*VI*
The burghers were in full session when I entered the chamber, and Iperceived that thunder was in the air. At my entrance they cast verylowering looks upon me; there was some whispering among them, and theBurgomaster shot me a crooked glance, and seemed to return a mute answerto something that Volmar, his neighbour of the right hand, had justsaid. Feigning blindness to these signs and tokens of trouble, I movedwith easy gait to my place at the table, cast my hat upon it, andinquired of the Burgomaster what was the news of the day.
"Sir, sir," said the little man, his pendent chin shaking like thewattle of a turkey-cock, "this levity ill beseems you. You are awarethat we have a traitor in our midst, a viper warmed in our bosom; youhave even now come from speech with him. I pray the villain hasconfessed his sins."
"Why no, Mynheer," I said smoothly, "the villain is impenitent, andprofesses that he has done nought save in love and loyalty to the city.Surely the good repute of his family might dispose you, sirs, tohesitate before you condemn him unheard."
"His family, his family!" stuttered the Burgomaster, whom I perceived tobe in his most exalted and arrogant mood. "Hold, sir; peruse thisepistle, and say then whether he be not deserving of the extremepenalty."
The letter came to me by the hands of the six or seven councillors thatsat between me and the Burgomaster, of whom some scowled, some glared,some looked compassionately upon me. I took the paper and cast an eyeupon it, and immediately I understood that Jan Verhoeff was in evenworse case than I had supposed. 'Twas a very brief epistle, with nosuperscription nor any signature at the end, written not by any manwithin the city, but by an enemy without. It warned the namelessreceiver that the customary messenger having been slain, by Dutchpeasants as 'twas thought, and his dispatch stolen, the last message hadnot come to the general's hand; but the writer opined that the citycould not endure many days longer, and urged the receiver to employ allhis arts upon he knew whom, and furthermore to certify that person thatwhen by his good offices the city should be delivered up, his goodsshould be spared to him, with a share of the general booty.
"Sir," said the Burgomaster, when I had read the letter, "you behold amanifest proof of the traitor's villainy. He sends word of our haplessstate to the enemy; he employs cunning machinations upon someill-affected person in our city; he is sowing treason in our goodfield."
I made bold to say that there was no proof of the letter having beenintended for Mynheer Verhoeff, whereupon he bade me look upon the cover,and when I did so I perceived, very faintly inscribed there, the lettersJ.V.
As I was considering this, suspecting that those letters had beeninscribed upon the paper since it was wrested from Verhoeff, MynheerVolmar spoke. He said that, clear though the testimony seemed to be, hewould plead for mercy for the young man. His fortune being so muchdiminished from that whereto he had been born, he had without doubt beenput to a fierce temptation. "And since," he proceeded, "I myself sufferat his hands, inasmuch as he sought to cast suspicion on me, whose wholeconcern is the welfare of the city, I may most fitly raise my voice inbeseeching my brethren to remember the services rendered in time past bythe young man's father, and, mindful of them, to deal mercifully withthe son; not to bring him to trial and put him to open shame, but tohold him safe in ward while the city is still compassed about, and thento banish him without scandal to the common weal."
Perceiving the drift of this, and divining that Volmar had his own goodreasons for cloaking the matter, I said with some bluntness that 'twastime 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, andthat being a stranger, come among them uncommended, and a house-matewith this abandoned traitor, I had best walk warily and manage mytongue, lest I found my own neck in jeopardy.
At this discourse, and the murmurs of approval that broke from certainof the councillors, I was pricked to indignation, and might have saidmore than wisdom warranted had not the Burgomaster, plainly ill at ease,interposed himself as peace-maker. I had reason to bless hisintervention, because I was thereby hindered from saying in my hastethat which I should assuredly have repented at my leisure. For ithappened that the Burgomaster calling for the next business, Volmarbrought forth the list of stores that it was in his duty to lay beforethe council every week. This he read out, the councillors harkeningwith gloomy countenances to the tale of diminished victuals andmunitions of war. When he had made an end, the document strayed aboutthe table, and presently came to the hand of the burgher next me, whoheld it in such manner that I was able to see it clearly. And thenwithin my soul I cried blessings on the Burgomaster, in that he hadchecked my tongue, for so soon as my eyes fell upon this paper, I knewin a moment that the handwriting was the same as that upon the paperwhich John Temple had taken from the Spaniard, and which I had, evennow, 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 mustfirst satisfy myself beyond doubt that the writings were the same. Thiscould only be achieved by setting the two papers one against the otherfor comparison, and I saw not any means of doing this secretly. Butwithin a little, chance gave me the opportunity I sought. Thecouncillor that had the paper set it down upon the table, and joinedwith the others in talking of the trial to which Jan Verhoeff was to bebrought on the morrow. While they were thus engaged I laid my hand uponthe paper, and possessed myself of it; then, affecting a perfectindifference to the matter of their discourse, I rose from my place andwent to the window, and there, turning my back upon the company, I drewfrom my pocket the paper John Temple had given me, and set it side byside with the other for just so long as sufficed me to compare them, andprove the writings to be in the selfsame hand. Which done, I took aturn about the chamber, and coming in due time to my place I laid thesecond paper where it had been before, and soon after departed.
