As I was about to turn in to bed, I perceived a red glare in the sky
westward, and feared it meant trouble at Sandtoft, so I lay long awake;
but at length weariness overpowered me, and I slept for some hours. I
awoke early, and, having dressed in a slow, fumbling way--my arm being
more than usually painful--I walked out as if I sought the morning air,
taking care to give no inkling of my purpose to the servants, who were
already astir.
At that time of the year, the middle of August, there was choice of
three modes of crossing the fen. One might pick one's way on stilts,
or with cleat-boards, but in my present weakness I dared not adventure
either method. The third course was to take boat at Belshaw, on a
winding stream, which in the end joined the Idle a mile or so above
Sandtoft. Luke had told me that the Idle was flowing again since the
destruction of Vermuijden's work in the south of the Isle, so I chose
the easiest, if slowest, manner of going; but when I reached the little
inn at Belshaw, there was no boat to be had. Dame Drury told me their
boat was at the carpenter's under repair, and the flat-bottomed punt
Drury had taken out, meaning to try for half-duck and snipe, which had
begun to appear in the fen. There was nothing for me but to await his
return, which would be early or late, according to his luck in fowling.
While the dame got ready a breakfast for me, she chanced to make
mention of her husband's cousin, who had lain at their house for a
year, crippled with a kind of palsy. Half in curiosity, half in
compassion, I questioned her, and learned that he was about thirty
years of age, that he had inherited a moderate property on the death of
his father thirteen years ago, and had gone out to see the world,
seeking knowledge and adventure in many countries. Some twelve months
before this time he had arrived in London, intending to visit his
friends in the Isle, and then to go to Virginia to join Captain John
Smith (who was a distant kinsman of the Drurys); but he had been
suddenly struck down by a mysterious disease, and now lay helpless in
an upper room. On my asking whether the poor fellow would welcome a
visitor, she went to inquire, while I took my meal, and came back with
the message that he would be very glad to receive me.
At first sight my heart warmed to him, though what was the secret of
his charm for me I do not know. Do we ever know what it is which draws
us toward another? He had a handsome face, but his eyes only were
remarkable. The broad brow was crowned with clusters of dark hair;
mouth and chin were hidden under moustachios and beard, but the eyes
glowed. There was witchery in his smile, as he extended his thin hand,
saying--
"This is a day to be marked with a white stone. I have often heard of
you, but little expected ever to see you in my den."
I gripped the hand, with a choking in my throat to see such a man a
prisoner, and said--
"If I had known, I would have come earlier."
"I thank Dame Fortune that you have come now," said he.
He had made his poor little room a wonderful place. On the walls were
many sketches, pencilled from memory chiefly, as I came to know
afterwards, full of life and spirit. Quaint drawings, the expression
of his humorous fancy, there were also. A few well-thumbed books in
several languages stood at his bed's head. On the table lay papers
covered with mathematical studies. He followed my glance, and said--
"The hours are not so leaden-footed as you might fear. With books and
pencil and a questioning habit of mind, one need not be idle."
"But accustomed to liberty and travel----" I began.
"And, therefore, with store of remembrances," he interrupted. "I used
to roam the field and browse; now I lie and chew the cud. You may
laugh when I tell you that my worst plague is the perpetual swarm of
flies. At times their buzzing and their touch nearly madden me. The
idlest, foulest, most impudent and vilest things on earth, no wonder
the Bible ascribes their creation to Beelzebub. You don't happen to
know what is the proper sacrifice to offer him? I should make it, if
he would be favourable to me, and remove his creatures from me."
"The dame would prepare you a paper to catch them."
"Don't speak of it! She did, and the horror of it abides with me. But
one thing I learned therefrom. The priests are wrong with their
doctrine of everlasting torment. Why, I could not endure the miserable
struggles of the most loathsome and detestable and worthless insects.
_A fortiori_."
"Questions of divinity are beyond me," I said, laughing.
"Whereas questions of all sorts are my occupation," he answered.
Then the conversation turned on his travels, and he talked of men and
things in nearly all the countries of Europe. He seemed to have made
friends wherever he had been, and had something to say of the virtues
of every people. He had seen with his own eyes and judged for himself,
and spoke with a delightful freshness. Many a droll prank he had
played in his desire to see things from the inside, here to get into a
mosque, there to penetrate into a brigand's cave, and he told his
escapades briefly and lightly, as I had never heard man speak before in
my life. Despite my longing to be away to Sandtoft, the time passed
quickly in his company, and we took our luncheon together pleasantly.
But when two o'clock, three o'clock struck, and Drury did not appear, I
grew restless and uneasy, and made some excuse for going out.
"As you will," said he; "but if you want only a vent for your
impatience, pace about, and swear a little. It is long since I have
had the pleasure to watch a lover."
"And who tells you I am one?"
He laughed as I have never heard another man laugh, softly, musically.
