The Beggars had cut the Landscheiding, their vessels were pressing onward--help was approaching, and the faithful citizen who brought the letter, had seen with his own eyes the fleet bringing relief and the champions of freedom, glowing with martial ardor.

The two Van der Does, by the same letter, were appointed the Prince's commissioners in place of the late Herr Van Bronkhorst.

Van der Werff no longer stood alone, and when the next morning "Father William's" letter was read aloud and the messenger's news spread abroad, the courage and confidence of the tortured citizens rose like withering grass after a refreshing rain.
But they were still condemned to long weeks of anxiety and suffering.
During the last days of September they were forced to slaughter the cows hitherto spared for the infants and young mothers, and then, then?
Help was close at hand, for the sky often reddened, and the air was shaken by the roar of distant cannon; but the east wind continued to prevail, driving back the water let in upon the land, and the vessels needed a rising flood to approach the city.
Not one of all the messengers, who had been sent out, returned; there was nothing certain, save the cruelly increasing unendurable suffering.
Even Barbara had succumbed, and complained of weakness and loathing of the ordinary food.
Maria thought of the roast-pigeon, which had agreed with Bessie so well, and went to the musician, to ask if he could sacrifice another of his pets for her sister-in-law.
Wilhelm's mother received the burgomaster's wife.

The old lady was sitting wearily in an arm-chair; she could still walk, but amid her anxiety and distress a strange twitching had affected her hands.

When Maria made her request, she shook her head, saying: "Ask him yourself.
He's obliged to keep the little creatures shut up, for whenever they appear, the poor starving people shoot at them.