WHAT that sensitive mind, and tender conscience, and loving heart, and
religious soul, went through even in a few hours, under a situation so
sudden and tremendous, is perhaps beyond the power of words to paint.
Fancy yourself the man; then put yourself in his place!
Were I to write a volume on it, we should have to come to that at last.
I shall relate his next two overt acts. They indicate his state of mind
after the first fierce tempest of the soul had subsided.
After spending the night with the dying hermit in giving and receiving
holy consolations, he set out not for Rotterdam, but for Tergou. He went
there to confront his fatal enemy the burgomaster, and, by means of that
parchment, whose history by-the-by was itself a romance, to make him
disgorge; and give Margaret her own.
Heated and dusty, he stopped at the fountain, and there began to eat his
black bread and drink of the water. But in the middle of his frugal
meal a female servant came running, and begged him to come and shrive
her dying master. He returned the bread to his wallet, and followed her
without a word.
She took him--to the Stadthouse.
He drew back with a little shudder when he saw her go in.
But he almost instantly recovered himself, and followed her into the
house, and up the stairs. And there in bed, propped up by pillows, lay
his deadly enemy, looking already like a corpse.
Clement eyed him a moment from the door, and thought of all--the tower,
the wood, the letter. Then he said in a low voice, "Pax vobiscum!" He
trembled a little while he said it.
The sick man welcomed him as eagerly as his weak state permitted. "Thank
Heaven, thou art come in time to absolve me from my sins, father, and
pray for my soul, thou and thy brethren."
"My son," said Clement, "before absolution cometh confession. In which
act there must be no reservation, as thou valuest thy soul's weal.
Bethink thee, therefore, wherein thou hast most offended God and the
Church, while I offer up a prayer for wisdom to direct thee."
Clement then kneeled and prayed; and, when he rose from his knees, he
said to Ghysbrecht, with apparent calmness, "My son, confess thy sins."
"Ah, father," said the sick man, "they are many and great."
"Great then be thy penitence, my son; so shalt thou find God's mercy
great."
Ghysbrecht put his hands together, and began to confess with every
appearance of contrition.
He owned he had eaten meat in mid-Lent. He had often absented himself
from mass on the Lord's day, and saints' day: and had trifled with other
religious observances, which he enumerated with scrupulous fidelity.
When he had done, the friar said, quietly, "'Tis well, my son. These be
faults. Now to thy crimes. Thou hadst done better to begin with them."
"Why, father, what crimes lie to my account if these be none?"
"Am I confessing to thee, or thou to me?" said Clement, somewhat
severely.
"Forgive me, father! Why, surely, I to you. But I know not what you call
crimes."
"The seven deadly sins, art thou clear of them?"
"Heaven forfend I should be guilty of them. I know them not by name."
"Many do them all that cannot name them. Begin with that one which leads
to lying, theft, and murder."
"I am quit of that one any way. How call you it?"
"AVARICE, my son."
"Avarice? Oh, as to that, I have been a saving man all my day; but I
have kept a good table, and not altogether forgotten the poor. But,
alas, I am a great sinner. Mayhap the next will catch me. What is the
next?"
"We have not yet done with this one. Bethink thee, the Church is not to
be trifled with."
"Alas! am I in a condition to trifle with her now? Avarice? Avarice?"
He looked puzzled and innocent.
"Hast thou ever robbed the fatherless?" inquired the friar.
"Me? robbed the fatherless?" gasped Ghysbrecht; "not that I mind."
"Once more, my son, I am forced to tell thee thou art trifling with the
Church. Miserable man! another evasion, and I leave thee, and fiends
will straightway gather round thy bed, and tear thee down to the
bottomless pit."
"Oh, leave me not! leave me not!" shrieked the terrified old man. "The
Church knows all. I _must_ have robbed the fatherless. I will confess.
Who shall I begin with? My memory for names is shaken."
The defence was skilful, but in this case failed.
"Hast thou forgotten Floris Brandt?" said Clement stonily.
The sick man reared himself in bed in a pitiable state of terror.
"How knew you that?" said he.
"The Church knows many things," said Clement, coldly, "and by many ways
that are dark to thee. Miserable impenitent, you called her to your side
hoping to deceive her. You said 'I will not confess to the curé, but to
some friar who knows not my misdeeds. So will I cheat the Church on my
death-bed, and die as I have lived.' But God, kinder to thee than thou
art to thyself, sent to thee one whom thou couldst not deceive. He has
tried thee; he was patient with thee, and warned thee not to trifle with
holy Church; but all is in vain; thou canst not confess; for thou art
impenitent as a stone. Die, then, as thou hast lived. Methinks I see the
fiends crowding round the bed for their prey. They wait but for me to
go. And I go."
He turned his back; but Ghysbrecht, in extremity of terror, caught him
by the frock. "Oh, holy man, mercy! stay. I will confess all, all. I
robbed my friend Floris. Alas, would it had ended there; for he lost
little by me; but I kept the land from Peter his son, and from Margaret,
Peter's daughter. Yet I was always going to give it back; but I
couldn't, I couldn't."
"Avarice, my son, avarice. Happy for thee 'tis not too late."
"No. I will leave it her by will. She will not have long to wait for it
now: not above a month or two at farthest."
"For which month's possession thou wouldst damn thy soul for ever. Thou
fool!"
The sick man groaned, and prayed the friar to be reasonable. The friar
firmly, but gently and persuasively, persisted, and with infinite
patience detached the dying man's gripe from another's property. There
were times when his patience was tried, and he was on the point of
thrusting his hand into his bosom and producing the deed, which he had
brought for that purpose; but after yesterday's outbreak he was on his
guard against choler; and, to conclude, he conquered his impatience; he
conquered a personal repugnance to the man, so strong as to make his own
flesh creep all the time he was struggling with this miser for his soul:
and at last, without a word about the deed, he won him to make full and
prompt restitution.
How the restitution was made will be briefly related elsewhere: also
certain curious effects produced upon Ghysbrecht by it; and when and on
what terms Ghysbrecht and Clement parted.
I promise to relate two acts of the latter, indicative of his mind.
This is one. The other is told in two words.
As soon as he was quite sure Margaret had her own, and was a rich
woman--
HE DISAPPEARED.