about five in the evening
We but take him to our Stadthouse . '' They took him away on horseback , on the road to Rotterdam ; and , after a dozen halts , and by sly detours , to Tergou . Just outside the town they were met by a rude vehicle covered with canvas . Gerard was put into this , and about five in the evening was secretly conveyed into the prison of the Stadthouse . He was taken up several flights of stairs and thrust into a small room lighted only by a narrow window , with a vertical iron bar . The whole furniture was a huge oak chest . Imprisonment in that age was one of the highroads to death .