councillor. I learnt from my friend, the Captain of the Guard, that
Volmar was well-reputed in the city, having much goods laid up, and yet
being open-handed. He was charged with keeping the stores of munition
and with the defence of a certain portion of the walls, and was very
diligent in these offices. It was his custom, every Sunday forenoon
about nine of the clock, that day and hour having been commended to him
by one well skilled in astrology, to fire off a culverin upon the
Spaniards from the parapet of his own ward. The Captain of the Guard,
upon my asking what purpose might be served by this quaint device,
assured me with great gravity that, a shot being fired at a moment shown
as propitious by the conjunction of the planets, the Spaniards would
never stir that day, and the burghers might pay their devotions in
church without fear of disturbance. I marvelled at so strange a
mingling of heathenish superstition with Christian piety, but I forbore
to speak my mind upon it, deeming every man entitled to believe as he
listeth.
On the night but one following our sally I was returning at a late hour,
and alone, from making a round of the defences. When I came near the
house of Mistress Verhoeff, where I still made my lodging, I heard the
scuffling of a hurried footstep, and espied, though dimly, a man
slinking into a narrow alley upon the further side of the street. I saw
this, without considering it; and I might have thought of it no more but
that I heard my hostess' son stealthily quit the house maybe an hour
after. Then putting the one thing with the other, I began to wonder,
and cogitate, and question whether there were not something in the wind.
It came into my mind that the man I had seen afore had been disturbed at
my coming, and slunk away to escape me; and I began to suspect that Jan
Verhoeff and he were partners in some secret night work, I knew not
what.
I was in my own room, but not yet abed; and, smelling a matter for
inquiry, I crept down the stairs, carrying my boots, and these I donned
at the door, and then followed the young man up the street. I had taken
but a few steps when I was aware that two figures were in front of me,
the one dogging the other close like a shadow. They were proceeding
towards the walls, to that place where a breach had been made and was
now repaired in part. The sky being clear and bright with stars, I held
the two men in sight until they came near the breach aforesaid, where
the foremost vanished away, and the latter stood fast, at some little
distance, as he were keeping watch. So did I likewise. There I stayed
some while, until the man, as though weary of waiting, turned about and
walked back by the way he had come, and then, with the intent that I
might see him more closely, I hid myself behind a jutting mass of
masonry which the man must needs pass by.
I was now able to perceive, as he came towards me, that he was lofty of
stature, and, passing me within a yard or two, his gait seemed to me to
be that of the lanky councillor Mynheer Volmar. This was a whet upon my
curiosity, for I weened it strange that this man should be spying upon
his vanquished rival, whom in the fallen state of his fortunes he had no
cause to fear as pretender to the hand of Mistress Jacqueline.
When he had gone beyond earshot, I took my way to the wall, and there I
was immediately challenged by the sentinel. On my giving the word the
man recognized me, and made me a decent salutation. I inquired of him
whether he had taken note of any strange movement or stirring among the
Spaniards, or of any roaming person on our side of the wall; and he
declared that neither on the one side nor the other had he seen aught,
nor any person save only the sentinel next to him on the defences.
Whereupon I returned to my lodging, not a little perplexed.
On my descending next morning to break my fast with Mistress Verhoeff as
my custom was, I found the good dame in sore affliction and distress.
It had just been told her that her son was at that time lying a prisoner
in the bailey, having been seized in the middle of the night by a posse
of halberdiers. It was charged against him, so 'twas reported, that he
was a spy for the enemy; for he had been discovered making his way over
the wall, and being searched, papers were found upon him that gave
colour to this accusation.
This news, following so sudden on what I had seen overnight, set my wits
a-jogging, and I began to smell a rat, as we say. But my consideration
of the matter was broken in upon by the piteous outcry of my hostess,
who with many tears and lamentable entreaties besought me to save her
son. She declared that the young man's honesty was beyond impeachment;
that it was some monstrous error; that he was a true man, like his
father before him; and when I asked what had taken him abroad at so
unseasonable an hour, on a night when his duty did not call him to the
ramparts, she protested that some enemy must have lured and enticed him
forth, of set purpose to undo him. I gave her my honest opinion that
the young man was innocent, and engaged to do what I could on his
behalf, yet owning that I was at a loss what means I might conveniently
take.
