burghers, and let us consult.”

In another minute or two four of the principal magistrates of Dort had joined the party, and Van Duyk told them what had happened.

“I told her to lock the door, and not to open until she heard my voice.  Doubtless she was standing there listening to the strife without, when the men burst in at the window, and seized her before, in her surprise and terror, she had time to unlock the door.  Now what is to be done to recover her?  They have, no doubt, carried her off by boat, for they could not pass through the landward gate of the town.

“Will you order two fast boats, to be manned by strong parties of rowers, with well-armed men?  One had better go up the river, one down; for we know not in which direction they will take their flight.

“What think you, Master Holliday?”

“I think that a boat had better go either way, without a moment’s loss of time,” Rupert said.  “But I doubt whether either will find them.  But send the boats without a moment’s delay, with orders to overhaul and search every craft they overtake.”

The magistrates at once called in an officer of the guard, and gave him the necessary instructions.

“And why do you not think that either up or down the river they will overtake them?” Van Duyk asked Rupert, as the officer left the room.

“Because they will know that a fleet horseman will pass them; and that by morning the people at the towns on the banks will all be on the lookout for them.  So, having sent off the boats, I should now send off horsemen up and down the river, with a letter from you, sirs, to the authorities at all the towns, begging them to stop and search every boat.”

Again the necessary orders were given.

“It was right to take these steps,” Rupert said, “for they may be greater fools than I take them to be; but I think that they have done one of two things.  They have gone either up or down the river to some place, probably not far away, where horses are in readiness, or—­or, they may be still in the town.”

“Still in the town!”

“Yes,” Rupert said; “they will know that we should pursue them up and down the river; that we should scour the country round; but they may think that we should not suspect that she is still here.  There must be lots of secure hiding places in an old town like this; and they may well think it safer to keep her hidden here until they force her into marriage, or wring a fabulous ransom from you.”