to conduct me to the Burgomaster, whom the Captain of the Guard had
informed of my arrival. I must acknowledge that in the cold and sober
light of morning I felt myself to be in something of a pickle. I had
announced myself as an emissary from Prince Maurice, but I had no letter
of commendation in his hand, nor, in truth, had I so much as set eyes on
him. Furthermore, I was a stranger to all in the city, and being little
more than a boy,--my years were twenty-two, though, like Portia in Will
Shakespeare's play, I was elder than my looks--being little more than a
boy, I say, I doubted of the reception I should meet with among the
grave and solemn burghers of the city council. I could but trust to a
bold front and mother wit to carry me through my enterprise, and I took
some comfort from the reflection that Hollanders were said to be
somewhat dull and heavy. Accordingly, having trimmed myself with
exceeding care, and donned the fresh and sumptuous apparel, meet for an
ambassador, which my servant had brought, I set forth with assured mien
and measured gait, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left
upon the gaping onlookers that had gathered in the streets.
Being ushered with much solemnity by the sergeant into the
council-chamber, I found myself in presence of a round dozen burghers
clad in brave attire, and seated at their table in order of precedency,
as I judged. I cast a swift look round as I gave them salutation, at
the first taking particular note of none but the Burgomaster at the head
of the table, whose aspect tickled me with secret merriment. He was a
round pursy little man, clean shaven, with double chins resting on his
chain of office, and moist and vagrant eyes that did not meet my gaze
steadily. I judged him to be pompous and self-conceited, withal of
little stability of mind, and, as we say in our homely way, fussy. With
hem and haw he addressed me in French, his voice being thick, and
speaking as there were a pebble in his mouth.
"Sir, you come from the illustrious Prince Maurice of Nassau?" he said.
[Illustration: "SIR, YOU COME FROM THE ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE MAURICE OF
NASSAU?"]
For answer I bowed.
"You bring a letter under his hand and seal?" he proceeded.
I hold that to speak truth is ever the best course; wherefore, attuning
my voice to a confident serenity, I replied--
"Sir, I bear no letter, but I will in a few words explain to the
worshipful council my presence in your city. His illustrious Highness,
tendering your welfare, and moved by your stout and manful resistance to
the Spaniard, hath writ to my General, Sir Francis Vere, requiring him
to send to you one of his captains, both as a witness of his Highness'
satisfaction, and with the intent to lend you aid and support. The
choice fell upon me, Christopher Rudd, unworthy though I be, by reason
of some slight knowledge in warfare gained in the service of His Majesty
of France. Such small skill as I am master of, therefore, is yours to
dispose of, albeit the measures you have taken up to this present are so
aptly conceived and so doughtily executed that I deem my part to be that
of admirer rather than counsellor."
This pretty speech appeared to give the burghers some satisfaction, but
I perceived that the Burgomaster's right-hand neighbour, a lank
beetle-browed fellow of swarthy hue and Castilian cast of feature, shot
me a keen and questioning glance out of his narrow eyes. "This fellow
is worth the watching," I thought; but I let not my eyes dwell upon him
beyond the moment.
After some further debate I was made partaker in their deliberations.
From one and another I gathered information about the course of the
siege and the measures of defence they had concerted, and I was not long
of discovering, by hint and suggestion, the rift that Prince Maurice had
suspected. The most part of the council were true men, bold and stout
of heart; but there were two or three that let fall doubts and wagged
their heads, with sighs and doleful looks. And I began to perceive a
certain method in this despondency, more especially on the part of the
lank man aforesaid, for which reason I found myself intently observing
all that he spake. He was most bitter and vehement in denouncing the
Spaniards, and prated very big about withstanding them to the last
breath; yet these heroical counsels of his were ever accompanied with a
croak and quaver, as that famine was a fouler enemy than the sword, and
that all those that escaped from the one or the other would surely be
hanged by the Spaniards. By this means, I perceived, he at once
cunningly magnified his own steadfastness and resolution, and instilled
dire apprehension and dismal foreboding into the minds of his weaker
brethren.