After some deliberation I determined that I must first visit the
prisoner, and inquire for myself into his case. To this end I repaired
to the Burgomaster, by whose allowance alone would the gates of the
bailey be opened to me. I was not overmuch astonished when he denied my
request, averring that the young man was a villainous rascal, whose
guilt was manifest, and whom he would assuredly hang as a warning to all
traitors. By this I perceived that the Burgomaster had judged the
prisoner aforehand, the reason whereof was his established misliking. In
my course through the world I have oft-times observed that a man that
has wronged his neighbour will scarce pardon him; and I held that the
Burgomaster had done the lad a wrong in crossing his love for no cause
save a worldly misfortune that time might cure. I made bold to inform
Mynheer Warmond that in my country a man is held to be innocent until he
is proved guilty; and then I was not a little incensed when he, shifting
his ground, roundly declared that the less I meddled with this matter
the better for me. There were already whispers against me, he said, and
the having taken up my abode in the widow's house would incline some to
suspect that I was privy to the son's iniquity. Indeed, he counselled me
to seek a new lodging without delay.
At this I could scarce hold my patience; but reflecting that angry words
could avail me nothing, having also a shrewd notion as to the
fountain-head whence this slander and calumny sprang, I swallowed my
wrath, and by dint of coaxing and wheedling got from the Burgomaster the
authority I sought. So armed, I hasted to the bailey, and being
admitted, found the young man herded with as pretty a set of rogues as
ever I saw. The warder gave me leave, after the passing of a trifle of
money, to speak with the prisoner in a room apart, and thither we betook
ourselves.
Now I did not love Mynheer Jan Verhoeff. We had had little
communication; in truth, he shunned me, and when we met at table he
seldom opened his lips save only to engulf his food, whereby I had come
to look upon him as a morose and lubberly fellow. Furthermore, I
misliked his goings and comings secretly by night, and his denial of the
service he had done me; for I was firmly persuaded that Verhoeff and Van
der Kloof were one and the same. Wherefore, when we were closeted in
that little room of the bailey, and he opposed a sullen and stubborn
silence to my proffer of help, I was ready to wash my hands of his
affair and let him hang. But remembering the widow lady his mother, and
bethinking me that his ungracious bearing perchance were nothing but the
austerity of an honest man wronged, I curbed my impatience and set
myself to reason with him.
I showed him how his secret sallies by night, whatsoever their purpose
might be, must needs breed suspicion in the minds of those burdened with
the defence of the city, and that if his intent were honest, to reveal
it could at the least work him no harm. And, hinting that I myself
harboured certain suspicions, the which he might aid me to resolve, I at
length prevailed upon him to make full confession and disclosure. And
this is what he told me.
Being near the Burgomaster's house one evening (for what purpose I
forbore to inquire), he had seen Mynheer Volmar issue forth, and,
instead of making straight for his own house, stand a while looking
heedfully around, and then proceed towards the ramparts, in the furtive
manner of one that avoids observation. Bearing him ill-will as his
supplanter in the graces of Mistress Jacqueline, and suspecting he knew
not what, Verhoeff dogged him circumspectly to the wall, and there
beheld him sit upon a culverin and gaze intently towards the trenches of
the enemy. A sentinel was pacing up and down, and to him Volmar
addressed a few words in a whisper, whereupon he stood fast, and Volmar
hastened to the embrasure of the parapet. Immediately thereafter,
Verhoeff caught the sound of a low whistle, followed eftsoon by a faint
answer, as it were an echo, from below. Then Volmar drew some white
thing from his pocket, wound a cord about it, and, as it appeared to
Verhoeff, let it down into the moat. In a little there came again a
dull and hollow sound, and Volmar withdrew himself and returned into the
city, murmuring a word to the sentinel as he passed.
On the morrow Verhoeff took pains to inform himself of the name of the
sentinel at that place, and was not astonished to find that he was of
Mynheer Volmar's household. In that time of trouble every man,
whatsoever his rank and condition, had his part in the city's defence.
