CHAPTER XXVII
THENCE TO ROTTERDAM
He only caught sight of the jongejuffrouw later on in the morning whenshe came out of the molens and stepped into the sledge which stoodwaiting for her at the door.
The thaw had not been sufficiently heavy, nor had it lasted a sufficientnumber of hours to make a deep impression on the thick covering of snowwhich still lay over the roads. The best and quickest mode oftravelling--at any rate for the next few hours--would still be bysledge, the intervening half-dozen leagues that lay between Houdekerkand Rotterdam could be easily covered in the day provided an early startwas made and no long halts allowed for meals.
Diogenes had made arrangements for the start to be made by seveno'clock. A dull light of pale rosy grey hung over the snow-coveredlandscape, and far away on the horizon line that same rose-grey lightwas just assuming a more brilliant hue. He sent Mevrouw Patz up to thejongejuffrouw to acquaint her with the plans for the day, and to beg herto give these her approval.
Mevrouw Patz returned with the message that the jongejuffrouw was readyto start at any hour which Mynheer would command and was otherwiseprepared to obey him in all things.
So Diogenes, standing well out of sight, watched Gilda as she came outof the door of the molens and remained for one moment quite still,waiting for the sledge to draw up. She looked fragile this morning, hethought, and her face looked tiny and very pale within the soft frameof the fur hood which covered her head. For a second or two it seemed tohim as if she was looking round somewhat anxiously, with a frown uponher smooth forehead--puzzled and almost frightened--as if she expectedand at the same time feared to see some one or something.
The next second the cloud appeared to lift from her face and Diogeneseven thought--but in this he may have been mistaken--that a sigh ofrelief escaped her lips.
After that she stepped into the sledge, closely followed by Maria.
Pythagoras and Socrates had been well drilled in their duties toward thejongejuffrouw and Diogenes noted with satisfaction that his brotherphilosophers did their best to make the lady as comfortable as possiblewith a pillow or two bought at Leyden the day previously and the warmrugs from Haarlem which they wrapped carefully round her feet. Maria,dignified and unbending, did her best to prevent those rascals fromdoing their duty in this manner, but soon her own wants got the betterof her pride, and shivering with cold she was glad enough to allowPythagoras to roll a thick horse-cloth about her knees.
A few moments later a start was made to the accompaniment of lustycheering from the miller and his wife, both of whom were pleasant--evenobsequious to the last.
The stolid peasant who held the reins urged his horses on to a brisktrot as soon as they had reached the flat open road. The threephilosophers rode at some little distance behind the sledge, ready onlyto push forward if some marauder or footpad showed signs of molestingthe sledge.
Diogenes caught only a few brief glimpses of the jongejuffrouw duringthe day; once at Zegwaard where there was a halt for dinner, then atZevenhuisen and Hillegersberg where horses and men were ready for arest. But she never seemed to see him, passing quickly in and out ofthe small huts or cottages to which Pythagoras or Socrates escorted herfrom a respectful distance. She never spoke to either of these worthieson those occasions, nor did she question any orders for halting orre-starting.
To those who attended on her, however, at the halting places, to thecottagers or millers who brought her milk and bread to eat she wasgraciousness itself, and whenever it was time to go, Diogenes beforeleaving had invariably to listen to the loud praises of the beautifuljongejuffrouw with the sweet, sad face.
As to his own existence, she seemed hardly aware of it; at Zevenhuisen,when she went back to the sledge, Diogenes was not very far from whereshe passed. Moreover he was quite sure that she had seen him, for herhead was turned straight in the direction where he stood, hat in hand,waiting to see her comfortably settled in the sledge, before remounting.It was in the early part of the afternoon and once more bitterlycold--no doubt she felt the return of the frost, for she seemed to givea little shiver and pulled the hood more closely over her face.
The roads had been very heavy earlier in the day with their carpet ofpartially melted snow, but now this surface had frozen once more and thetrack was slippery like glass under the sledge, but terribly trying forthe horses.
Progress was necessarily slow and wearisome both to man and beast, andthe shades of evening were beginning to gather in very fast when at lastthe wooden spire of Rotterdam's Groote Kerk emerged out of the frozenmist.
Diogenes--as he had done before at Leyden and at Zegwaard--pushed onahead now; he wanted to reach the house of Ben Isaje in advance of thejongejuffrouw and prepare the Hebraic gentleman against her coming. Thelittle town with its intricate network of narrow streets intersected bycanals did not seem imposing to the eye. Diogenes marvelled with whatthoughts the jongejuffrouw would survey it--wondering no doubt if itwould prove the end of her journey or merely a halt on the way to someother place more distant still from her home.
Ben Isaje appeared to be a person of some consequence in Rotterdam, forthe moment he questioned a passer-by as to where the Jewish Mynheerresided, there were plenty of willing tongues ready to give himinformation.
Having followed accurately the instructions which were given to him,Diogenes found himself presently at the top of a street which was sonarrow that he reckoned if he stretched out his legs, his feet would beknocking against opposite walls. Anyhow, it looked almost impassable fora rider. He peered down it somewhat dubiously. It was very badlylighted; two feeble lamps alone glimmered at either end of it, and not asoul was in sight.
