LEYDEN
It seemed that from some church tower far away a clock struck the hour
of midnight when the sledge at last came to a halt.
Worn out with nerve-racking thoughts, as well as with the cruel monotony
of the past four hours, Gilda felt her soul and body numb and lifeless
as a stone. There was much running and shouting round the vehicle, of
horses' hoofs resounding against rough cobble-stones, of calls for
ostler and landlord.
Then for awhile comparative quietude. Maria still snored unperturbed,
and Gilda, wide-eyed and with beating heart, awaited further events.
Firstly the hood of the sledge in which she lay was lifted off: she
could hear the ropes and straps being undone, the tramp of feet all
round her and an occasional volley of impatient oaths. Then out of the
darkness a pleasant voice called her somewhat peremptorily by name.
"Mejuffrouw Beresteyn!"
She did not reply, but lay quite still, with wide-open eyes like a bird
that has been tracked and knows that it is watched. Maria uttered a loud
groan and tried to roll over on her side.
"Where have those murderers taken us to now?" she muttered through the
veil that still enveloped her mouth.
The pleasant voice close to Gilda's ear, now called out more loudly:
"Here, Pythagoras, Socrates! lift the mevrouw out of the sleigh and
carry her up to the room which the landlord hath prepared for the
ladies."
Maria immediately gave vent to violent shrieks of protest.
"How dare ye touch me!" she screamed at the top of her voice, "ye
murdering devils dare but lay a finger on a respectable woman and God
will punish you with pestilence and dislocation and ..."
It must be presumed that neither Pythagoras nor Socrates were greatly
upset by the mevrouw's curses, for Gilda, who was on the alert for every
movement and for every sound, was well aware that Maria's highly
respectable person was presently seized by firm hands, that the shawl
round her face was pressed more tightly against her mouth--for her
screams sounded more muffled--and that despite her struggles, her cries
and her kicking she was lifted bodily out of the sledge.
When these disquieting sounds had died down the same pleasant voice
broke in once again on Gilda's obstinate silence.
"Mejuffrouw Beresteyn!" it reiterated once again.
"Dondersteen! but 'tis no use lying mum there, and pretending to be
asleep," it continued after awhile, since Gilda certainly had taken no
notice of the call, "that old woman made enough noise to wake the dead."
Still not a sound from Gilda, who--more like a cowering bird than
ever--was trying with widely-dilated eyes to pierce the darkness around
her, in order to see something of the enemy. She saw the outline of a
plumed hat like a patch of ink against the sky above, and also a pair of
very broad shoulders that were stooping toward the floor of the sledge.
"Hey!" shouted the enemy with imperturbable cheerfulness, "leave that
door wide open, I'll carry the jongejuffrouw in myself. She seems to be
unconscious."
The words roused Gilda out of her attitude of rigid silence,--the words
which she looked on as an awful threat, and also the sensation that the
loose bonds which had pinioned her down to the vehicle were being
undone.
"I am not unconscious," she said aloud and quite calmly, "and was quite
aware just now that you laid rough hands on a helpless woman. Since I am
equally helpless and in your power I pray you to command what I must
do."
"Come! that's brave! I knew that you could not be asleep," rejoined the
enemy with inveterate good-humour, "but for the moment, mejuffrouw, I
must ask you to descend from this sleigh. It has been a vastly
uncomfortable vehicle for you to travel in, I fear me, but it was the
best that we could get in Haarlem on New Year's day. An you will deign
to enter this humble hostelry you will find the mevrouw there, a
moderately good supper and something resembling a bed, all of which I am
thinking will be highly acceptable to you."
While the enemy spoke, Gilda had a few seconds in which to reflect.
Above all things she was a woman of sense and one who valued her own
dignity; she knew quite well that the making of a scene outside an inn
in a strange town and at this hour of the night could but result in a
loss of that dignity which she so highly prized, seeing that she was
entirely at the mercy of men who were not likely to yield either to her
protests or to her appeals.
Therefore, when she felt that she was free to move, she made every
effort to raise herself uncomfortably; these long hours of weary
motionless lying on her back, had made her limbs so numb that they
refused her service. She made one or two brave attempts to hide her
helplessness, but when she wanted to draw up her knees, she nearly cried
with the pain of trying to move them out of their cramped position.
"It were wiser methinks," quoth the enemy with a slight tone of mockery
in his cheerful voice, "it were wiser to accept the help of my arms.
They are strong, firm and not cramped. Try them, mejuffrouw, you will
have no cause to regret it."
Quite involuntarily--for of a truth she shrank from the mere touch of
this rascal who obviously was in the pay of Stoutenburg, and doing the
latter's infamous work for him--quite involuntarily then, she placed her
hand upon the arm which he had put out as a prop for her.
It was as firm as a rock. Leaning on it somewhat heavily she was able to
struggle to her knees. This made her venturesome. She tried to stand up;
but fatigue, the want of food, the excitement and anxiety which she had
endured, combined with the fact that she had been in a recumbent
position for many hours, caused her to turn desperately giddy. She
swayed like a young sapling under the wind, and would have fallen but
that the same strong arm firm as a rock was there to receive her ere she
fell.
