Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch
Page 73
CHAPTER XXX
TWO SCENES
_Scene the First_
Some months had gone by, and Alkmaar, that heroic little city of thenorth, had turned the flood of Spanish victory. Full of shame andrage, the armies of Philip and of Valdez marched upon Leyden, and fromNovember, 1573, to the end of March, 1574, the town was besieged. Thenthe soldiers were called away to fight Louis of Nassau, and the leaguerwas raised till, on the fatal field of Mook Heath, the gallant Louis,with his brother Henry and four thousand of their soldiers, perished,defeated by D'Avila. Now once more the victorious Spaniards threatenedLeyden.
In a large bare room of the Stadthuis of that city, at the beginning ofthe month of May, a man of middle-age might have been seen one morningwalking up and down, muttering to himself as he walked. He was not atall man and rather thin in figure, with brown eyes and beard, hairtinged with grey, and a wide brow lined by thought. This was William ofOrange, called the Silent, one of the greatest and most noble of humanbeings who ever lived in any age; the man called forth by God to whomHolland owes its liberties, and who for ever broke the hideous yoke ofreligious fanaticism among the Teuton races.
Sore was his trouble on this May morning. But last month two more of hisbrothers had found death beneath the sword of the Spaniard, and now thissame Spaniard, with whom he had struggled for all these weary years, wasmarching in his thousands upon Leyden.
"Money," he was muttering to himself. "Give me money, and I will savethe city yet. With money ships can be built, more men can be raised,powder can be bought. Money, money, money--and I have not a ducat! Allgone, everything, even to my mother's trinkets and the plate upon mytable. Nothing is left, no, not the credit to buy a dozen geldings."
As he thought thus one of his secretaries entered the room.
"Well, Count," said the Prince, "have you been to them all?"
"Yes, sir."
"And with what success?"
"The burgomaster, van de Werff, promises to do everything he can, andwill, for he is a man to lean on, but money is short. It has all leftthe country and there is not much to get."
"I know it," groaned Orange, "you can't make a loaf from the crumbsbeneath the table. Is the proclamation put up inviting all good citizensto give or lend in this hour of their country's need?"
"Yes, sir."
"Thank you, Count, you can go; there is nothing more to do. We will ridefor Delft to-night."
"Sir," said the secretary, "there are two men in the courtyard who wishto see you."
"Are they known?"
"Oh yes, perfectly. One is Foy van Goorl, who went through the siege ofHaarlem and escaped, the son of the worthy burgher, Dirk van Goorl, whomthey did to death yonder in the Gevangenhuis; and the other a Frieslandgiant of a man called Red Martin, his servant, of whose feats of armsyou may have heard. The two of them held a shot tower in this townagainst forty or fifty Spaniards, and killed I don't know how many."
The Prince nodded. "I know. This Red Martin is a Goliath, a bravefellow. What do they want?"
"I am not sure," said the secretary with a smile, "but they have broughta herring-cart here, the Frisian in the shafts for a horse, and the Heervan Goorl pushing behind. They say that it is laden with ammunition forthe service of their country."
"Then why do they not take it to the Burgomaster, or somebody inauthority?"
"I don't know, but they declare that they will only deliver it to you inperson."
"You are sure of your men, Count? You know," he added, with a smile, "Ihave to be careful."
"Quite, they were identified by several of the people in the otherroom."
"Then admit them, they may have something to say."
"But, sir, they wish to bring in their cart."
"Very well, let them bring it in if it will come through the door,"answered the Prince, with a sigh, for his thoughts were far from theseworthy citizens and their cart.
Presently the wide double doors were opened, and Red Martin appeared,not as he was after the siege of Haarlem, but as he used to be,well-covered and bland, with a beard even longer and more fiery thanof yore. At the moment he was strangely employed, for across his greatbreast lay the broad belly-band of a horse, and by its means, harnessedbetween the shafts, he dragged a laden cart covered with an old sail.Moreover the load must have been heavy, for notwithstanding his strengthand that of Foy, no weakling, who pushed behind, they had trouble ingetting the wheels up a little rise at the threshold.
Foy shut the doors, then they trundled their cart into the middle ofthe great room, halted and saluted. So curious was the sight, and soinexplicable, that the Prince, forgetting his troubles for a minute,burst out laughing.
"I daresay it looks strange, sir," said Foy, hotly, the colour rising tothe roots of his fair hair, "but when you have heard our story I am notsure that you will laugh at us."
"Mynheer van Goorl," said the Prince with grave courtesy, "be assuredthat I laugh at no true men such as yourself and your servant, Martinthe Frisian, and least of all at men who could hold yonder shot toweragainst fifty Spaniards, who could escape out of Haarlem and bringhome with them the greatest devil in Don Frederic's army. It was yourequipage I laughed at, not yourselves," and he bowed slightly first tothe one and then to the other.
"His Highness thinks perhaps," said Martin, "that the man who doesan ass's work must necessarily be an ass," at which sally the Princelaughed again.
"Sir," said Foy, "I crave your patience for a while, and on no meanmatter. Your Highness has heard, perhaps, of one Hendrik Brant, whoperished in the Inquisition."