Close to where his horse was standing at the corner of that same streetthe word "Tapperij" writ in bold letters and well lit by a lamp placedconveniently above it, invited the tired wayfarer to enter. Thisphilosopher was not the man to refuse so insinuating an invitation. Hedismounted and leaving his horse in charge of an ostler, he entered thetap-room of the tiny hostel and, being both tired and thirsty, herefreshed himself with a draught of good Rhyn wine.
After which he collected more information about the house of Mynheer BenIsaje. It was situate about midway down that narrow street round thecorner, and was easily distinguishable through its crooked andwoe-begone appearance, and the closely shuttered projecting window onthe ground floor.
A very few minutes later Diogenes had identified the house from theseveral descriptions which had been given him. Ben Isaje's abode provedto be a tiny shop with a tall pointed gable sitting above it like asugar-loaf hat. Its low casement window was securely barred with stoutwooden shutters, held in place by thick iron bars. The upper part of thehouse looked to be at perpetual enmity with the lower, for it did notsit straight, or even securely above the humble ground floor below. Theupper floor moreover projected a good three feet over the front door andthe shop window, whilst the single gable sat askew over the lot.
From the house itself--as Diogenes stood somewhat doubtfully beforeit--there came the pungent odour of fried onions, and from the one nextdoor an equally insistent one of damp leather. The philosopher thoughtthat it was high time to swear, and this he did lustily, anathematizingin one comprehensive oath every dirty Hebrew and every insalubriousDutch city that he had ever come across.
After which he examined the abode of Mynheer Ben Isaje more closely. Inthe pointed gable, just under the roof, a tiny window with a lightbehind it seemed to be blinking out of the darkness like the single eyeof some inebriate loafer. Seeing that the small casement was partiallyopen and concluding that some one at any rate must be making use of thatlight up there, Diogenes at last made up his mind to knock at the door;and as there was no knocker and he never carried a riding whip he gavethe substantial oak panel a vigorous kick with his boot.
Whereupon the light up above immediately went out, just as if theone-eyed inebriate had dropped off to sleep.
This sudden extinguishing of the light, however, only served to prove
toDiogenes that some one was up and astir inside the house, so withoutmore ado he proceeded to pound more forcibly against the door with hisfoot, to shout at the top of his voice, and generally to make a rousingnoise--an art of which he was past master.
Soon he heard a soft grating behind the judas, and he felt--more than hesaw--that a pair of eyes were peering at him from within.
"Open, Mynheer Ben Isaje," he cried loudly and peremptorily, "ere Irouse this entire evil-smelling neighbourhood with my calls. Open I tellyou ere I break in your door first and your nose--which I suspect to beover long and over ruddy--afterwards."
"'Tis too late to transact business now," came in a feeble high-pitchedvoice from behind the narrow judas, "too late and too dark. The shop isclosed."
"'Tis not with your shop that I have to do, master," quoth Diogenesimpatiently, "but with yourself, if indeed you are Mynheer Ben Isaje, asI gravely suspect that you are."
"What do you want with Ben Isaje?" queried the timorous voice, "he hathgone home for the night. His house is situate...."
"His house shall be verdommt if you parley any longer behind thatgrating, man; aye and this shop too, for if you do not open that doorimmediately I will break the windows, for my business brooks no delay,and I must needs get into this house as best I can."
But despite his threat, no attempt was made to draw the bolts fromwithin, whereupon Diogenes, whose stock of patience was neverinexhaustible, and who moreover wished to give value to his threats,took a step backwards and then with a sudden spring threw his wholeweight against the oak door; a proceeding which caused the tumble-downhouse to shake upon its foundations.
The next moment the timorous voice was once more raised behind thejudas:
"Kindly have patience, gentle sir. I was even now about to open."
Diogenes heard the drawing of more than one heavy bolt, then thegrinding of a key in the lock; after which the door was partiallyopened, and a thin face with hooked nose and sunken cheeks appeared inthe aperture.
To imagine that any man could hold a door against Diogenes when hedesired to pass through it was to be totally unacquainted with thatphilosopher. He certainly would have smashed in the door of Ben Isaje'sabode with his powerful shoulders had it been kept persistently closedagainst him; but as it was, he only gave it a push with his knee,flinging it wide open thereby, and then stepped coolly into the narrowill-lighted passage.
There was a blank wall each side of him, and a door lower down on theleft; straight ahead a narrow ladder-like staircase was half lost in thegloom.
The anxious janitor had hastily retreated down the dark passage at sightof the towering figure which now confronted him, and in his fright hemust have dropped the lanthorn which apparently he had been carrying.There it lay on the floor, fortunately still alight, so Diogenes pickedit up and holding it high above his head he took a closer survey of theman.
"You are Ben Isaje," he said calmly, as he held the light close to theman's face and then let it travel over his spare and shrinking form;"your dress and nose do proclaim your race. Then pray tell me what wasthe use of making such a to-do, seeing that I had business with you andtherefore meant to come in.... Now take this lanthorn and lock yourfront door again, after which you had best conduct me to a room where Ican talk privately with you."
No doubt there was something in the stranger's face and attitude whichre-assured the Jew, for after a few more seconds of anxious hesitancy,he did take the lanthorn from Diogenes' hand and then shuffled back tothe street door which he once more carefully barred and bolted.
After which with the aid of one of the many large keys which hung by asteel chain in a bunch from his waist, he unlocked the door in thepassage and standing a little to one side he bade his belated guest walkin.