While I thus noted the strange policy of this man, I took a certain
amusement from the mien and conduct of the worthy Burgomaster. Now he
was at the top of resolution, now in the depth of black despair; now
breathing out fire and fury, now lamenting the scant provision of
victuals and munitions, and questioning whether any man's life was worth
a doit. The change from one mood to the other was so sudden, as the
deliberations of the council swayed this way and that under the
dexterous handling of the lank man, that I set the Burgomaster down as a
weakling, a reed shaken in the wind, and made some question in my mind
whether the destinies of the town were safe under his governance.
Upon the breaking up of the council, I was conducted by the Burgomaster
and the Captain of the Guard around the defences of the city, being
accompanied also by the lean and black-browed councillor of whom I have
spoken. When I had taken note of all, it was dinner time, and the
Burgomaster bid me make that meal with him in his own house. This I was
very willing to do, since I found the little man a continual
entertainment. The lank fellow and the Captain of the Guard were my
table-mates, and we fared as handsomely as you could expect in a
beleaguered city. In truth, it was not a sumptuous repast; but the
meagreness of the fare was in some sort countervailed by the bewitching
presence of the Burgomaster's daughter. Remember, I was but young; a
bright eye and a rosy cheek, when matched with a gracious mien and a
sweet and tuneable voice, cast a spell upon me; and the fair beauty of
Mistress Jacqueline had made amends for meaner fare, even for dry bread
and indifferent water.
I perceived that the Burgomaster's lanky friend bent an amorous eye upon
the damsel, spoke her fair and softly, and sought every way to render
himself pleasing in her sight; and that the Burgomaster watched this
underplay with great contentment. But I perceived also--and I own it
gave me a joy quite beyond reason--that Mistress Jacqueline received
these attentions with a serene indifference, which I told myself would
have been a positive coldness and scorn but for dread of her father's
displeasure.
We walked away together, the Captain of the Guard and I, and as we went
I informed myself discreetly on sundry matters whereon I had some
curiosity. The lean lank rascal--so I called him already--was named
Mynheer Cosmo Volmar, a Spaniard on his mother's side, president of the
gild of locksmiths in the city, and keeper of the stores. He was known
to be paying his court to Mistress Jacqueline, and had her father's good
will. The lady had, however, been betrothed aforetime to Jan Verhoeff,
son of the late Burgomaster and of the widow lady, my hostess, and the
match had been broken off by her father when it was discovered, on the
death of Mynheer Verhoeff, that he had left but a paltry heritage. Of
all the burgher families in Bargen, the Verhoeffs had suffered the most
grievous loss during the war; yet the exceeding smallness of the late
Burgomaster's estate was a cause of wonderment in the city. The young
lovers bore their parting very hardly; and though Mynheer Volmar's suit
was approved and furthered by her father Mynheer Warmond, the present
Burgomaster, Mistress Jacqueline had as yet looked upon it but frostily.
These particulars were pleasing to me, for I saw that I had come into a
coil wherein affairs of state and domestic matters were close
interwoven. I was never so well pleased as when I had a tangle to
unravel; and the enterprise I had taken upon myself in merry sport bade
fair to give me unlooked-for entertainment.
*IV*
On the afternoon of that day, the Spaniards made a very hot assault at a
breach in the wall hard by the north gate of the city. From the
commencement of the siege this had been the chief mark of their
ordnance, the which had cast upon it as many as a thousand shot a day.
But the burghers had diligently repaired by night the mischief wrought
in daytime, so that the damage was but small; and the assaults which the
besiegers had already made upon the breach had been repelled with no
great difficulty.
Nevertheless, on this day the attack was exceeding fierce. The
Spaniards swarmed into the breach, and endeavoured mightily at push of
pike to bear down our defences. Our burghers met them with heroical
courage, and quit themselves well in the close fighting upon the wall. I
was not sorry that the assault had been delivered so soon after my
entrance into the city, for I had thereby occasion to win the good
favour of the burghers by lending them aid, thereby getting me a shrewd
knock or two. There was no question of generalship or high strategy; it
was sheer journeyman fighting. In this I observed that the Captain of
the Guard played a right valiant part, and I saw with a good deal of
satisfaction that young Jan Verhoeff pressed ever into the thickest of
the fray, and plied his pike with commendable spirit. The tide of
battle carried me more than once to his side, and I marked his face alit
with the joy of the true warrior. We beat back the invaders, though not
without losing many of our ripest pikemen and calivermen, a heavy toll
upon our success.
