A DIVIDED DUTY
I
Strange and conflicting were the feelings which ran riot through
Lenora's soul when she once more found herself alone in her own room.
Mortification held for a time undisputed sway--a sense of injury--of
having gone half-way to meet she knew not what and having been repulsed.
She was quite sure that she hated her husband now, far more bitterly
than she had ever hated any one before--at the same time she felt
relieved that he at any rate had no part in the treachery which was
being hatched under his father's roof.
One thing, however, gave her an infinite sense of relief. She was going
back to her father on the morrow. She would leave this house where she
had known nothing but sorrow and humiliation since first she entered it;
above all she would never see those people again on whom she had been
spying!
Yes! Spying!
There was no other word for it; hideous as it was it expressed what
Lenora had done. Oh! there was no sophistry about the girl. She was
too proud, too pure to try and palliate what she had done, by shirking
to call it by its name. She had done a task which had been imposed on
her by her King, her country, and her father. She had sworn to do
it--sworn it on the deathbed of the only man who had ever loved her, the
only man whose voice and touch had thrilled her, the companion of her
childhood, her accepted lover and her kinsman.
She had done it because God Himself through her father's and her King's
own mouth had ordered her to do it; and it was not for her--ignorant,
unsophisticated, sinful mayhap--to question God's decrees. But when she
thought back on the events of the past hour, she felt a shudder of
horror slowly creeping along her spine.
And she thanked God that He would allow her to leave this house for
ever, and for ever to turn her back on those whom she--so
unwillingly--had betrayed.
But she would not allow her mind to dwell on such morbid fancies. There
was a great deal to be done ere the morning broke. Her task--if it was
to be fruitful--was not completed yet.
She began by taking down a pair of metal candlesticks which stood on a
shelf above the hearth and lighting the candles at a small lamp which
she had brought up with her. These she placed upon the table; then she
went to the press where only a few hours ago Inez had ranged all her
clothes and effects, her new gowns and linen. From among these things,
she took a flat wallet in which were some sheets of paper, a quill and
small inkhorn, also some wax for sealing letters down.
She went to her task slowly and methodically, for she was unaccustomed
to writing letters. In the convent they had taught her how to do it,
and twice a year she had written to her father--once on New Year's Day,
and once on the feast of San Juan--but the task before her was a far
more laborious one than she had ever undertaken with pen and paper.
But she sat down, courageously, to write.
She wrote an account of everything that she had seen, heard and
experienced in this house, from the moment when first she left her room
in the evening in order to seek companionship, until the moment when,
having secured the packet of papers, she had relocked the bureau with
her pass-key and started to go back to her room. What she did not set
down in writing was her subsequent meeting with her husband, for that
had no connection with the Prince of Orange or with conspiracies, and
was merely a humiliating episode in the life of a neglected bride.
The grey dawn slowly creeping in through the leaded glass of her window
still found her at her task. The candles had burned down low in their
sockets, their light--of a dim yellow colour--fought feebly against the
incoming dawn. But Lenora felt no fatigue.
She wrote in a small, cramped hand and covered four sheets of paper with
close writing. When she had finished, she read all that she had written
down carefully through, made several corrections in the text and folded
the sheets neatly together. Then she took from the bosom of her gown
the packet of papers which she had found in the bureau, put it together
with her own writing and enclosed everything in a clean sheet of paper
carefully folded over. Round this she tied a piece of white ribbon, such
as she used for doing up her hair, and sealed it all down with wax.
Finally, on the outside of this packet she wrote with a clear hand:
"To don Juan de Vargas at his refidence in Brufsels. To be given unto
Him with the Seal unbroken in the eyent of My death."
II
Lenora tired out with emotion and bodily exertion slept soundly for a
few hours. When Inez came in, in the late morning to wait on her, she
ordered the old woman to put up a few necessary effects in a small
leather valise, and to pack up all her things and all her clothes.
