But the officer, unsuspecting, soon took his departure, saying that he would send some men to warp the vessel into the castle dock.
Meantime, as the adventurers were making their way slowly towards the Watergate, they struck upon a hidden obstruction in the river and the deeply laden vessel sprang a leak.

In a few minutes those inside were sitting up to their knees in water--a circumstance which scarcely improved their already sufficiently dismal condition.

The boatmen vigorously plied the pumps to save the vessel from sinking outright; a party of Italian soldiers soon arrived on the shore, and in the course of a couple of hours they had laboriously dragged the concealed Hollanders into the inner harbour and made their vessel fast, close to the guard-house of the castle.
And now a crowd of all sorts came on board.

The winter nights had been long and fearfully cold, and there was almost a dearth of fuel both in town and fortress.

A gang of labourers set to work discharging the turf from the vessel with such rapidity that the departing daylight began to shine in upon the prisoners much sooner than they wished.