The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-25
. SOMETHING BROKE WITHIN hIh. IT VAS Ills WILD
 /nRlT.

Ike drowning, despairing creatures
 The old man stood patiently. He heard Gerard sob and Margaret moan At last there was a hoarse cry and feet battered on the hard road. He turned and saw Gerard running wildly with his hands above his head, while Margaret came tot tering toward him with palms extended piteously, as if for help
 The old man took her home silently to Svenbergen. Then he fled to Rotterdam, where the Duke pardoned him for his lit- tie outrage against authority. Indeed. the good Duke preferred his old soldiers, such as Martin had been, to a mere Burgomas- ter any day. He sent pleasant message
 to Ghysbrecht to say that he had hanged
 Burgomasters before and would be glad to do 1t again. So poor Margaret had peace, at least, if she did not have hap piness.
 Happiness was far from her. Margaret
 Van Eyck. watching the girl with an af- fectionate eye, saw that she was suffer- ing, and at last she said:
 Sweetheart, I did desire that Gerard
 should stay in Italy five or six years and
 come back rich, and, above all, a great
 artist. But your happiness is above all
 We must have him back, and will write
 to him by Hans Memling, who is going
 to Italy to paint He will be sure to find
 him, and your Gerard shall return, since
 the Dukes pardon is for him as well as
 for Martin"
 Unfortunately Hans Memling loved to
 crink as much IS he loved to paint He
 fingered long in the taverns of Tergou,
 and Sydbrandt and Cornelis learned about
 the letter that was to bring their brother
 back. They hurried to the Burgomaster,
 for by this time they had arrived at the
 shrewd conviction that he had secret req
 sons for desiring to get rid of Gerard.
 The three rogues put their heads to- gether and the Burgomaster, carefully
 initiating Demoiselle Van Eyck's cali
 graphy from some of her legal papers
 that the town held, drew up a letter to : Gerard saying that Margaret was dead. sybrandt and Corneis deftly exchanged this for the genuine one, and Hans Mem ling went innocently forth on the road to Italy, bearing the lying letter. Now there came many long months when these two loving hearts were with out tidings of each other. Gerard followed the Rhine through wild Germany, trav- cling through forests beset by wolves and robbers, and lying at inns kept by
 another kind of robbers almost as law less. He fell in with the law and found 1t different from both kinds of robbers | only in being more memorable and power full.
 Yet he found kind hearts. too. He was i, stripped by robbers but he found enough ! helping hands so that he could go on, i penniess though he was. He found | homeless ones who were willing to share | their rude shelter. and hungry ones who | shared their insufficient food with him. | Before he reached Dusseldorf he fell in | with Denys. a French arbalister or cross- bowman, bound for his home in Burgundy | after a long campaign. Denys sang, l talked, thought and dreamed Burgundy the wine, the sun, the land, the girls and | his dear little sister, who, he swore, I should love Gerard as he loved him. Denys saved Gerard from the warm hug | of bear. Gerard saved Denys from the l cold hug of the River Rhine. When they reached Cologne, where one was to con | tinue south toward Italy and the other was to turn west toward Burgundy, they could not part. Gerard decided to go I through France and take ship to Rome. I Denys threw his arms around his neck and wiped away tear.
 They found clean beds and kindly inn keepers in Burgundy. Denys watched | Gerard's delight with patriotic pride But kindly, cheerful Burglndy was not all cheerful. Soon they passed gibbet with two skeletons on it. and it stood beside the chief road of a town where the burgh- CTS walked with their families on Sun days Next they came to two pillars and between these was huge wheel closely | studded with iron prongs. Entangled in | these prongs were bones and fragments ] of cloth, miserably dispersed over the ! wheel.
 The sunny land held black traps. They
 had to fight for their lives more than