HAPPILY MARRIED
I now resolved to bring Count Hendrick Luitken to account for his
treatment of Anna, though I did not desire that Anna's name should
appear in the matter, so that gossip might be avoided. I therefore
bided my time, and waited an opportunity which soon came.
The Count of Holstein had resigned the governorship of Urk, and now
kept a fine establishment at Amsterdam, to which he frequently invited
company, and at one of his banquets I met, as I expected, Count
Hendrick Luitken.
As a merchant's clerk, and afterwards as a seaman, the Count had taken
no notice of me, but now that I was rich and betrothed to Anna, he
could do no less than treat me with consideration when he met me at her
father's house.
The banquet was sumptuous, and no effort was spared to make it worthy
of the late Governor's hospitality. Only men were invited, no women
being present, so that free scope was given for the gluttony and
drunkenness which usually prevailed at such entertainments. Great
joints of beef and venison vanished like melting snow before the
keen-set appetites of the diners, and goblets of wine disappeared down
thirsty throats until all present were more or less under the influence
of liquor. Toward the end of the entertainment, some horse-play was
indulged in by the younger guests, among whom Count Hendrick Luitken
was conspicuous. I could see he was the worse for liquor, and as often
happens to those under the influence of strong drink, his veneer gave
place to a quarrelsome arrogance in which his true disposition was
displayed. Accompanied by some of his friends as boisterous as himself,
he came over to where I was sitting, and, planting himself in a vacant
chair on the other side of the table in front of me, he asked rudely
how the fishing trade prospered at Urk.
I felt the blood mount to my face as I answered that for all I knew to
the contrary it prospered well enough, although I had for some years
past been away from Urk, and could therefore not answer the question as
fully as I might otherwise have done.
"You've been a pirate since you gave up the fishing," sneered the
Count, "and to some purpose if report speaks true."
For answer I threw the wine which stood in a half-emptied goblet at my
elbow in his face.
The Count sprang to his feet, the red wine dripping from his handsome
doublet, while his face worked with passion.
"Insolent!" he cried, when he had mastered himself sufficiently to
articulate. "My rank will not let me fight you, but I have influence
enough to punish you as you deserve."
"No difference in rank exists between us, my lord," I answered, "and I
claim the right to cross swords in an affair of honour with all save
those of royal blood. Grant me the satisfaction I demand, or I will
brand you as a braggart and a coward throughout every town of the
Netherlands."
I could see that the Count changed colour at my words. As the son of a
fisherman he could have pleaded his nobility as an excuse for not
meeting me, and had me punished by the law, but he had forgotten that
my betrothal to Anna carried with it a dignity equal to his own, or I
doubt he had been so ready with his tongue.
A hasty consultation was held among those who were with him, from which
it appeared I was judged to be in the right, for presently the count
turned and said to me, with a surly frown, "At dawn, then, in the
courtyard," and quitted the hall.
Such scenes were not uncommon at this time, and beyond a question or
two in our immediate vicinity, but little notice was taken of what had
occurred. But Hugh Bergin, a friend who offered to second me in my
affair with the count, advised some rest before the hour of meeting,
which was now almost at hand, for it was said the count was a skilful
swordsman, who had never yet failed to kill or maim his adversary in a
duel.
Hugh Bergin and I were first in the courtyard at break of day, and here
we were presently joined by the count and his seconds.
Count Hendrick Luitken and I now stepped forward, and, the rapiers
living been handed to us, we fell to the task of I trying to kill one
another according to the rules of the duello.
At first I parried the count's attack, in order that I might learn the
extent of his boasted skill, but I soon found myself to be his equal,
if not his superior, in sword play, for I had spent much of my spare
time in the gymnasium at Amsterdam, where I had become the favourite
pupil of the instructor.
The count, I thought, seemed surprised at my cunning in fence, and lost
the confident smile with which he had first, regarded me. Presently I
felt the point of my rapier touch his tunic upon the breast, and, in my
sensitive grasp, I knew that my blade had encountered steel. The look
which I gave him must have conveyed to him the knowledge that I had
discovered his treachery, for he set his lips and attacked me with even
greater fury than before, but my blood was up, and I beat his guard
down with such force that I was presently enabled, by a trick I had
learnt, known as binding the blade, to wrest the weapon from his hand.
The seconds would now have interfered, but my temper was not to be
restrained, and, to the astonishment of those present, I seized the
count by the throat, and, tearing open his tunic, laid bare a
breastplate which he wore next his skin. No blow that I could have
struck this cowardly noble would have hurt him so much as this
exposure. With shamefaced looks his seconds led him away. This was the
last I saw of him, for he soon after left Holland, and took service
with the Spaniards, with whom he had long been in league. Some years
later he was condemned as a heretic, and suffered death by torture at
the hands of the Inquisition.
Nothing now stood between me and my marriage with Anna, which was duly
celebrated with much pomp at the Count of Holstein's town palace, after
which Anna and I retired to my country estate, there to live, as I
thought, the rest of our days in peace.
Dirk Hartog, to whom I bade good-bye after the wedding, for his
restless spirit was away again upon a fresh voyage, predicted I would
one day become weary of inaction.
"If ever the roving spirit comes over thee, Peter," he said as he wrung
my hand at parting, "there's always a place for thee aboard my ship.
Travel once tasted is a lodestone that draws the spirit from the
cosiest corner to fresh adventure."
But at this I shook my head. "Here is my lodestone," I said, and I
pressed Anna to my heart.
But who can foretell the future, or predict the decrees of Fate?