I saw myself now deeply engaged in a matter after my own heart. "'TisTime's glory," saith Will Shakespeare, "to unmask falsehood and bringtruth to light"; and here was I a fellow-worker with Time. I consideredwithin myself what course I should take. I might at once makedisclosure of my discovery; but Volmar was so slippery a fellow that Imight easily trip unless I had some further evidence of his villainy tolay before the council. Without doubt he would have ready someplausible explanation, the which might recoil upon me, being a strangerand one not held in high esteem. I resolved therefore to bide my timeand say nought until I had my evidence all compact--unless indeed JanVerhoeff were in extremity of peril.
The young man was brought to trial at the time appointed. I was notpresent in court, deeming it best to hold aloof until I could employ myapparatus to good effect. The only testimony that I myself might havegiven, touching the charge made against Verhoeff, was that I had seenhim steal to the walls by night with Volmar at his heels, and this couldnot have turned to his favour. The evidence against him was so slightand thin-spun, that in time of peace, and before a just tribunal, itwould not have been held sufficient to hang a dog; but his presentjudges being the magistrates of the city, with the Burgomaster aspresident, and all men's minds being sore troubled about the city'swelfare, the verdict was given against him, and he was sentenced to behanged on the tenth day thereafter.
The news was brought to me in my room by the young man's mother, who wasutterly broken with grief and shame. She had never a doubt of hisinnocency, and besought me with many tears and supplications to savehim. I had much ado to refrain from giving her positive assurance thather son should not die; but I deemed it better for my purpose that sheshould suffer ten days of suspense and anguish than that we should comeunder any suspicion by reason of her serenity and ease of mind. I puther off, therefore, with unsubstantial words of comfort. But my policywas undone that same evening, for about the hour of supper there came tothe house a female figure close enshrouded in hood and cloak; and askingspeech with me, she was admitted t
o the chamber wherein I sat with thewidow lady, and casting off her hood revealed the wan, sorrowful face ofMistress Jacqueline, the Burgomaster's daughter.
"Oh, sir," she cried, flinging herself upon her knees and clasping herhands piteously, "oh, sir, save my lover! My father condemned him, buthe is, I know, the cat's-paw of wicked men. Sir, I beseech you, save mylover!"
I raised her up, and my resolution utterly melted away. I did for thesweetheart what I had refused to do for the mother, assuring her thatJan Verhoeff should not die, I myself would prevent it; but it wasnecessary, for the due punishment of those that conspired against him,that none should so much as guess at anything being adventured on hisbehalf. At this the women were mightily cheered, but the widow bore mea grudge in that I had before withheld this solace from her; and Icannot say but that I deserved it.
I had no certain plan for establishing the treason of Mynheer Volmar;but I was resolved to keep a close watch upon him, deeming it likelythat in mere self-confidence he would take a false step. While withexceeding care I held myself in the background, I contrived to learn allthat was requisite about his doings. On Sunday I made one of the throngof spectators that witnessed his discharge of a single shot upon theSpanish lines, the which, as the Captain of the Guard had told me, wasthe charm whereby the city was protected for that day. I observed thatthe shot was brought from the store by Volmar's own servant; Volmarhimself loaded the culverin, trained it, and set the match to thetouch-hole. The burghers, with their wives and children, looked on asat a mystery, and when the shot fell upon some loose earth near thetrenches, casting up a cloud of dust, they nodded and smiled, and someclapped their hands; and then they all went forthwith to church, Volmarleading the way.
I was on the point of following them, thinking no little scorn of suchmummery as I had just witnessed, when, on casting my eye over theparapet, I observed a Spaniard move slowly towards the spot where theball had fallen. He stood for a brief space as if contemplating theeffect wrought thereby, and then returned within the camp.