"My father hath need of me for a few days," she said in response to
Inez' exclamation of astonishment. "We start this morning for
Brussels."
"For which the Lord be praised," ejaculated Inez piously, "for of all
the dull, miserable, uncomfortable houses that I ever was in in my
life..."
"Hold your tongue, woman," broke in Lenora sharply, "and see to your
work. You will never be done, if you talk so much."
And Inez--more than ever astonished at this display of temper on the
part of a young mistress who had always been kind and gentle--had
perforce to continue her mutterings and her grumblings under her breath.
Whilst the old woman laid out carefully upon the bed all the pretty
things which she had stowed away in the presses only twenty-four hours
ago, Lenora busied herself with yet another task which she had set
herself, but which she had been too tired to accomplish in the night.
She wrote a short letter to Laurence.
"My DEVOTED FRIEND," she wrote, "You promifed Me a very little while ago
that if ever I wanted You to do fomething for Me, I was only to fend You
this ring and You would do whatever I afked. Now, in the name of Our
Lady, I adjure You to leave Ghent at once taking Your Mother with You.
A grave danger threatens You both. I know that You have relatives in
Haarlem. I entreat You--nay! I afk it of You as a fulfilment of Your
promife to go to them at once with Your Mother. Your Father is in no
danger, and Mark will be efcorting Me to Brufsels, and I fhall try and
keep Him there until all danger is paft...."
Having written thus far, she paused a moment, pen in hand, a frown of
deep puzzlement and of indecision upon her brow. Then she continued in
a firm hand:
"It is Your Mother's and Your own complicity in the plot which is being
hatched in Ghent again ft the Duke of Alva which has brought Your lives
in danger."
She strewed the sand over her writing, then read the letter carefully
through. After which she took a ring from off her finger, enclosed it
in the letter and sealed the latter down.
"Inez!" she said.
"Yes, my saint."
"I shall be starting for Brussels within the hour."
"Holy Virgin!" exclaimed the old woman. "I shall not be ready with the
packing. Why this hurry, my angel?"
"Your not being ready, Inez, is of no consequence. I shall start with
Messire van Rycke. You will follow on in the wagon."
"But, my saint..."
"Now do not talk so much, Inez," broke in Lenora impatiently; "if you
add to my anxieties by being quarrelsome and disobedient I shall surely
fall sick and die."
Evidently the young girl knew exactly how to work on her faithful old
servant's temperament. Inez reduced to abject contrition by the thought
that she was rendering her darling anxious and sick, swore by every
saint in the calendar that she would bite off her tongue, toil like a
slave and be as obedient as a cur, if only her darling angel would keep
well and cheerful and tell her what to do.
"You must not fret about me, Inez," resumed Lenora as soon as the old
woman's voluble apologies and protestations had somewhat subsided. "My
husband will escort me as far as Brussels, and in my father's house
little Pepita will wait on me till you come."
"And if that flighty wench doesn't look after you properly..." began
Inez menacingly.
"You will make her suffer, I've no doubt," quoth Lenora dryly. "In the
meanwhile, listen carefully, Inez, for there is something that I want
you to do for me, which no one else but you can do."
"For which the Lord be thanked!" said Inez fervently. "What is it, my
dear?"
"This letter," she said.
"Yes?"
"I want Messire Laurence van Rycke to have it, after I have gone."
"He shall have it, my saint."
"He may be from home."
"I shall find him."
"He must have it before midday."
"He shall have it."
"Promise!"
"I'll swear it."
The old woman took the letter with the ring which her mistress held out
to her, and then only did Lenora feel that she had done all that lay in
her power to reconcile her duty to her King with her sentiment for those
who had been kind to her.
III
How Lenora spent the rest of the long, wearisome, interminable morning
she never afterwards could have told you. The very atmosphere around
her oppressed her well-nigh unbearably. There were the farewells to be
said to the family--to the High-Bailiff who was apologetic and
obsequious, to Clemence who cried, and to Laurence who looked sadly
enquiring and reproachful.