I suppose that dizziness deprived her of her full senses, else she would
never have allowed that knave to lift her out of the sledge and then to
carry her into a building, and up some narrow and very steep stairs. But
this Diogenes did do, with but scant ceremony; he thought her protests
foolish, and her attempts at lofty disdain pitiable. She was after all
but a poor, helpless scrap of humanity, so slight and frail that as he
carried her into the house, there was grave danger of his crushing her
into nothingness as she lay in his arms.
Despite her pride and her aloofness he found it in his heart to pity her
just now. Had she been fully conscious she would have hated to see
herself pillowed thus against the doublet of so contemptible a knave;
and here she was absolutely handed over body and soul to a nameless
stranger, who in her sight, was probably no better than a menial--and
this by the cynical act of one who next to her father was her most
natural protector.
Yes, indeed he did pity her, for she seemed to him more than ever like
that poor little song-bird whom a lout had tortured for his own pleasure
by plucking out its feathers one by one. It seemed monstrous that so
delicate a creature should be the victim of men's intrigues and
passions. Why! even her breath had the subtle scent of tulips as it
fanned his cheeks and nostrils when he stooped in order to look on her.
In the meanwhile he had been as good as his word. He had pushed on to
Leyden in advance of the cortège, had roused the landlord of this
hostelry and the serving wenches, and scattered money so freely that
despite the lateness of the hour a large square room--the best in the
house, and scrupulously clean as to the red-tiled floor and walnut
furniture--was at once put at the disposal of the ladies of so noble a
travelling company.
The maids were sent flying hither and thither, one into the kitchen to
make ready some hot supper, the other to the linen press to find the
finest set of bed linen all sweetly laid by in rosemary.
Diogenes, still carrying Gilda, pushed the heavy panelled door open with
his foot, and without looking either to right or left of him made
straight for the huge open hearth, wherein already logs of pinewood had
been set ablaze, and beside which stood an armchair, covered with
Utrecht velvet.
Into its inviting and capacious depths he deposited his inanimate
burden, and only then did he become aware of two pairs of eyes, which
were fixed upon him with very different expressions. A buxom wench in
ample wide kirtle of striped duffle, had been busy when he entered in
spreading clean linen sheets upon the narrow little bed built in the
panelling of the room. From under her quaint winged cap of starched lace
a pair of very round eyes, blue as the Ryn, peeped in naïve undisguised
admiration on the intruder, whilst from beneath her disordered coif
Maria threw glances of deadly fury upon him.
Could looks but kill, Maria certes would have annihilated the low rascal
who had dared to lay hands upon the noble jongejuffrouw. But our friend
Diogenes was not a man to be perturbed either by admiring or condemning
looks. He picked up a footstool from under the table and put it under
the jongejuffrouw's feet; then he looked about him for a pillow, and
with scant ceremony took one straight out of the hands of the serving
wench who was just shaking it up ready for the bed. His obvious
intention was to place it behind the jongejuffrouw's head, but at this
act of unforgivable presumption Maria's wrath cast aside all restraint.
Like a veritable fury she strode up to the insolent rascal, and snatched
the pillow from him, throwing on him such a look of angry contempt as
should have sent him grovelling on his knees.
"Keep thy blood cool, mevrouw," he said with the best of humour, "thy
looks have already made a weak-kneed coward of me."
With the dignity of an offended turkey hen, Maria arranged the pillow
herself under her mistress's head, having previously shaken it and
carefully dusted off the blemish caused upon its surface by contact with
an unclean hand. As for the footstool, she would not even allow it to
remain there where that same unclean hand had placed it; she kicked it
aside with her foot and drew up her small, round stature in a
comprehensive gesture of outraged pride.
Diogenes made her a low bow, sweeping the floor with his plumed hat. The
serving wench had much ado to keep a serious countenance, so comical did
the mevrouw look in her wrath, and so mirth-provoking the gentleman with
his graceful airs and unruffled temper. Anon laughter tickled her so
that she had to run quickly out of the room, in order to indulge in a
fit of uncontrolled mirth, away from the reproving glances of mevrouw.
It was the pleasant sound of that merry laughter outside the door that
caused the jongejuffrouw to come to herself and to open wide, wondering
eyes. She looked around her, vaguely puzzled, taking in the details of
the cosy room, the crackling fire, the polished table, the inviting bed
that exhaled an odour of dried rosemary.
Then her glance fell on Diogenes, who was standing hat in hand in the
centre of the room, with the light from the blazing logs playing upon
his smiling face, and the immaculate whiteness of his collar.
She frowned. And he who stood there--carelessly expectant--could not
help wondering whether with that swift contemptuous glance which she
threw on him, she had already recognized him.
"Mejuffrouw," he said, thus checking with a loud word the angry
exclamation which hovered on her lips, "if everything here is not
entirely in accordance with your desires, I pray you but to command and
it shall be remedied if human agency can but contrive to do so. As for
me, I am entirely at your service--your major domo, your servant, your
outrider, anything you like to name me. Send but for your servant if you
have need of aught; supper will be brought up to you immediately, and in
the meanwhile I beg leave to free you from my unwelcome company."
Already there was a goodly clatter of platters, and of crockery outside,
and as the wench re-entered anon bearing a huge tray on which were set
out several toothsome things, Diogenes contrived to make his exit
without encountering further fusillades of angry glances.
He joined his friends in the tap-room downstairs, and as he was young,
vigorous and hungry he set to with them and ate a hearty supper. But he
spoke very little and the rough jests of his brother philosophers met
with but little response from him.