The Laughing Cavalier by Emma Orczy

Nicolaes Beresteyn had not gone far when Lucas of Sparendam came running with the news. He heard it all, he saw the confusion, the first sights of sauve qui peut.

At first he was like one paralyzed with horror and with fear; he could not move, his limbs refused him service. Then he thought of his friends--some up in the molens, others at various posts on the road and by the bridge--they might not hear the confusion and the tumult, they might not see the coming sauve qui peut; they might not hear that the Stadtholder's spies are on the alert, and that his bodyguard might be here at any time.