Now there was something in the Spaniard's mien that bred a certain doubtin my mind. He had moved slowly, in the manner of a loiterer; and ifthis was the true measure of his interest, why, I questioned withinmyself, had he issued from the trenches at all, to observe the spotwhere a ball had fallen harmlessly, as one had fallen many a Sundaybefore? His demeanour was not that of a man truly curious. I sought inmy mind for some likely explanation of his strange action, and the moreI thought upon it, the more puzzled and suspicious I became. But therewas nothing to be done on the instant, so I spoke to the sentinel on theparapet, bidding him acquaint me if he saw any further movement amongthe Spaniards, and then I found the Captain of the Guard, whom I askedto issue the same command to the men that should keep watch in turn forthe rest of the day.
At eventide, nothing having been reported to me, I resolved to go forthmyself so soon as it became dark and examine the place where the shothad struck. It was an enterprise, I knew, that stood me in some danger,for I might be captured by the Spaniards, or by the burgher guard on myreturn, and this would bring me under suspicion, and was like to land mein the selfsame nobble as that wherein Jan Verhoeff already lay. Ithought for a while of securing myself by acquainting the Captain of theGuard aforehand with my purpose, but seeing that I could have given himno reason for it save by making a clean breast of my suspicions, thewhich I was loth to do, I held my peace, resolving to take my risk.
Jan Verhoeff had disclosed to me, when I spoke with him in the bailey,the means whereby he had left the city. In the repairs that had beenmade hastily in the wall battered by the enemy, timber had beenemployed, and at one place there were two massy logs with a narrow spacebetween, through which he had squeezed himself, and so come within a fewspans of the moat. Thither I made my way by a roundabout course as soonas it was dark, and, choosing a moment when no sentinel was withinhearing, I slipped into the moat, having left my boots at the foot ofthe wall, and swam across as quietly as an otter might have done.
On coming to the other side I bent my body low, and crept towards theSpanish lines, holding my dagger in my right hand. I had observed thatthe shot fell within a short space of the end of a garden wall which hadbeen almost razed to the ground by the burghers' shots in the first hotdays of the leaguer. To the right of this stood the stump of a tree.These were my landmarks, for the shot had come to earth somewherebetween the tree and the end of the wall. In the darkness I could nothope to see the pit that the shot had made, but must find it by thetouch of my feet.
I crept along by the wall, noiseless in my stockings, and coming to theend of it, bent myself yet lower and groped towards the tree. This Iattained without having made any discovery, whereupon I turned about andwent back, taking a course somewhat nearer to the moat, and so cameagain to the wall, having discovered nothing. Yet once more I soughtthe tree, now choosing a course nearer to the trenches, in whichdirection I heard the dull murmur of voices, yet not so near as to causeme any present disquietude; and so I groped along the ground until Icame to a little hollow, where I halted, thinking it a likely place.There I dug away the earth with my hands, making no more noise than amouse, and anon my fingers struck upon something hard and cold andround, the which, after a little more digging with hands and dagger, Iunearthed, and found to be a round shot, as I had hoped. With this inmy hands I stole along towards the shelter of the wall.
Hardly had I come there when I heard voices, somewhat louder than thoseI had heard before, and immediately after footsteps, coming towards me.I dare go no farther, but crouched behind the brickwork, which was nomore than three spans high, holding my breath, and peering over thejagged edge of the wall. And I beheld three men as black blots movingin the darkness towards the very spot I had lately left. One of thethree held a dark lantern, by whose light, turned from the city, theothers began to search the ground. I heard them utter words ofsatisfaction when they came to the hole, and then I could not forbearchuckling, for the men, probing with their pikes, and finding nothing,let forth cries of astonishment, together with an oath or two. Theyconsulted one with another, and one proposed that they should searcharound; but this the man that held the lantern scouted, declaring thathe had no manner of doubt the place where they then stood was the end oftheir quest. Nevertheless his comrades prowled and probed, now to theright, anon to the left, and once came so near me that I gripped mydagger tight, ready to buy my safety with good steel. But theywithdrew, and stood for some while talking together of this strangething, and presently gat them back to their trenches, in marvellouspuzzlement.
I BEHELD THREE MEN AS BLACK BLOTS MOVING IN THE DARKNESS]
Thereupon I crept back to the moat, carrying the shot, and having swumacross and recovered my boots, the which I could not pull over my wetstockings, I clambered up between the balks of timber, looked about tocertify myself the coast was clear, and hastened by the same circuit tothe widow's house.