Fortunately Mark had paved the way for these farewells in his usual airy
and irresponsible manner. It was the Spanish custom--so he had assured
his mother--that brides, after spending twenty-four hours under their
husband's roof, returned to their parents or guardians for a few weeks.
Clemence had smiled incredulously when she had heard this--but had
allowed herself anon to be persuaded. There were such queer marriage
customs in different parts of the world these days. (Why! in many parts
of Germany the bridegroom was, according to tradition, soundly thrashed
by his friends directly after the religious ceremony--it was in order
that he should be prepared for the many vicissitudes of connubial life.
And there were other equally strange customs in foreign lands.) Spain
was a curious country--Clemence was prepared to admit, and ... ah, well!
perhaps it was all for the best! She had been attracted by the
beautiful girl whom indeed a cruel fate seemed to have tossed into the
very midst of a family with whom she had absolutely nothing in common.
Clemence had been sorry for her in her gentle, motherly way but she had
mistrusted her ... and just now all Clemence's thoughts were centred on
her country's wrongs, on the great fight for political and religious
liberty which had received so severe a blow, and which the noble Prince
of Orange was still determined to carry on with the help of God.
And so--though Clemence cried a little, and though her kind heart ached
for the young girl who looked so pathetic and so forlorn when she bade
her good-bye--she nevertheless felt a sense of relief when she
remembered all that had been talked of and planned in this house last
night, and thought of the packet of papers which were locked away with
her most precious jewels. She kissed the girl tenderly, and spoke of
the happy day when she would come back to her new home never to leave it
again. Lenora, pale, like a young ghost, with dark rings under her
eyes, and lips that quivered with the sobs she was vainly trying to
suppress, made an effort to respond, and then hurried out of the room.
But when she saw Laurence he was alone in the hall and she contrived to
whisper to him: "You remember the ring?"
He nodded eagerly.
"I shall soon send it you," she said, "and ask you to do something for
my sake."
"Command me," he implored, "and it shall be done."
IV
Then at last the farewells were all spoken and Lenora and her husband
started on their way. It had rained in torrents all the
morning--therefore departure was delayed until long past midday. The
wagons for the effects were to be round almost immediately, but their
progress would be very slow owing to the bad state of the roads.
The road between Ghent and Brussels runs parallel with the Schelde for
the first two or three leagues. The river had overflowed its banks, and
in places the road was so deep under water that the horses sank in it
almost up to their bellies. Everywhere it was fetlock-deep in mud, and
more like a ploughed field than a chaussee owing to the continual
passage recently of cavalry and artillery.
Mark and Lenora were travelling alone, which was distinctly unseemly in
a lady of her rank, but the distance was not great, and Inez had to be
left behind to finish up the packing, whilst Mark refused to take a
serving man with him, declaring that the roads were perfectly safe now
and free from footpads, and that they would surely be in Brussels before
nightfall. Lenora, who was an absolute stranger in the country and did
not know one Flemish town from another--and who moreover had done the
journey from Brussels to Ghent ten days ago in a covered coach drawn by
four horses--was ready to accept any suggestion or any itinerary with
the blindness of ignorance.
She hardly noticed that they seemed to be making very slow progress, nor
that the sky which had cleared up brilliantly in the early part of the
afternoon was once more heavily overcast. Mark at first had made one or
two attempts at cheerful conversation, but since Lenora only answered in
monosyllables he too relapsed into silence after awhile.
The flat, monotonous country--sodden with rain--looked unspeakably
dreary to the girl accustomed to the snow-clad vistas of the Sierras and
the blue skies of Castille. As they left Ghent further and further
behind them, the country bore traces of the terrible ravages of Alva's
relentless occupation. Poverty and wretchedness were writ largely upon
every tiny village or hamlet which they passed: everywhere the houses
bore a miserable and forlorn aspect, with broken chimneys and shattered
roofs, trees cut down to make way for the passage of cavalry or merely
for the supplying of firewood for Alva's army. In the little town of
Wetteren through which they passed, the houses looked deserted and
dilapidated: the people looked ill-clad and sullen, and as they crossed
the market-place a crowd of beggars--men, women and children in
miserable rags--flocked around their horses' heels begging for alms.