"Oh, my friend, the name is writ all over you. A blind beggar's card
is not so readable. Sighs, fits of silence, eager hearkening for means
of flight--a dozen signs make it plain. And besides, what could take a
wounded man, still ailing no little, across the fen to Sandtoft, of all
places in the world--but Love, the strongest of the most ancient gods,
venerable as Chaos and Mother Earth and the Nether Deep?"
"You speak like a votary," said I.
"Ay, of the god; not, like you, of the priestess. The deity is one;
his ministrants are many."
To me this was a jangling and jarring note, but there came to my ears
the sound of Dame Drury's voice in grumbling welcome of her husband, so
I bade my new friend "Good day," and hurried downstairs.
I had difficulty in getting the loan of the punt. Drury had this,
that, and the other to do to-morrow. There was "a plenty of fowl"
about, which would fetch good prices so early in the season, and he
distrusted my assurance of return that evening; and even hinted doubt
of ever seeing the punt or me again, if he allowed me to take it to
Sandtoft, where "the Dutchees are as mad as bees when their skep has
been upset." "Would he sell it outright?" I asked, impatient of the
waste of time in wrangling. No; he wouldn't do that, because the price
of the punt would not cover the loss of time while a new one was being
put together. "Take any price you please," said I, and at five o'clock
stepped into the punt, and began to pole down stream. I could not ply
two poles by reason of the weakness of my right arm, so I got forward
but slowly. Several times I was compelled to use both arms to the
single pole where the water was very shallow, or the weeds grew rank;
and heavy work I found it, so heavy that after an hour's toil, I was
taken with a kind of swimming in the head, and lay down in the bottom
of the punt to rest awhile. I know not whether I fell asleep or
fainted, but when I came out of slumber or swoon, the light had faded,
and a gentle shower was falling. I suppose the rain on my face awoke
me. I pushed on, but so feebly that darkness overtook me before I
reached Sandtoft, for the thickening rainclouds cut off the twilight.
When I came to the settlement I got out at the first convenient spot
for landing, and, having moored the punt, walked slowly and cautiously
along the bank to find the gate. Suddenly a lantern flashed in my
face, and my arms were seized from behind and pinioned. My captors
hurried me forward, exchanging a few words in their own language, but
saying nothing to me.
Shortly, I was thrust into a bare room, lighted by a lamp slung from a
hook in the planking overhead, where Vliet and three others sat,
smoking, round a table, on which stood two or three square bottles,
several glasses, and a pitcher of water. The closeness of the room
with the reek of tobacco and odour of Schiedam was choking and
sickening, and all things began to go round; but I pulled myself
together by strong effort of will, for something warned me that I must
have my wits about me here. While Vliet and the others talked in
Dutch, one of the men loosed my bonds, and on looking down I saw my
right hand was red, and then felt a slow trickling down the arm. Now I
understood my faintness. My wound had broken out again, and loss of
blood had weakened me.
The man who had cut the cord which tied my arms now searched me, as if
he supposed I had weapons hidden under my clothing. In so doing, he
stripped off my coat, and finding my shirt sleeve soaked in blood,
looked in my face narrowly, and then made some remark to Vliet, which
caused him to take the lantern from one of the men and poke it against
my nose. He sat down after the inspection, and laughed until his face
grew purple. Then he poured out a huge glassful of spirit, half of
which he took down at a gulp, and laughed again. When his fit was
over, I said--
"You recognise me, I believe, Mynherr Vliet?"
He could speak English, I found, though abominably, and with a drunken
stutter.
"Oh yes, mister--devil take your name! I know you."
"You cannot suppose that I came to Sandtoft with any ill intent."
"By heaven and hell, but I can suppose it, and be sure of it. Thousand
devils, yes. You are a spy, a traitor, a Judas."
Then he turned to his men, gabbling fast them in Dutch, finally issuing
an order to one of the men, which he went out to execute.
"These hurts got in defending your people should certify you, M.
Vliet," I said, pointing t my shoulder.
"Ah! you are crafty, Mister-Judas. You fight a little in the daylight
for us, that you may plot against us in the dark. You designing devil!"
Although I knew, looking at Vliet's countenance, in which raging hatred
was no less visible than drunkenness, that there was but a step between
me and death, I could not refrain from smiling at the character he gave
me.
"You laugh! You will look very funny when you are hanged!" he said.
"Be sure of this," I said, speaking slowly, and as plainly as I could,
if perchance some of the Dutchmen, might have English enough to take my
meaning: "if you hang me, you will be hanged, and every man who aids
you."
I saw by the look of one of the fellows that he understood me. He
whispered to Vliet, who looked up and asked--
"What lie have you to tell why you came here?"
"I came to speak with Doctor Goel and his daughter on private business."
"Under cover of darkness, like a thief! You creep on the bank at an
unguarded place. To see the doctor! Liar!"
"I set out early this morning, but was hindered by the way, and, being
fatigued, I got out of my boat at the first spot I touched."