It had not escaped my observation that the city fathers were scarce so
forward at this critical moment as loyalty and good example required. I
saw neither the Burgomaster nor Mynheer Volmar, but I learnt that
certain of the council had posted themselves very valiantly at such
parts of the defences as were not at that time threatened. As I
returned with Jan Verhoeff to his mother's house I overheard two
burghers speaking together of this witness to their rulers' valiancy,
and Jan shot a look at me that seemed to question whether I nourished
doubts of the worthy fathers. I said nothing on that head, but spoke of
the tough work we had been through, the which I hoped would discourage
the enemy from attempting another assault for some time. I said too that
since he must be very weary, he would be loth to serve among the night
watch, whereupon he told me that he was free for that night, his turn of
duty coming upon every second day.
I mention this because, in the middle of the night, as I lay cogitating
a scheme I purposed to put next day before the Captain of the Guard, I
heard the young man, whose room was beside mine, descend the stairs and
go forth of the house. This circumstance caused me to wonder somewhat
what his errand might be, for after the fatigue of the day it must be a
thing of moment that could draw him from his bed. But being deeply
concerned with matters of my own, I gave over thinking of him, and only
remembered his going forth when I saw him pale and hard of eye at our
breakfast in the morning. The good lady his mother asked if he had not
slept well. "Passably," he answered, and said no more, whereby I knew
that, whatsoever his errand had been, it was to be kept secret from his
mother.
I lost no time in seeking out the Captain of the Guard, to acquaint him
with the fruit of my cogitations in the night. He had already confessed
to me that he had but small training in the arts of war; wherefore,
being already assured of his fidelity and of his doughtiness in fight, I
had no squeamishness in offering him my counsel, which a more tried
warrior might have taken amiss.
I first pointed out to him certain weak places in the defences of the
city; to wit, the neighbourhood of a mill, where the city wall had not
been strengthened because of some fancied assurance that the mill race
was protection enough; and also the rampart by the church, where a thick
clump of trees without the wall offered good cover to the enemy
resolutely assaulting. The Captain was very quick to see these
deficiencies when I had mentioned them, and perfectly ready to make them
good.
From this I proceeded to a further matter.
"Sir," I said to him, "your men did right nobly yesterday; yet methinks
we should not be content merely with having beat back the Spaniards. To
endue them with a true respect for us, and our men with a true respect
for themselves, it needs to repay them in their own coin: I mean, to
sally out and fall upon them unawares, at some convenient spot of their
camp."
He turned upon me a troubled countenance, and said--
"Sir, I doubt not of the soundness of your reasoning, nor of the good
that would spring from a successful sally; but I question if we should
prosper. My men are stout of heart, and behind their walls fight with
sturdy resolution; but they are not bred to war, being in the main
simple burghers that have taken up arms by mere necessity: and beyond
the walls I fear lest their skill should not match with their courage."
Whereupon I set myself with patience to overcome his diffidence,
confirming my arguments with instances from the wars of King Henry of
Navarre. Having brought him to my mind, we repaired together to the
council chamber, where the council met every morning, and I laid my
scheme before the assembled fathers, employing a rhetorical manner of
exposition for which I was beholden to my study of Cicero his orations.
The little Burgomaster took fire from my rhetoric, and, to my secret
amusement, began to deliver himself of sundry fine sentiments in tune.
He swore that, were he captain, he would do this and that, force a
footing here and seize a place of vantage there, and smite those
Amalekites (so he termed the Spaniards), even as Joshua, the son of Nun.
This was my opportunity. While his face was still red with warlike
ardour, and the fumes of his valiance filled the air, I addressed him in
words wherein I sought to infuse deference mingled with admiration.
"Worshipful sir," said I, "happy is the city whose head is of so
valorous and undauntable a spirit. With joy I hail you as leader of our
foray, whom to follow will make me proud, as I doubt not it will make
also the Captain of the Guard and every man of this devoted garrison."
At this the Burgomaster bridled and looked round upon the councillors
with an assured and dauntless mien. The eyes of the Captain of the
Guard twinkled, but for me alone; and on the dark countenance of Mynheer
Volmar I observed a sneer.