There my servant was in wait for me, according to my bidding. I tookhim to my room, and setting the round shot before him, commanded him toexamine it. He was a handy fellow, and had the rudiments of more tradesthan one. It was not long before he discovered, in the surface of theiron, a knob or boss, exceeding small, the which being touched, a narrowchannel was revealed, wherein lay a short tube of the thickness of afinger.
"'Tis good locksmith's work, sir," he said with admiration, putting thetube into my hand. I looked therein, and discovered a small roll ofpaper, the which, upon my spreading it out, I saw was covered withwriting in the Spanish tongue, and in the very hand of Volmar, but withno name either at head or at foot. I read the writing with a vastcuriosity and eagerness, and what I read was this--
"_The victuals will last but one week longer. One of my foes will behanged; the Englishman I go about to remove. Attack the wall overagainst the market. I vouch that in ten days the city will yield._"
Here was proof of as pretty a piece of villainy as the mind of man couldconceive. Verhoeff
was to be hanged; I myself to be removed; the wallover against the market was that which the Burgomaster had in charge,and the attack was to be directed thereupon with the intent to harasshim and bring him to a frame of mind meet for surrender. A pretty plotindeed, and one that I rejoiced to have the means of circumventing.
I dismissed my servant and sat myself down to consider my ways. 'Twasnecessary to my purpose that Volmar should be utterly confounded. Icould brook no chance of his wriggling out of the full exposure of hisguilt. Wherefore it seemed to me inexpedient that I should at once carrythe traitorous letter to the council, for he had many friends therein,whom he might easily persuade that the writing was but a cunningimitation of his own, done by myself out of the despite and enmity Ibore him; nor indeed could I explain how I had come by the paper, but byowning that I had gone from the city without authority, a thing he wouldfind means to twist to my disadvantage. The end of my cogitation wasthat I resolved still to bide my time, not doubting that within the weeksomething would happen to point my road clearly.
When I went abroad next day I perceived that black care had seized uponthe people. The scarcity of victuals was known of all, and as themeaner folk felt the pinch of hunger more dearly they broke forth intomurmurs and complaints. Dark looks were cast upon me as I took my wayto the council chamber, and still darker met me there. Mindful ofVolmar's intent to have me removed, I looked for some instant charge tobe brought against me, as though I were a Jonah in the city; but noughtwas said openly, and I concluded that I must be on my guard against somesecret machination--a knife in my back, or a stray bullet did I but showmyself upon the ramparts. I was heedful, therefore, that day and thedays succeeding, to go only in the middle of the street, and to keepwithin the house after nightfall, not deeming it any mark of valour tojeopardize the happiness of three good folk and the safety of the cityby running into any needless danger.
As day followed day, I became aware that the people's discontent andqueasiness was being fomented by the agents of Volmar, though thattwo-faced villain was most fervent, at the meetings of the council, inadmonishing the burghers to endure to the end. Day after day theSpaniards plied their artillery upon the walls, chiefly upon thatportion where the Burgomaster was in charge of the defences. Themasonry was sore battered, many of the burghers were slain or maimed,and the Burgomaster himself, who endeavoured still to sustain thereputation he had achieved in that night sally, was struck upon theelbow by a fragment of stone, whereby the little man was afflicted moreheavily in mind than in body. In his one ear, so to speak, Volmarwhispered counsels of despair under a mask of encouragement; in theother I spoke words of comfort and good cheer, assuring him that, couldhe but resist a little longer, Prince Maurice would come to his succour,as he had promised. My influence, I knew, was sapped by Volmar'sguileful insinuations, and I could not doubt that finally I should beworsted unless I could prove Volmar to be the traitor he was.
As the straits of the citizens waxed more grievous, secret messengerswere sent forth, to implore aid of Sir Francis Vere and of PrinceMaurice; but these men never delivered their messages, as was afterwardsdiscovered, and doubtless Volmar had found means to acquaint theSpaniards with their errand, albeit by means that never came to light.Though I kept as good a watch upon him as I could, and my servant didlikewise, we could not find him out in aught that would give us a handleagainst him, and with the passing of time I grew discomfortable in mind,fearing lest Jan Verhoeff's ten days' respite should slip away before Ihad my proofs ready. And I was the more uneasy because I perceived thatthe ill-will of the burghers towards me increased and spread day by day.Their good favour, which I had at the first procured by my diligence inassisting the defence, had now given place to mistrust and malignity,fostered by Volmar's minions; and I knew that this canker was eatingever more deeply into the souls of the populace.