From that day Verhoeff kept diligent watch upon the councillor, and
discovered that he hied him stealthily to the ramparts every Wednesday,
and in like manner let down what was doubtless a paper, the which was
received by a man in the moat beneath, and conveyed by him, swimming, to
the further side.
Here was treason, of a surety. Verhoeff debated with himself whether he
should broach it to the Captain of the Guard or the Burgomaster; but he
bethought him that he had not as yet sufficient proof, and that,
moreover, the charge might be set down to the spleen and malice of a
beaten rival. Wherefore he determined to hold his peace until he had
gotten some clear and manifest proof of the treason he suspected.
One Wednesday night, therefore, he slid into the moat, and swam to the
other side, intending to lie in wait for the receiver as he returned
with the letter, and wrest it from him. But making wary approach to the
spot over against the gun whereon Volmar was wont to sit, he was
nonplussed to find three or four Spanish footmen, awaiting their
comrade. Verhoeff kept himself close until the swimmer joined them, and
then, recking nothing of his peril, followed the party as they stole
silently back to their lines. While they jested with the sentinel that
challenged them, he crept into the camp, and watched in secret what
should befall. The footmen proceeded together a few paces; then all but
one turned aside, they bidding him good-night, and he continuing on his
way towards a large tent, the which, after a brief parley with some one
within, he entered. Verhoeff swiftly stole to the back side of the
tent, designing to cut a hole in the wall and spy upon what was done;
but a light shone from beneath a flap in the canvas, which raising, he
beheld a man in shirt and hose sodden with water, standing before
another in a long night-robe, who was reading by the light of a candle a
paper which had beyond doubt been brought by the swimmer from the city.
Having finished his perusal, this man said--
"Good. Our friend within is diligent. To-morrow you will convey this
to the Lord General Verdugo. Take your accustomed party, and have a
care, for this paper must not miscarry; I know what a lusty fire-eater
you are."
The swimmer laughed and made a salutation, and so departed.
Verhoeff itched to lay hands on that paper, yet durst not follow the man
through the camp. But a device came into his mind whereby he might
perchance obtain it. He crept and wriggled out of the camp, which was
not guarded so needfully as it behoved to be, and when he was beyond the
outward trenches he betook himself with all expedition, not to the city,
but towards a hamlet where his father had held an estate in the days of
his prosperity. There he gathered half a score of trusty men that would
serve him faithfully for his father's sake, and with them took post in a
wood which the Spaniard must pass next day when he carried the paper to
his general. And 'twas by the happy accident of his lying in wait there
that he was able to render me service that day. In despite of the
captain's warning, the messenger was tempted by the smallness of my
party to attack us, whereby Verhoeff's plan to seize upon the letter was
discomfited, for my plight made him show himself sooner than he had
intended.
Being foiled, then, and baulked of his purpose by the Spaniards' flight,
he was fain to wend his way back to the city, and entered it at dead of
night by a secret way known to him. At my appearance on the morrow
thereafter he was somewhat discommoded, being desirous that his doings
should not be published among the burghers, and yet too high-stomached
to entreat my silence. Hence he sought to brazen it out with me, and
had since held himself aloof.
From that time he kept a most vigilant watch upon Volmar's doings, by
night and day; and it seemed that his patience would be rewarded, for on
this last night, having swum the moat, he had found the Spaniard, that
was go-between, unattended, and after a fierce struggle had overcome and
slain him. Searching among his garments he discovered a leathern pouch,
the which, on his slitting it, yielded up a paper. This he bestowed in
his pocket, and crossed the moat, but upon climbing the parapet fell
clean into the hands of a party of the burgher guard, drawn thither
either by the sound of his struggle with the Spaniard, or, as seemed
more like, placed there advisedly by Volmar.