My plan was devised, in fact, to procure, if we could, a quantity of
food from the Spaniards' camp, such as, in our present dearth, would be
exceeding acceptable. I advised that our attack should be made at dusk,
when the enemy were cooking their evening meal, and upon that part of
their camp where the cooking was chiefly done, if we might judge by the
number of the fires in that quarter. It was also, as I had perceived,
the quarter least amply defended, and most easily assailable from our
side. By my scheme, a strong muster of the burghers should engage the
attention of the Spaniards on the ramparts near the church, while an
elect body of two hundred and fifty, with a support of equal number,
should sally forth at the mill, fall swiftly upon the camp, lay hands on
all that we could, and retire into the city under cover of the support.
I will not try your patience with relating in gross the history of this
enterprise or of the many others, small and great, wherein I had a part
while I sojourned in Bargen. I mention it for no other reason than
because it was the first of those that I devised, of which some came to
less happy issues, when the Spaniards grew more wary. In truth, my
remembrance of the most of these is but dim, and this the first would
hardly be so clear in my mind were it not close inmeshed with the
behaviour of Mynheer Warmond the Burgomaster, who from that time
established for himself a name for valour which his less courageous
doings thereafter could not wholly dim.
For all his brave words at the council, when it came to the point the
little man set forth sundry doubts in respect of his fitness to lead our
sally. Being a man of full habit, and one that went heavily upon his
pins, he feared lest his tardiness of gait should put a check upon us
more nimble footers. Whereto I answered that, stayed up and furthered
by two sturdy burghers of proved celerity, one on either side, and fired
with his own lusty spirit, he would out of question not lag a yard
length behind the nimblest of us. Whereupon he confessed that he was
never equal to himself in the dark, and my answer was that he had but to
keep his eyes steadfastly fixed on the lights in the Spaniards' camp
before him. In short, to every objection of this nature I had my answer
ready, nor would I allow that we could have any assurance of success
unless he were our leader.
'Twas falling dusk, and mirky, when, all things being ready, we issued
forth of the gate in utter silence, the Burgomaster toddling with scant
breath at my side. We made such haste as that we were nigh upon the
Spanish trenches ere we were discovered. Having swiftly dispatched the
few sentinels that held watch at this quarter, we sped over the trench
and ran, as though 'twas a race for a prize, across the space of open
ground that sundered it from the camp. Here there were but few of the
enemy afoot, and they busied for the most part with cooking, the main of
the force being gathered in front of the gate by the church, where the
burghers had been mustered with blare of trumpet and tuck of drum to
deceive them. These busy cooks, as soon as they espied us, took
incontinently to their heels, sending up a great cry and clamour for
help; whereupon some companies of the enemy, which had been standing to
arms at no greater distance than two or three furlongs, came towards us
at full stretch of legs, kindling their matches as they ran. I posted
fourscore of our party to deal with them, while the rest of us made
diligent perquisition in the enemy's pantry. Thus we gained time enough
to seize as much victual as we could carry, which done, at a blast of my
whistle we turned our backs upon the camp and made all convenient speed
towards our own walls.
Being cumbered with divers big and unwieldy burdens, even with making
the utmost expedition we were not able to compass our safety before the
vanward of the enemy burst upon us. With the fourscore men aforesaid,
some pikemen, some arquebusiers, I held our rearward, having by me the
worshipful Burgomaster, whom indeed I had been at pains to hold within
reach. At our first coming to the camp, when the cookmen fled, the
little Burgomaster was like to split with his heroical valiance and
untameable fury. Crying havoc upon the Castilian dogs he brandished his
tuck with no small peril to his own party. But when it came to
plundering, his warlike ardour was assuaged in admiration of the
flesh-pots. He caught up a long chain of bag-puddings, such as had not
been seen in Bargen for many a day, and cast it in a merry sport about
his neck, as it were insignia of his office. Then, still holding his
tuck bare with his right hand, he seized with his left a monstrous hog's
ham, and so laden was ready to decamp with his booty.
The Spaniards hotly pursuing us, I perceived that the Burgomaster's
valour was now all melted away, and that he was beset by a shaking fear
and trepidation. The ground over which we ran was exceeding rugged, and
the little round man puffed and gurgled as he tripped upon hindrances,
striving to keep pace with our covering party, but perilously encumbered
by the dangling puddings and the massy ham. Beholding his plight, one
of the burghers in mere kindness, or peradventure out of a licorous
appetite, sought to aid him by relieving him of this part of his load;
but the Burgomaster clung to it the more closely, protesting vehemently
that he would not be robbed, and beseeching us to succour and sustain
him.
