“Expect the worst and be prepared for it—­you are wealthy, Mr Van Krause, and that will not be in your favour, it will only hasten the explosion, which sooner or later will take place.  Remit as much of your money as you can to where it will be secure from the spoilers.  Convert all that you can into gold, that you may take advantage of the first opportunity, if necessary, of flying from their vengeance.  Do all this very quietly.  Go on, as usual, as if nothing had occurred—­talk with your friend Engelback—­perform your duties as syndic.  It may blow over, although I am afraid not.  At all events you will have, in all probability, some warning, as they will displace you as syndic before they proceed further.  I have only one thing to add.  I am your guest, and depend upon it, shall share your fortune whatever it may be; if you are thrown into prison, I am certain to be sent there also.  You may therefore command me as you please.  I will not desert you, you may depend upon it.”

“My dear young man, you are indeed a friend, and your advice is good.  My poor Wilhelmina, what would become of her.”

“Yes, indeed, used to luxury—­her father in prison, perhaps his head at the gates—­his whole property confiscated, and all because he had the earliest intelligence.  Such is the reward of loyalty.”

“Yes, indeed,” repeated the syndic, “‘put not your trust in princes,’ says the psalmist.  If such is to be the return for my loyalty—­but there is no time to lose.  I must send this post, to Hamburgh and Frankfort.  Many thanks, my dear friend for your kind council, which I shall follow,” so saying, Mynheer Krause went to his room, threw off his gown and chains in a passion, and hastened to his counting-house to write his important letters.

We may now take this opportunity of informing the reader of what had occurred in the house of the syndic.  Ramsay had, as may be supposed, gained the affections of Wilhelmina; had told his love, and received her acknowledgment in return; he had also gained such a power over her, that she had agreed to conceal their attachment from her father; as Ramsay wished first, he asserted, to be possessed of a certain property which he daily expected would fall to him, and, until that, he did not think that he had any right to aspire to the hand of Wilhelmina.

That Ramsay was most seriously in love there was no doubt; he would have wedded Wilhelmina, even if she had not a sixpence; but at the same time, he was too well aware of the advantages of wealth not to fully appreciate it, and he felt the necessity and the justice to Wilhelmina, that she should not be deprived, by his means, of those luxuries to which she had been brought up.  But here there was a difficulty, arising from his espousing the very opposite cause to that espoused by Mynheer Krause, for the difference of religion he very rightly considered as a mere trifle compared with the difference in political feelings.