The Burgomaster's Wife — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER XX.

  The burgomaster's wife had been anxious about Henrica, but the lattergreeted her with special cheerfulness and met her gentle reproaches withthe assurance that this morning had done her good. Fate, she said,was just, and if it were true that confidence of recovery helped thephysician, Doctor Bontius would have an easy task with her. The deadCastilian must be the wretch, who had plunged her sister Anna intomisery. Maria, surprised, but entirely relieved, left her and sought herhusband to tell him how she had found the invalid, and in what relationthe Spanish officer, slain by Allertssohn, seemed to have stood toHenrica and her sister. Peter only half listened to her, and whenBarbara brought him a freshly-ironed ruff, interrupted his wife in themiddle of her story, gave her the dead man's letter-case, and said:

  "There, let her satisfy herself, and bring it to me again in theevening, I shall hardly be able to come to dinner; I suppose you'll seepoor Allertssohn's widow in the course of the day."

  "Certainly," she answered eagerly. "Whom will you appoint in his place?"

  "That is for the Prince to decide."

  "Have you thought of any means of keeping the communication with Delftfree from the enemy?"

  "On your mother's account?"

  "Not solely. Rotterdam also lies to the south. We can expect nothingfrom Haarlem and Amsterdam, that is, from the north, for everythingthere is in the hands of the Spaniards."

  "I'll get you a place in the council of war. Where do you learn yourwisdom?"

  "We have our thoughts, and isn't it natural that I should rather followyou into the future with my eyes open, than blindly? Has the Englishtroop been used to secure the fortifications on the old canal? Kaak toois an important point."

  Peter gazed at his wife in amazement, and the sense of discomfortexperienced by an unskilful writer, when some one looks over hisshoulder, stole over him. She had pointed out a bad, momentous error,which, it is true, did not burden him alone, and as he certainly did notwish to defend it to her, and moreover might have found justificationdifficult, he made no reply, saying nothing but: "Men's affairs!Good-bye until evening." With these words he walked past Barbara,towards the door.

  Maria did not know how it happened, but before he laid his hand on thelatch she gained sufficient self-command to call after him:

  "Are you going so, Peter! Is that right? What did you promise me on yourreturn from the journey to the Prince?"

  "I know, I know," he answered impatiently. "We cannot serve two masters,and in these times I beg you not to trouble me with questions andmatters that don't concern you. To direct the business of the city ismy affair; you have your invalid, the children, the poor; let thatsuffice."

  Without waiting for her reply he left the room, while she stoodmotionless, gazing after him.

  Barbara watched her anxiously for several minutes, then busied herselfwith the papers on her brother's writing-table, saying as if to herself,though turning slightly towards her sister-in-law:

  "Evil times! Let every one, who is not oppressed with such burdens asPeter, thank the Lord. He has to bear the responsibility of everything,and people can't dance lightly with hundred-pound weights on theirlegs. Nobody has a better heart, and nobody means more honestly. How thetraders at the fair praised his caution! In the storm people know thepilot, and Peter was always greatest, when things were going worst.He knows what he is undertaking, but the last few weeks have aged himyears."

  Maria nodded. Barbara left the room, but returning after a few minutes,said beseechingly:

  "You look ill, child, come and lie down. An hour's sleep is better thanthree meals. At your age, such a night as this last one doesn't passwithout leaving traces. The sun is shining so brightly, that I've drawnyour window-curtains. I've made your bed, too. Be sensible and come."

  While uttering the last words, she took Maria's hand and drew her away.The young wife made no resistance, and though her eyes did not remaindry when she was alone, sleep soon overpowered her.

  Towards noon, refreshed by slumber, and newly dressed, she went to thecaptain's house. Her own heart was heavy, and compassion for herselfand her own fate again had the mastery. Eva Peterstochter, thefencing-master's widow, a quiet, modest woman, whom she scarcely knew bysight, did not appear. She was sitting alone in her room, weeping,but Maria found in her house the musician, Wilhelm, who had spokencomforting words to his old friend's son, and promised to take charge ofhim and make him a good performer.

  The burgomaster's wife sent a message to the widow, begging to see herthe next day, and then went out into the street with Wilhelm. Everywheregroups of citizens, women, and journeymen were standing together,talking about what had happened and the coming trouble. While Mariawas telling the musician who the dead Castilian was, and that Henricadesired to speak with him, Wilhelm, as soon as possible, she wasinterrupted more than once; for sometimes a company of volunteersor city guards, relieved from duty in the towers and on the walls,sometimes a cannon barred their way. Was it the anticipation of comingevents, or the beat of drums and blare of trumpets, which so excited hercompanion, that he often pressed his hand to his forehead and shewas obliged to request him to slacken his pace. There was a strange,constrained tone in his voice as, in accordance with her request, hetold her that the Spaniards had come by ship up the Amstel, the Drecht,and the Brasem See to the Rhine and landed at Leyderdorp.