While he stood among his captors, protesting and almost persuading them
that he was a true man and no traitor, Volmar himself appeared and
feigned great astonishment to see him. One of the guard related the
cause and manner of the arrest, whereupon the councillor declared
roundly that there had been some error, and proposed that the matter
should be put to the proof by searching Verhoeff. This being done, the
letter was brought to light, the which Volmar then tore open and read by
the aid of a dark lantern. He put on a grave and sorrowful look, and
gave the letter into the hand of the officer of the guard, and he
likewise read it, and immediately cried out that Verhoeff was proved a
villainous traitor. Upon this Verhoeff in a fury declared that he had
wrested the letter from a Spaniard who had brought it from the city, and
from Volmar himself, a saying that provoked a burst of scornful laughter
from the officer of the guard and a look of pity from the councillor.
The officer commanded that he should be instantly conveyed to the bailey
and placed under a strong guard, and Volmar bestowed the letter in his
doublet, avouching that he would lay it before the Burgomaster and
council on the morrow.
[Illustration: VOLMAR READ THE LETTER BY THE AID OF A LANTERN]
This was the story in brief as Verhoeff told it to me, and I made no
doubt he spoke the truth. But I saw that in youthful heat and imprudence
he had committed a grievous error in launching an accusation against the
councillor, more especially because he was wholly ignorant of what the
letter contained; he had not read it, nor had it been read aloud.
Moreover, the secrecy and stealth of his own deeds, the quitting of the
city without leave asked, gave strength to the suspicion and mistrust of
the officer of the guard. Yet I confessed that in my heart of hearts I
did not doubt Volmar was a villain and had entrapped Verhoeff for his
own ends; but how to bring his villainy home to him, when he held all
the cards, as we say, it outdid my wit to determine.
Nevertheless I engaged myself to do all that in me lay on behalf of the
young man, and bidding him be of good cheer I betook myself to the
council chamber, where the matter would without doubt be deliberated
upon.
*VI*
The burghers were in full session when I entered the chamber, and I
perceived that thunder was in the air. At my entrance they cast very
lowering looks upon me; there was some whispering among them, and the
Burgomaster shot me a crooked glance, and seemed to return a mute answer
to something that Volmar, his neighbour of the right hand, had just
said. Feigning blindness to these signs and tokens of trouble, I moved
with easy gait to my place at the table, cast my hat upon it, and
inquired of the Burgomaster what was the news of the day.
"Sir, sir," said the little man, his pendent chin shaking like the
wattle of a turkey-cock, "this levity ill beseems you. You are aware
that we have a traitor in our midst, a viper warmed in our bosom; you
have even now come from speech with him. I pray the villain has
confessed his sins."
"Why no, Mynheer," I said smoothly, "the villain is impenitent, and
professes that he has done nought save in love and loyalty to the city.
Surely the good repute of his family might dispose you, sirs, to
hesitate before you condemn him unheard."
"His family, his family!" stuttered the Burgomaster, whom I perceived to
be in his most exalted and arrogant mood. "Hold, sir; peruse this
epistle, and say then whether he be not deserving of the extreme
penalty."
The letter came to me by the hands of the six or seven councillors that
sat between me and the Burgomaster, of whom some scowled, some glared,
some looked compassionately upon me. I took the paper and cast an eye
upon it, and immediately I understood that Jan Verhoeff was in even
worse case than I had supposed. 'Twas a very brief epistle, with no
superscription nor any signature at the end, written not by any man
within the city, but by an enemy without. It warned the nameless
receiver that the customary messenger having been slain, by Dutch
peasants as 'twas thought, and his dispatch stolen, the last message had
not come to the general's hand; but the writer opined that the city
could not endure many days longer, and urged the receiver to employ all
his arts upon he knew whom, and furthermore to certify that person that
when by his good offices the city should be delivered up, his goods
should be spared to him, with a share of the general booty.
"Sir," said the Burgomaster, when I had read the letter, "you behold a
manifest proof of the traitor's villainy. He sends word of our hapless
state to the enemy; he employs cunning machinations upon some
ill-affected person in our city; he is sowing treason in our good
field."
I made bold to say that there was no proof of the letter having been
intended for Mynheer Verhoeff, whereupon he bade me look upon the cover,
and when I did so I perceived, very faintly inscribed there, the letters
J.V.