So much had Spanish occupation done for this proud country which only a
very few years ago had boasted that not one of its children ever lacked
clothing or food. Tears of pity gathered in Lenora's eyes: she, of
course, did not know that the misery which she witnessed was due to her
people, to her country and to her King ... and in no small measure to
her father. She gave the poor folk money and said kindly words of
compassion to them. Then she turned to Mark.
"It is dreadful," she said naively, "to see so much misery in the land,
when our Sovereign Lord the King does so much for its welfare. It is
these wretched internal dissensions, I suppose, that are ruining the
country. Surely all those abominable rebels must see that their
obstinacy and treachery redounds upon their own kith and kin."
"They ought to see that, oughtn't they?" was Mark's dry and curt
comment. And Lenora, chilled by such strange indifference, once more
relapsed into her former silence.
V
When they neared the walls of Dendermonde, Mark announced that his horse
had cast a shoe. He dismounted, and leading his horse by the bridle he
advanced to the city gate. Here, however, both he and Lenora were
summarily stopped by a young provost who demanded to see their papers of
identification, their travelling permits, and their permit to enter this
fortified city.
To Lenora's astonishment Mark, who was always so good-humoured and
placid, became violent and abusive at this formality imposed upon him.
It was in no way different to those which the municipality of Ghent
would have enjoined on any stranger who desired to enter the city.
These had been rendered necessary by the many stringent edicts
formulated by the Lieutenant-Governor against the harbouring of rebels
in fortified towns, and all law-abiding citizens were in consequence
obliged to provide themselves with the necessary passes and permits
whenever they desired to travel.
Lenora--whose ignorance of every law, every formality, every duty
imposed upon this once free and proud country by its Spanish masters was
unbounded--could not quite understand why her husband, who was the son
of a high civic dignitary, had not taken care that all his papers were
in order, before he embarked upon this journey. It surely had been his
duty to do that, in order to save himself and his wife from the
humiliation of being thus held up at a city gate by an insolent provost,
who had the power to make his authority felt, and was not sparing of
abuse of loutish Netherlanders who were wilfully ignorant of the law, or
else impudent enough to flout it. An unpleasant quarrel between the two
men would undoubtedly have ensued and would inevitably have ended in
disaster for Mark, but for the intervention of Lenora who spoke to the
provost in Spanish.
"I am this noble gentleman's wife," she said haughtily in response to an
insolent look from the young soldier, "and the daughter of senor Juan de
Vargas, who will make you responsible, sirrah, for any inconvenience you
may cause me."
At mention of the all-powerful and dreaded name, the provost's manner
immediately underwent a change. At the same time he was not prepared to
accept the statement quite so unconditionally as Lenora had supposed.
"This noble gentleman," he retorted half-sullenly, "hath no papers
whereby I can verify the truth of what he asserts. He has none whereby
he can prove to me that he is the son of the High-Bailiff of Ghent, and
that you are his wife and the daughter of don Juan de Vargas."
"You have my word for both these assertions, you accursed fool,"
exclaimed Mark hotly.
"And I'll make you rue your insolence, you dog of a Netherlander,"
retorted the provost, "and teach you how to treat a soldier of the
King...."
"Mark, I entreat you, not in my presence," broke in Lenora hastily, for
she saw that her husband--apparently beside himself with rage--was about
to commit one of those foolish and purposeless acts of violence which
would have resulted for them both in a veritable chaplet of
unpleasantness: imprisonment in a guard-room, bringing up before a
sheriff, interrogations, abuse and insults, until the High-Bailiff or
her father could be communicated with--a matter probably of two or three
days, dependent on the good will of the very sheriff before whom they
would appear.