  A mounted messenger wearing the Prince's colors, and followed not onlyby children, but by grown persons, who ran after him eager to reachthe town-hall at the same time, interrupted Wilhelm, and as soon asthe crowd had passed, the burgomaster's wife asked her companion onequestion after another. The noise of war, the firing audible in thedistance, the gay military costumes everywhere to be seen in place ofthe darker citizens' dress, also aroused her eager interest, and whatshe learned from Wilhelm was little calculated to diminish it. The mainbody of the Spanish troops was on the way to the Hague. The environmentof the city had commenced, but the enemy could hardly succeed inhis purpose; for the English auxiliaries, who were to defend the newfortifications of Valkenburg, the village of Alfen, and the Goudasluice might be trusted. Wilhelm had seen the British soldiers, theircommander, Colonel Chester, and Captain Gensfort, and praised theirsuperb equipments and stately bearing.

  On reaching her own house, Maria attempted to take leave of hercompanion, but the latter earnestly entreated permission to have aninterview with Henrica at once, and could scarcely be convinced that hemust have patience until the doctor had given his consent.

  At dinner Adrian, who when his father was not present, talked freelyenough, related all sorts of things he had seen himself, as well as newsand rumors heard at school and in the street, his eloquence being nolittle encouraged by his step-mother's eager questions.

  Intense anxiety had taken possession of the burgomaster's wife. Herenthusiasm for the cause of liberty, to which her most beloved relativeshad fallen victims, blazed brightly, and wrath against the oppressorsof her native land seethed passionately in her breast. The delicate,maidenly, reserved woman, who was utterly incapable of any loud or rudeexpression of feeling in ordinary life, would now have rushed to thewalls, like Kanau Hasselaer of Haarlem, to fight the foe among the men.

  Offended pride, and everything that an hour ago had oppressed herheart, yielded to sympathy for her country's cause. Animated with freshcourage, she went to Henrica and, as evening had closed in, sat down bythe lamp to write to her mother; for she had neglected to do so sincethe invalid's arrival, and communication with Delft might soon beinterrupted.

  When she read over the completed letter, she was satisfied with it andherself, for it breathed firm confidence in the victory of the goodcause, and also distinctly and unconstrainedly expressed her cheerfulwillingness to bear the worst.

  Barbara had retired when Peter at last appeared, so weary that he couldscarcely touch the meal that had been kept ready for him. While raisingthe food to his lips, he confirmed the news Maria had already heard fromthe musician, and was gentle and ki
nd, but his appearance saddened her,for it recalled Barbara's allusion to the heavy burden he had assumed.To-day, for the first time, she noticed two deep lines that anxiety hadfurrowed between his eyes and lips, and full of tender compassion, wentbehind him, laid her hands on his cheeks and kissed him on the forehead.He trembled slightly, seized her slender right hand so impetuously thatshe shrank back, raised it first to his lips, then to his eyes, and heldit there for several minutes.

  At last he rose, passed before her into his sleeping-room, bade her anaffectionate good-night, and lay down to rest. When she too sought herbed, he was breathing heavily. Extreme fatigue had quickly overpoweredhim. The slumber of both was destined to be frequently interruptedduring this night, and whenever Maria woke, she heard her husband sighand moan. She did not stir, that she might not disturb the sleep hesought and needed, and twice held her breath, for he was talking tohimself. First he murmured softly: "Heavy, too heavy," and then: "If Ican only bear it."

  When she awoke next morning, he had already left the room and gone tothe town-hall. At noon he returned home, saying that the Spaniards hadtaken the Hague and been hailed with delight by the pitiful adherentsof the king. Fortunately, the well-disposed citizens and Beggars had hadtime to escape to Delft, for brave Nicolas Ruichhaver had held thefoe in check for a time at Geestburg. The west was still open, and thenewly-fortified fort of Valkenburg, garrisoned by the English soldiers,would not be so easy to storm. On the east, other British auxiliarieswere posted at Alfen in the Spaniards' rear.

  The burgomaster told all this unasked, but did not speak as freely andnaturally as when conversing with men. While talking, he often lookedinto his plate and hesitated. It seemed as if he were obliged to imposea certain restraint upon himself, in order to speak before women,servants, and children, of matters he was in the habit of discussingonly with men of his own position. Maria listened attentively, butmaintained a modest reserve, urging him only by loving looks andsympathizing exclamations, while Barbara boldly asked one question afteranother.

  The meal was approaching an end, when Junker von Warmond enteredunannounced, and requested the burgomaster to accompany him at once, forColonel Chester was standing before the White Gate with a portion of histroops, asking admittance to the city.

  At these tidings, Peter dashed his mug of beer angrily on the table,sprang from his seat, and left the room before the nobleman.