As I was considering this, suspecting that those letters had been
inscribed upon the paper since it was wrested from Verhoeff, Mynheer
Volmar spoke. He said that, clear though the testimony seemed to be, he
would plead for mercy for the young man. His fortune being so much
diminished from that whereto he had been born, he had without doubt been
put to a fierce temptation. "And since," he proceeded, "I myself suffer
at his hands, inasmuch as he sought to cast suspicion on me, whose whole
concern is the welfare of the city, I may most fitly raise my voice in
beseeching my brethren to remember the services rendered in time past by
the young man's father, and, mindful of them, to deal mercifully with
the son; not to bring him to trial and put him to open shame, but to
hold him safe in ward while the city is still compassed about, and then
to banish him without scandal to the common weal."
Perceiving the drift of this, and divining that Volmar had his own good
reasons for cloaking the matter, I said with some bluntness that 'twas
time to show mercy when guilt was proved. Volmar took me up insolently,
declaring that I had no right nor title to speak on such a matter, and
that being a stranger, come among them uncommended, and a house-mate
with this abandoned traitor, I had best walk warily and manage my
tongue, lest I found my own neck in jeopardy.
At this discourse, and the murmurs of approval that broke from certain
of the councillors, I was pricked to indignation, and might have said
more than wisdom warranted had not the Burgomaster, plainly ill at ease,
interposed himself as peace-maker. I had reason to bless his
intervention, because I was thereby hindered from saying in my haste
that which I should assuredly have repented at my leisure. For it
happened that the Burgomaster calling for the next business, Volmar
brought forth the list of stores that it was in his duty to lay before
the council every week. This he read out, the councillors harkening
with gloomy countenances to the tale of diminished victuals and
munitions of war. When he had made an end, the document strayed about
the table, and presently came to the hand of the burgher next me, who
held it in such manner that I was able to see it clearly. And then
within my soul I cried blessings on the Burgomaster, in that he had
checked my tongue, for so soon as my eyes fell upon this paper, I knew
in a moment that the handwriting was the same as that upon the paper
which John Temple had taken from the Spaniard, and which I had, even
now, folded in my pocket.
I veiled my eyelids, lest my eyes should betray the joy of my discovery,
for this did not rob me wholly of my caution, and I knew that I must
first satisfy myself beyond doubt that the writings were the same. This
could only be achieved by setting the two papers one against the other
for comparison, and I saw not any means of doing this secretly. But
within a little, chance gave me the opportunity I sought. The
councillor that had the paper set it down upon the table, and joined
with the others in talking of the trial to which Jan Verhoeff was to be
brought on the morrow. While they were thus engaged I laid my hand upon
the paper, and possessed myself of it; then, affecting a perfect
indifference to the matter of their discourse, I rose from my place and
went to the window, and there, turning my back upon the company, I drew
from my pocket the paper John Temple had given me, and set it side by
side with the other for just so long as sufficed me to compare them, and
prove the writings to be in the selfsame hand. Which done, I took a
turn about the chamber, and coming in due time to my place I laid the
second paper where it had been before, and soon after departed.
I saw myself now deeply engaged in a matter after my own heart. "'Tis
Time's glory," saith Will Shakespeare, "to unmask falsehood and bring
truth to light"; and here was I a fellow-worker with Time. I considered
within myself what course I should take. I might at once make
disclosure of my discovery; but Volmar was so slippery a fellow that I
might easily trip unless I had some further evidence of his villainy to
lay before the council. Without doubt he would have ready some
plausible explanation, the which might recoil upon me, being a stranger
and one not held in high esteem. I resolved therefore to bide my time
and say nought until I had my evidence all compact--unless indeed Jan
Verhoeff were in extremity of peril.
The young man was brought to trial at the time appointed. I was not
present in court, deeming it best to hold aloof until I could employ my
apparatus to good effect. The only testimony that I myself might have
given, touching the charge made against Verhoeff, was that I had seen
him steal to the walls by night with Volmar at his heels, and this could
not have turned to his favour. The evidence against him was so slight
and thin-spun, that in time of peace, and before a just tribunal, it
would not have been held sufficient to hang a dog; but his present
judges being the magistrates of the city, with the Burgomaster as
president, and all men's minds being sore troubled about the city's
welfare, the verdict was given against him, and he was sentenced to be
hanged on the tenth day thereafter.