When his cousin and new-found friend had gone Dirk sat for a while, tillthe guttering tallow lights overhead burned to the sockets indeed. Then,taking the candle from the snail-adorned holder, he lit it, and,having extinguished those in the chandeliers, went into his bedroom andundressed himself. The Bible he returned to its hiding-place and closedthe panel, after which he blew out the light and climbed into the tallbed.
As a rule Dirk was a most excellent sleeper; when he laid his head onthe pillow his eyes closed nor did they open again until the appointedand accustomed hour. But this night he could not sleep. Whether it wasthe dinner or the wine, or the gambling, or the prayer and the searchingof the Scriptures with his cousin Brant, the result remained the same;he was very wakeful, which annoyed him the more as a man of his race andphlegm found it hard to attribute this unrest to any of these trivialcauses. Still, as vexation would not make him sleep, he lay awakewatching the moonlight flood the chamber in broad bars and thinking.
Somehow as Dirk thought thus he grew afraid; it seemed to him as thoughhe shared that place with another presence, an evil and malignantpresence. Never in his life before had he troubled over or been troubledby tales of spirits, yet now he remembered Montalvo's remark about aghost, and of a surety he felt as though one were with him there. Inthis strange and new alarm he sought for comfort and could think of nonesave that which an old and simple pastor had recommended to him in allhours of doubt and danger, namely, if it could be had, to clasp a Bibleto his heart and pray.
Well, both things were easy. Raising himself in bed, in a moment he hadtaken the book from its hiding-place and closed the panel. Then pressingit against his breast between himself and the mattress he lay downagain, and it would seem that the charm worked, for presently he wasasleep.
Yet Dirk dreamed a very evil dream. He dreamed that a tall black figureleaned over him, and that a long white hand was stretched out to hisbed-head where it wandered to and fro, till at last he heard the panelslide home with a rattling noise.
Then it seemed to him that he woke, and that his eyes met two eyes bentdown over him, eyes which searched him as though they would read thevery secrets of his heart. He did not stir, he could not, but lo!in this dream of his the figure straightened itself and glided away,appearing and disappearing as it crossed the bars of moonlight until itvanished by the door.
A while later and Dirk woke up in truth, to find that although the nightwas cold enough the sweat ran in big drops from his brow and body. Butnow strangely enough his fear was gone, and, knowing that he had butdreamed a dream, he turned over, touched the Bible on his breast, andfell sleeping like a child, to be awakened only by the light of therising winter sun pouring on his face.
Then Dirk remembered that dream of the bygone night, and his heart grewheavy, for it seemed to him that this vision of a dark woman searchinghis face with those dreadful eyes was a portent of evil not far away.
Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch Page 7