His calm air of authority overawed them, but they stepped before the door.
“By what right do you detain me?” he demanded.
Ruysch, who had no pretext, could only say, “Wait a little longer, sir, the people are too excited.”
John de Witt looked at him a moment in silence, then he said—
“Will you let my clerk and servant depart?”
They could not in decency refuse.
Ruysch gave ungracious acquiescence.
“Will you send one of your men with them to see them through the crowd?”
M. Ruysch hesitated, then saw a chance of ridding himself of an onerous duty.
“I will go myself,” he said.