The Portland daily press., 1865-03-31

ger enjoy life.
The bewildered and tormented landlord
| now took good friend or two more into his
councils: and the result OF long deliberation
was. that the two Engishmen were neither
more nor less than false coiners. Van Rys-
WORT, not little alarmed at this verdict, pass
ed in review the whole of the gold pieces he
had received from the two Englishmen, but
found amongst them not spurious piece
Urged by his thrifty better-half, he took the
gold to neighboring Jew money changer to
ascertain its weight and purity. The Jew
made every usual test, but declared it good.
Now was the honest inn-keeper quite at his
wits end; SO was his wife, and so was his gos-
sip, and his godfather, the builder.
Things went on in this manner until the
middle of October, when the two Englishmen
suddenly changed their mode of living. Each
bought a gun and shootingpouch and went out
but never together-as they said, to sport
upon the dunes and canals. At last, one even
ing, Mr.. Featherington called the innkeep-
er, and informed him that they were both
going on three days shooting excursion.
And sure enough, the following morning,
long before sunrise, a carriage was waiting al
the door, and the Englishmen, in full sporting
trim, jumped into it and drove off.
So precipitate were they, that the innkeeper
had no time to make them his lowest bow,
nor to wish them pleasant excursion. During
the next three days, Van Rysvoort was in
state OF considerable perplexity. The English
men had taken with them the keysof the gar
den-house; and hard struggle ensued In his
breast between curiosity and discretion. Curl
osity said, break open the garden-house; dis
erection said, such intrusion would lose him his
guests | ta4'n
Wednesday, the fourth day from the de-
parture of the Englishmen arrived, and still
bnu n not Ix.4 4hoa
was held in the inn, the sitting was long and
stormy; all sorts OF surmisss and strange hy-
potheses were indulged in. On Thursday Van
Rysvoort put on his great coat most woefully,
aud went to give information to the public
He, however, took this step very nnwillingly,
as he wisely calculated that in the event of
his guests having met with an untimely end, !,
he could not possess himself OF their valu-
ables. The commissary and three general
issimos attended at the inn to clear up the
mystery. .st 3us
AS matter of form, three knocks at the
door summoned to a surrender. or no use
no reply. Then as a matter of course, follow
ed the surrender of the entrance. The happy
long -wished-for moment was now arrived. Loi
what came to sight? Nothing, literally moth
ing!
The police functonaries and the innkeeper
started back In anazement Then followed
long drawn breath from the head dover-head
peeping band of curious friends and relatives
pressing in the background. A gendarme
drew his sword, and valiantly rushed into the
apartments. But there was nothing to encoun-
ter but two empty trunks and an open letter.
With these trophies he came back. A new
movement took place. The commissary read
as follows: e laa r5als8 SIS
"My dear Van Rysvoort-Co Convinced that
you are as well versed in the chronicles of
your town as you are in your ledger, OF whose
exactituds you have left US nothing to doubt,
it may be useless to tell you that Ostend, In
the beginning of the seventeenth century, was
mixed up in the war then raging between
Spain and Holland. Your town was, from the
year 1901 to 1904, exposed to those vicissi-
tudes that all so situated are liable to, until
the Dutch garrison was forced to yield to the
Spanish general Spinola. Amongst the defend
ers who fought like heroes under the United
Provinces we're Englshmen, sons of the first
families of our country. In this band was the
treasurer OF the expedition. Before the
town capitulated, he with great caution, hid
from the capture Of the Spaniards the treasure
box. ol5 aa8 ,l ssae
Soon after he returned to England and died,
bur not before he had given to his family
some intelligence OF the concealed treasure
This good fortune .devolved upon us; your
house and garden was pointed out as the spot.
Once upon our track, we lost no time in in
stalling ourselves in your inn, and soon found
reasons to be satisfied with our operations
We have succeeded without giving rise to any
suspicious, i'll obtaining possession OF the trea-
sures SO long and SO deeply buried in oblivi-
on, and in appropriating them to ourselves,
their right destination. How we operated,
need no longer be secret; but Herr Van Rys
WORT, we must premise our disclosure by de-
claring upon our honor as gentlemen, that we
have fairly let you into onehalf Of the trea-
sures. So long as OStend exists, no innkeep-
er will have again such profitable guests
You have robbed us through thick and thin,
as though we had fallen into the hands of
bandit. You have not only doubly, but hun
dred-told chichaned us.
We were determined to shut our eyes to
your proceeding. As we promised you have
profted. In the furthest room you will find
portion of the floor broken up; you will al
so find hole ten feet deep, at the bottom of
which lies an iron chest. We took our time
in removing the old ducats of Charles v. The
chest we bequeathe to you. The treasurer of
Elizabeth can alone callus to account; and he.
good man, has already given up his claims full
two hundred years ago; so, upon his score,
we lightly trouble ourselves. .-a
For the future, in laughing over the very
questionable conduct you have shown US, we
shall always bear witness to the high esteem
with which we are impressed at your charac-
ter as an inkeeper. In hopes of never seeing
you again, with our hearty farewell, we give
you leave to remember US and to speak of us
as the MAD ENGLIsHMEN."
Van Rysvoort rolled his eyes and bit his
lips, but to what purpose? The first trans
port Of rage having passed away, the innkeep-
er ended the matter by an observation which
did honoa to his perception, that "These En-
glishmen, after all, were not so mad as they
saamad IN ha