"Do you mean the goldsmith and banker who was said to be the richest manin the Netherlands?"
"Yes, sir, the man whose treasure was lost."
"I remember--whose treasure was lost--though it was reported that someof our own people got away with it," and his eyes wandered wonderinglyto the sail which hid the burden on the cart.
"Sir," went on Foy, "you heard right; Red Martin and I, with a pilot manwho was killed, were they who got away with it, and by the help of thewaterwife, who now is dead, and who was known as Mother Martha, orthe Mare, we hid it in Haarlemer Meer, whence we recovered it after weescaped from Haarlem. If you care to know how, I will tell you later,but the tale is long and strange. Elsa Brant was with us at thetime----"
"She is Hendrik Brant's only child, and therefore the owner of hiswealth, I believe?" interrupted the Prince.
"Yes, sir, and my affianced wife."
"I have heard of the young lady, and I congratulate you. Is she inLeyden?"
"No, sir, her strength and mind were much broken by the horrors whichshe passed through in the siege of Haarlem, and by other events morepersonal to her. Therefore, when the Spaniards threatened their firstleaguer of this place, I sent her and my mother to Norwich in England,where they may sleep in peace."
"You were wise indeed, Heer van Goorl," replied the Prince with a sigh,"but it seems that you stopped behind?"
"Yes, sir, Martin and I thought it our duty to see this war out. WhenLeyden is safe from the Spaniards, then we go to England, not before."
"When Leyden is safe from the Spaniards----" and again the Princesighed, adding, "well, you have a true heart, young sir, and a rightspirit, for which I honour both of you. But I fear that things beingthus the Jufvrouw cannot sleep so very peacefully in Norwich after all."
"We must each bear our share of the basket," answered Foy sadly; "I mustdo the fighting and she the watching."
"It is so, I know it, who have both fought and watched. Well, I hopethat a time will come when you will both of you do the loving. And nowfor the rest of the story."
"Sir, it is very short. We read your proclamation in the streets thismorning, and learned from it for certain what we have heard before, thatyou are in sore want of money for the defence of Leyden and the war atlarge. Therefore, hearing that you were still in the city, and believingthis proclamation of yours to be the summons and clear command for whichwe waited, we have brought you
Hendrik Brant's treasure. It is thereupon the cart."
The Prince put his hand to his forehead and reeled back a step.
"You do not jest with me, Foy van Goorl?" he said.
"Indeed no."
"But stay; this treasure is not yours to give, it belongs to ElsaBrant."
"Sir, the legal title to it is in myself, for my father was Brant'slawful heir and executor, and I inherit his rights. Moreover, althougha provision for her is charged upon it, it is Elsa's desire--I haveit written here under her hand and witnessed--that the money should beused, every ducat of it, for the service of the country in such way as Imight find good. Lastly, her father, Hendrik Brant, always believed thatthis wealth of his would in due season be of such service. Here is acopy of his will, in which he directs that we are to apply the money'for the defence of our country, the freedom of religious Faith, and thedestruction of the Spaniards in such fashion and at such time or timesas God shall reveal to us.' When he gave us charge of it also, his wordsto me were: 'I am certain that thousands and tens of thousands of ourfolk will live to bless the gold of Hendrik Brant.' On that belief too,thinking that God put it into his mind, and would reveal His purposein His own hour, we have acted all of us, and therefore for the sake ofthis stuff we have gone to death and torture. Now it has come about asBrant foretold; now we understand why all these things have happened,and why we live, this man and I, to stand before you, sir, to-day,with the hoard unminished by a single florin, no, not even by Martin'slegacy."
"Man, you jest, you jest!" said Orange.
Foy made a sign, and Martin going to the cart, pulled off thesail-cloth, revealing the five mud-stained barrels painted, each ofthem, with the mark B. There, too, ready for the purpose, were a hammer,mallet, and chisel. Resting the shafts of the cart upon a table, Martinclimbed into it, and with a few great blows of the mallet, drove inthe head of a cask selected at hazard. Beneath appeared wool, which heremoved, not without fear lest there might be some mistake; then, as hecould wait no longer, he tilted the barrel up and shot its contents outupon the floor.
As it chanced this was the keg that contained the jewels into which,foreseeing troublous days, from time to time Brant had converted themost of his vast wealth. Now in one glittering stream of red and whiteand blue and green, breaking from their cases and wrappings that thedamp had rotted, save for those pearls, the most valuable of them all,which were in the watertight copper box--they fell jingling to the openfloor, where they rolled hither and thither like beans shot from a sackin the steading.
"I think there is only this one tub of jewels," said Foy quietly; "therest, which are much heavier, are full of gold coin. Here, sir, is theinventory so that you may check the list and see that we have kept backnothing."
But William of Orange heeded him not, only he looked at the pricelessgems and muttered, "Fleets of ships, armies of men, convoys of food,means to bribe the great and buy goodwill--aye, and the Netherlandsthemselves wrung from the grip of Spain, the Netherlands free and richand happy! O God! I thank Thee Who thus hast moved the hearts of men tothe salvation of this Thy people from sore danger."
Then in the sudden ecstasy of relief and joy, the great Prince hid hisface in his hands and wept.