It was positively unthinkable. Lenora could not understand how Mark
could be so foolish as to lose his temper, when he was so obviously in
the wrong, nor how he could have been so thoughtless in the matter of
the papers.
She managed by dint of tactful speech and the power of her beautiful
personality to pacify the wrath of the provost, and to half-persuade him
to believe her assertion that she was indeed the daughter of don Juan de
Vargas. At any rate the young soldier was by now sufficiently impressed
by the sound of that dreaded name to decline any further responsibility
in this difficult matter.
He allowed the travellers to pass through the city gates: "And to remain
within the city for two hours," he added significantly; "if you wish to
stay the night, you must obtain permission from the Schout."
Mark eased his temper by muttering a few more imprecations under his
breath, then he seemed content and somewhat pacified, and finally led
Lenora's horse and his own quietly through the inner fortifications, and
thence across the Flax Market to the Grand' Place.
VI
Mark established his young wife in the ingle-nook of the _tapperij_ in
the highly-respectable tavern of the "Merry Beggars," opposite the Cloth
Hall.
He enjoined the host and hostess to take every care of the noble lady,
and then he went off himself in search of a farrier.
Fortunately at this hour--it was just three o'clock in the
afternoon--the _tapperij_ was practically deserted. In one corner by
the window, two middle-aged burghers were playing hazard, in another a
soldier was fast asleep. Mine host was passing kind; he brought a roomy
armchair up to the hearth for the pretty lady, threw a fresh log upon
the fire, kicked it into a blaze and placed a footstool at Lenora's
feet. His wife--a buxom though sad-eyed Flemish vrouw--brought her some
warm milk and a piece of wheaten bread. Lenora ate and drank with
relish for she was both hungry and tired, and when she had finished
eating, she leaned back in the big armchair and soon fell comfortably
asleep. She had had practically no rest the night before: her nerves
were overstrung, and her eyes hot with weeping. There was also a heavy
load on her heart--a load chiefly weighted by the packet which was
destined for her father and which she still carried carefully hidden in
the bosom of her gown.
So strange are the contradictions of the human heart--of a woman's heart
above all--that ofttimes to-day as her horse ambled slowly along beside
Mark's she had caught herself wishing--hoping--that something unforeseen
would occur which would make it impossible for her to go to
Brussels--something which would force her to go back to Ghent with the
contents of that packet still a close secret within her heart. In the
morning she had watched the skies anxiously, hardly aware that within
her innermost soul she was hoping that the continuous rains had made the
roads impassable--broken down a bridge--that some sign in fact would
come to her from God that she was absolved from that awful oath, the
fulfilment of which seemed indeed an impossible task.
Then would come a terrible revulsion of feeling: she would remember that
the Prince of Orange was even now in Ghent, with two thousand men who
were to be armed by him so that they might fight against their King and
threaten the life of the Lieutenant-Governor, the King's own chosen
representative. And she would hate and despise herself for her cowardly
irresolution--her very prayer to God appeared like blasphemy--and she
wanted to urge the horses forward, she fretted at every delay, for delay
might mean the murder of the Duke of Alva, and the standard of rebellion
hoisted up in triumph above the Town House of Ghent.
Women will understand and pity her--those at least who once in their
life have been torn 'twixt duty and sentiment. Lenora was not one of
the strong-minded of her sex: she was very young--a mere girl reared in
the tranquillity of convent life, and then suddenly thrown into the
vortex of political intrigue, of cruel reprisals and bitter revolt; and
heart and mind within her fought a terrible battle which threatened to
ruin her entire life.
But in the meanwhile she was sorely in need of rest. The _tapperij_ was
so quiet and the ingle-nook was rendered quite private by a tall screen
between it and the rest of the room. The soldier in the corner was
snoring with insistent monotony, a big blue-bottle droned against the
window, and a pleasing glow and cheerful crackling came from the fire in
the hearth.
Lenora slept peacefully.