I saw I had somewhat impressed the one man, for he asked Vliet a
question, in which he mentioned the doctor's name, to which the answer
was a roaring negative; and as he gave it, Vliet took a pistol from a
drawer under the table, and looked at the man threateningly. Then he
turned to me.
"You are a liar. Your Lord Sheffield told me how you are cunning. You
pretend to be a friend of some of our people that you may get knowledge
of our work and our defences. Then you send your rascals to burn and
destroy, as they did last night. I hanged two of them, and I will hang
you. Your English law!--that for it!"--snapping his fingers. "You are
a rebel against your King; and an English lord will stand my friend."
He swallowed another fiery draught. I began to think my chance of life
was small. Vliet might or might not really believe I was the
instigator of attacks on the settlement, but he had the word of
Sheffield for it, and would doubtless have Sheffield's men ready to
swear it, if so it pleased his lordship. Vliet's real motive could be
well hidden under pretence of summary justice on a public enemy. There
was, however, a possibility which had not occurred to him; I would put
it to him. All this passed through my mind before Vliet placed his
empty glass on the table.
"Have you any witnesses to prove that Lord Sheffield told you I raised
rioters against you? Because if you have not, when you have gratified
him by putting me out of the way, he will not lift a finger to keep you
out of the hangman's clutches. He will deny that he ever said such
things, and laugh in your face."
For a moment he was staggered, but he was too far gone in liquor to be
able to think.
"Bah! you are a lying devil!" he said.
At this moment, the man whom he had sent out returned to say, as I
understood, that everything was ready. I took a glass from the table,
rinsed it out with water from the pitcher, filled it again, and drank.
I was inclined to shiver, and the fellow might think I trembled with
fear. Vliet gave a signal, and I was led out into the open. Several
men stood by, with flaming torches and cressets in their hands, and by
these lights I saw the gallows overhead, from which a rope dangled.
The noose was slipped over my head. Some men spat on their hands and
seized the other end of the rope, ready to haul upon it; and I closed
my eyes to pray the publican's prayer, when a loud cry in the clearest
voice in the world roused me. The crowd parted, and Anna came up to
the foot of the gallows, saying something in Dutch with an imperious
tone. The men slacked the rope, one of them giving it a turn or two
round a peg in the upright. Then followed a rapid conversation between
Anna and Vliet, with an accompaniment of murmuring voices from the
bystanders. I understood no word, but by tones and gestures I knew
that Anna began in indignation and anger, but was driven to pleading.
Then the doctor came up and joined in the talk, addressing himself to
his daughter chiefly. It ended in Anna allowing Vliet to take her
hand, repeating a sentence which he seemed to dictate. Anna now made
as if to come to me, but Vliet barred the way; and there ensued an
altercation, which again ended in Vliet having his will. Anna went
reluctantly away with her father, and I was conducted to the room to
which I had been taken at first.
When we--that is, Vliet and I and his three toping
companions--re-entered the room, one of them handed me my coat, but I
did not put it on, for it was drenched with the rain. He then found a
horse-blanket, threw it over my shoulders, and offered me the
spirit-bottle. Seeing him thus far well inclined, I asked for bread,
and he produced some, which I munched before helping myself to a small
quantity of the liquor. It made me shudder to drink it, but it put
life and warmth into me. All this time Vliet lay back in his chair in
a sort of stupor, consequent, I imagined, on his having been, in the
fresh air after so much gin-drinking. After awhile he roused himself
and took a dram. Then he lighted his pipe and began to talk to his
comrades in a snuffling manner, and thickly. By-and-by he turned to
me--
"I spare your life; I will not hang you. Why do you not kneel down and
kiss my boots? Where is your gratitude for my mercy?"
As I did not answer the inquiry, he continued--
"Stupid pig! But I will make you speak. I have given my word to my
wife--my _wife_, you understand--that I will not hang you; but I will
crop your ears and slit your nose. Thousand devils, yes! And then I
will kick you out into the fen, and if you die there that will not be
my fault."
"If you want revenge on me, take it like a man," I answered. "You have
a knife in your belt; give me one and let us fight. You are half
drunk, but I have only my left arm, and am otherwise weak. Come, be a
man."
And I stood up, for I desired nothing better than a duel to the death.
Life without Anna was nothing worth, and if I could by any chance kill
him, she would be freed from the loathsome brute. The other Dutchmen
jabbered among themselves and to Vliet, and, as far as I could
understand, they backed my demand for a fight. Perhaps they would not
greatly grieve, if the bully got the worst of it. He scowled savagely
round on us all, poured out more gin and drank it, let his pipe fall to
the floor, drew his knife, and came at me. But he had drunk too much
to be dangerous. One blow between the eyes sent him to the ground like
a log, and he lay there senseless. The friendly Dutchman took me by
the arm and led me to Doctor Goel's house.