Running thus in the twilight, he struck his foot upon a tussock of
grass, and fell headlong, and lay groaning and shrieking for help,
unable to rise by reason of his hands being engaged, the one with his
sword, the other with the ham; for even in this extremity he clave
manfully to his weapon, and covetously to his provender. I stayed my
steps to lift him up, and by this delay saw myself overtaken by four or
five of the Spaniards, who came about to overwhelm us. Summoning to me
two of our pikemen that were happily within call, I faced about with
them to beat off this attack upon our rear, knowing well that if we
could not scatter them we must needs fly immediately for our lives,
since we could hear the shouts of a numerous body hasting towards us
from the camp.
At this pass did the Burgomaster achieve high and imperishable renown.
The foremost of the Spaniards, charging full upon us, thrust out his
sword towards the breast of Mynheer Warmond, and had surely then let out
his life but that by good hap I interposed my own blade, and struck the
Spaniard's weapon from his hand. But the fury of his onset threw him
clean upon the Burgomaster, who, letting his sword fall, but cleaving
valorously to the ham, flung his arms about the Spaniard's neck and
brought him heavily to the ground. Behold then a spectacle whereat the
gods might laugh; upon the ground a marvellous medley of legs, arms,
bag-puddings and ham, out of which issued a most admirable discordance
of Spanish and Low Dutch.
Being joined at this time by others of our party, we were able to hold
the pursuers at bay while I sought to disentangle the Burgomaster from
his adversary. This was no light achievement, for the little man,
clasping his foe in strength of malice and with the tight embrace of one
drowning, yet never loosing the ham, could scarce be persuaded that he
was not in the article of death. Being at length put asunder, they were
both got upon their feet, and we hurried them at a good round pace
towards the wall. Here our supporting party was drawn up, the which
directed a volley of bullets over our heads at the pursuers; and these
being further discomfited by the shot from sundry culverins parked
within the ramparts, the pursuit was checked, and we got safe within the
city, having lost but two or three.
Right merry were the citizens at the success of our enterprise. Some
ran to the church tower and set the bells a-ringing; others fired off
cannon until the Captain of the Guard peremptorily forbade that wastage
of powder. Our plunder was carried to the market square, and given in
charge of an officer appointed to dispense it for the benefit of all.
From this ordinance the Burgomaster's ham and bag-puddings were exempt,
they being considered meet and convenient rewards of his prowess;
moreover, he straitly refused to give them up, and marched through the
street in a glow of triumph, bearing proudly his spoils.
[Illustration: RIGHT MERRY WERE THE CITIZENS AT THE SUCCESS OF OUR
ENTERPRISE]
The Spaniard who had fallen victim to Mynheer Warmond's puddings and ham
was proved to be a captain of some note; and none having seen the manner
of his capture save myself, who held my peace thereupon, the Burgomaster
won great praise for that he had taken with his own hand, on the field
of battle, one of the enemy's captains. He showed himself a very
glutton for applause, and I was careful to feed his appetite to the
full, because I saw that, having this large conceit of himself, and a
reputation to maintain, he was the less likely to become subject to the
timorous and faint-hearted members of the council. A hero in his own
despite, he vexed me often with his thrasonical airs and vainglorious
trumpetings of his own virtue; but I bore with him, believing that in so
doing I should best serve my cause.
*V*
For some while I have said nothing of Mynheer Volmar, not because he
holds any lesser place in this history, but because he had no part in
the enterprise that I have just recounted, the which nevertheless
concerned him dearly, as you shall see.
Mynheer Volmar had spoken of our enterprise as a hair-brained adventure,
the device of a very madman, and a mere courting of disaster. A
prophet, whether of good or ill, likes not that his predictions should
belie and mock him; and Volmar, when his prophecies fell out so wide of
the mark, looked upon me, the begetter of the design, ever more sourly
than he was wont. And when the Burgomaster at our next council leant
rather upon my opinion than upon the opinion of his familiar, I
perceived by some sixth sense, as it were, that Volmar entertained a
violent ill-will against me, albeit he was at great pains to cloak his
hatred under a guise of careless indifferency.