"Yes. I was sorely maltreated by a band of robber peasants who left me for dead, but as you see I am now completely recovered."
"I suppose you have some men with you to escort the prisoners?" one of the magistrates asked.
"Assuredly," Ned replied. "I have with me three men, behind whom the women will ride."
The magistrates countersigned the order upon the governor of the prison to hand over the three prisoners, and gave it with the letter of the Council to Ned. He bowed and retired.
"I should not have remembered him again," the magistrate who had been the chief speaker said after he had left the room, "had it not been for that villainous cast in his eyes. I remember noticing it when he was here last time, and wondered that Von Aert should like to have a man whose eyes were so crossways about him; otherwise I do not recall the face at all, which is not surprising seeing that I only saw him for a minute or two, and noticed nothing but that abominable squint of his."
Ned walked back to his inn, ordered his horse to be saddled at two o'clock, and partook of a hearty meal. Then paying his reckoning he went out and mounted his horse. As he did so three men in green doublets and red hose rode up and took their places behind him. On arriving at the prison he dismounted, and handing his horse to one of his followers entered.
"I have an order from the Council, countersigned by the magistrates here, for the delivery to me of three prisoners."
The warder showed him into a room.
"The governor is ill," he said, "and confined to his bed; but I will take the order to him."
Ned was pleased with the news, for he thought it likely that Genet might have been there before on similar errands, and his person be known to the governor. In ten minutes the warder returned.