  During the late hours of the afternoon, the Van der Werff house wascrowded with people. The gossips came to talk over with Barbara theevents occurring at the White Gate. Burgomaster Van Swieten's wife hadheard from her own husband, that the Englishmen, without making anyresistance, had surrendered the beautiful new fort of Valkenburg andtaken to their heels, at the mere sight of the Spaniards. The enemy hadmarched out from Haarlem through the downs above Nordwyk, and it wouldhave been an easy matter for the Britons to hold the strong position.

  "Fine aid such helpers give!" cried Barbara indignantly. "Let QueenElizabeth keep the men on her island for herself, and send us thewomen."

  "Yet they are real sons of Anak, and bear themselves like trimsoldiers," said the wife of the magistrate Heemskerk. "High boots,doublets of fine leather, gay plumes in their morions and hats, largecoats of mail, halberds that would kill half a dozen--and all like new."

  "They probably didn't want to spoil them, and so found a place of safetyas soon as possible, the windy cowards," cried the wife of Church-wardende Haes, whose sharp tongue was well known. "You seem to have looked atthem very closely, Frau Margret."

  "From the wind-mill at the gate," replied the other. "The envoy stoppedon the bridge directly under us. A handsome man on a stately horse. Histrumpeter too was mounted, and the velvet cloth on his trumpet bristledwith beautiful embroidery in gold thread and jewels. They earnestlyentreated admittance, but the gate remained closed."

  "Right, right!" cried Frau Heemskerk. "I don't like the Prince'scommissioner, Van Bronkhorst. What does he care for us, if only theQueen doesn't get angry and withdraw the subsidies? I've heard he wantsto accommodate Chester and grant him admission."

  "He would like to do so," added Frau Van Hout. "But your husband, FrauMaria, and mine--I was talking with him on the way here--will make everyeffort to prevent it. The two Seigneurs of Nordwyk are of their opinion,so perhaps the commissioner will be out-voted."

  "May God grant it!" cried the resolute voice of Wilhelm's mother. "Byto-morrow or the day after, not even a cat will be allowed to leave thegates, and my husband says we must begin to save provisions at once."

  "Five hundred more consumers in the city, to lessen our children'smorsels; that would be fine business!" cried Frau de Haes, throwingherself back in her chair so violently, that it creaked, and beating herknees with her hands.

  "And they are Englishmen, Frau Margret, Englishmen," said theReceiver-General's wife. "They don't eat, they don't consume, theydevour. We supply our troops; but Herr von Nordwyk--I mean the youngerone, who has been at the Queen's court as the Prince's ambassador, toldmy Wilhelm what a British glutton can gobble. They'll clear off yourbeef like cheese, and our beer is dish-water compared with their blackmalt brew."

  "All that might be borne," replied Barbara, "if they were stoutsoldiers. We needn't mind a hundred head of cattle more or less, andthe glutton becomes temperate, when a niggard rules the house. But Iwouldn't take one of our Adrian's grey rabbits for these runaways."

  "It would be a pity," said Frau de Haes. "I shall go home now, and ifI find my husband, he'll learn what sensible people think of theEnglishmen."

  "Gently, my friend, gently," said Burgomaster Van Swieten's wife, whohad hitherto been playing quietly with the cat. "Believe me, it will bejust the same on the whole, whether we admit the auxiliaries or not, forbefore the gooseberries in our gardens are ripe, all resistance will beover."

  Maria, who was passing cakes and hippocras, set her waiter on the tableand asked:

  "Do you wish that, Frau Magtelt?"

  "I do," replied the latter positively, "and many sensible people wishit too. No resistance is possible against such superior force, andthe sooner we appeal to the King's mercy, the more surely it will begranted."

  The other women listened to the bold speaker in silence, but Mariaapproached and answered indignantly:

  "Whoever says that, can go to the Spaniards at once; whoever says that,desires the disgrace of the city and country; whoever says that--"

  Frau Magtelt interrupted Maria with a forced laugh, saying:

  "Do you want to school experienced women, Madam Early-Wise? Is itcustomary to attack a visitor?"

  "Customary or not," replied the other, "I will never permit such wordsin our house, and if they crossed the lips of my own sister I would sayto her Go, you are my friend no longer!"

  Maria's voice trembled, and she pointed with outstretched arm towardsthe door.

  Frau Magtelt struggled for composure, but as she left the room foundnothing to say, except: "Don't be troubled, don't be troubled--you won'tsee me again."

  Barbara followed the offended woman, and while those who remained fixedtheir eyes in embarrassment upon their laps, Wilhelm's mother exclaimed:

  "Well said, little woman, well said!"

  Herr Van Hout's kind wife threw her arm around Maria, kissed herforehead, and whispered:

  "Turn away from the other women and dry your eyes."