THE ALARM
For some time the little village of Meer slept quietly in the moonlight.There was not a sound to break the stillness, except once when Mother Van Hove's old rooster caught a glimpse of the waning moon through the window of the chicken-house, and crowed lustily, thinking it was the sun.The other roosters of the village, wiser than he, made no response to his call, and in a moment he, too, returned to his interrupted slumbers.But though there was as yet no sound to tell of their approach, the moon looked down upon three horsemen galloping over the yellow ribbon of road from Malines toward the little village.Soon the sound of the horses' hoofs beating upon the hardened earth throbbed through the village itself, and Fidel sat up on the kitchen doorstep, pricked up his ears, and listened.He heard the hoof-beats and awakened the echoes with a sharp bark.
Mother Van Hove sat up in bed and listened; another dog barked, and another, and now she, too, heard the hoof-beats.Nearer they came, and nearer, and now she could hear a voice shouting.She shook her husband."Wake up!" she whispered in his ear, "something is wrong! Fidel barks, and I hear strange noises about.Wake up!""Fidel is crazy," said Father Van Hove sleepily."He thinks some weasel is after the chickens very likely.Fidel will attend to it.Go to sleep."He sank back again upon his pillows, but his wife seized his arm and pulled him up.
"Listen!" she said."Oh, listen! Weasels do not ride on horseback! There are hoof-beats on the road!""Some neighbor returning late from Malines," said Father Van Hove, yawning."It does not concern us."But his wife was already out of bed, and at the window.The horsemen were now plainly visible, riding like the wind, and as they whirled by the houses their shout thrilled through the quiet streets of the village: "Burghers, awake! Awake! Awake!"Wide awake at last, Father Van Hove sprang out of bed and hastily began putting down his clothes.His wife was already nearly dressed, and had lighted a candle.Other lights sparkled from the windows of other houses.Suddenly the bell in the church-steeple began to ring wildly, as though it, too, were shaken with a sudden terror."It must be a fire," said Father Van Hove.
Still fastening her clothing, his wife ran out of the door and looked about in every direction."I see no fire," she said, "but the village street is full of people running to the square!
Hurry! Hurry! We must take the children with us; they must not be left here alone."She ran to wake the children, as she spoke, and, helped by her trembling fingers, they, too, were soon dressed, and the four ran together up the road toward the village church.The bell still clanged madly from the steeple, and the vibrations seemed to shake the very flesh of the trembling children as they clung to their mother's hands and tried to keep up with their father's rapid strides.