The Begum's Daughter
IX.
THE townsfolk were aghast when they heard of the doings at the fort. It was as though a sirocco from the tropics had burst upon their tranquil little island. The very air, like the atmosphere of thunder-storms, seemed dense and murky, presaging convulsion. There was, withal, a pervading feeling of panic. The children, taking advantage of the relaxed vigilance at home, flocked in gaping wonder to Bowling Green. Groups of whispering slaves, in defiance of the law against their congregating on the street, gathered at corners and in byways, keeping a watchful outlook lest the schout should detect them and drag them off to the whipping - post. The train-bands inspired the awe of a conquering army, and Jacob Leisler was suddenly invested with the mysterious interest of a nursery hero.
Perhaps no one in all the town was more deeply disturbed than Dr. Samuel Staats. In vain he rubbed his eyes and looked about to see things settle back into their old ruts. Everything was awry. The element of correspondence had vanished from the social scheme. The moral world had warped away from the physical. Ousted from his comfortable place in the old dispensation, he could by no means adjust himself to the new. The result was perplexity and distress.
Amidst all the darkness and confusion, there were here and there feeble points of light, like fixed stars, towards which he looked as guides. In the first place, he was a Dutchman; no convulsion of nature or dynastic revolution could affect that unalterable fact. Thus by birth, blood, and association he seemed rather to belong to the party at the fort than to the so-called English party at the Stadthuys. Again, the situation brought back old stirring remembrances of the recapture of the city from the English in 1673. While, lastly, as a stanch member of the Reformed Church, he necessarily took alarm at the cry of “ Papist.”
Naturally yielding to these varied influences, he unconsciously gravitated slowly and surely in one direction. It needed but a slight determining force from without to give him impetus.
It was the day after the seizure of the fort. Early in the morning there came a thundering knock at the door. When it was opened, a loud, rough voice resounded through the house : —
“ Tell Dr. Staats Captain Leisler bids him come to the fort without delay ! ”
Thereupon, without waiting for an answer, the messenger strode off down the street.
The begum, sitting at her embroidery, heard the message ; it may be she even recognized worthy Ensign Stoll’s voice. Dropping her work, she made an odd little reflex movement with her hands, — a gesture so unmeaning it could not have been voluntary.
Rising presently, she went towards the door, stopped, turned back, and slowly walked up and down the room. At last, with a sudden outward fling of her nervous hands, as if casting off some resisting impression, she proceeded to a small room at the end of the hall, which her husband used for an herbarium.
The doctor had already put aside his work, and was buttoning up his longtailed coat. He turned his heavy, sedate face toward the door, as his wife entered, with a passing look of surprise: it was evident she did not often invade his workshop.
“ You go out ?” she asked carelessly, as if casually noting his preparation.
“ Yes.”
“ ’T is better to stay at home.”
“ Why ? ”
“ Yonder’t is so — so ” — She finished the sentence with a movement of her hands indicating confusion.
“ Poh no ; old huysvrouw’s tales.”
“ It must be most urgent, the business that takes you forth.” She drew near, and affected to correct some detail in his dress.
“There is need I should go.”
“ So ? ”
“ I shall be back before long,” he said by way of consolation.
“ Is it for your own affairs there is such need ? ” she asked, unheeding his assurance.
“ In part.”
At a loss for an expletive, she made a gesture of impatience.
“ The public business is every man’s business, when there is need of him.”
“ Who says there is need of you ? ”
“ I have been sent for.”
“ There is no king here. To send for another is to have power over him.”
“ Sometimes.”
“ Who is here has power to send ? Comes the word from his Excellency ? ”
The doctor shrugged his shoulders. “ Be sure it does not, or I should be slow to heed it. His Excellency’s day is over. The king who set up his Excellency is pulled down himself.”
“ And has the new king set up one in his place ? ”
“ Not yet.”
“ Who then takes the power to himself ? ”
“ Little woman,” said the doctor, making a movement to escape, “ I cannot explain these matters to you ; they are hard to understand.”
She renewed her interest in his toilet, smoothing his sleeves, tucking in the ends of his neck-cloth, and now and again casting a quick glance up into his face.
“ Do you understand them, then, — you? ”
The doctor coughed uneasily, and again tried to edge away, whereupon, changing her tone, madam cried imperatively, —
“ Do not go ! ”
“ Where ? ”
“ To that man.”
Despite the phlegm which encased him like an armor, the worthy Dutchman almost started at this unexpected thrust. “ Ei ? ”
“ To go is your ruin.”
“ Poh ! poh! ” he said, stroking her with his fat hands. “ Somebody has been filling your ears with fables.”
She broke away from his caress, and her slender figure seemed visibly to tower as she continued her warning: —
“ Go not, I say ! I see clearly, while you are blind.”
The doctor looked discomfited, but his flabby white face only settled into stubborn lines of resolution.
“ That man,” pursued madam vehemently, “ has always been a poor beast; now he raves, he mounts a car he cannot guide, he goes on — on— The — the abyss lies before.”
Affecting to laugh, the doctor gently moved his excited helpmeet from his path and walked to the door, saying in a matter-of-fact way : —
“ Be not afraid, my dear. I will keep clear of his car. Never you fear” — His fat sides shook at the joke. “ I will not go near the abyss.”
“ It will seize you too, then, this madness,” muttered the lady, looking after him. “Go; but it is for nothing,— nothing, only to follow in the steps of a fool! ”
Listening mechanically as her husband’s heavy step resounded along the ball and the outer door closed behind him, the begum’s musing was presently interrupted by Catalina, who came bursting in with a petition : —
“ Mother, I would go out.”
Madam looked at her daughter vacantly, without realizing her words.
“ I would go out, if it please you,” repeated Catalina more emphatically. “ Gertryd and Johanna are at play in the garden ; you will not be alone.”
The mother nodded, still with divided mind.
“ I need not be back to dinner, I hope ? You will not be troubled now that you know where to find me.”
Receiving another nod of acquiescence, Catalina with a joyous look skipped away, only turning at the door to say,—
“ I will come back before nightfall, and if those noisy men are in the street Hester will send ” —
“ Stop ! ” The cry was ringing and imperative. “ Where would you go ? ” demanded the mother, aroused in an instant to suspicious alertness.
“ To Hester’s.”
“ You shall not! ”
“ Mother ! ”
“ You shall not go ! ”
“ It is to Hester’s — to Hester’s, do you hear ? She expects me. I pledged myself to go.”
“ Say no more ; you cannot.”
“ But why ? What shall I say ? She will think I forget. What is the matter?” cried the disappointed girl, her utterance choked by tears of grief and anger.
“ Listen, Catalina, — listen, child ! Strange things go on in the town, — stranger things come to-morrow; all is upturned. Danger is everywhere; it is not safe to go. Dry your eyes now, and go play with Johanna.”
But Catalina was not to be so easily consoled. She protested with energy against being obliged to break faith with her friend. Impatient of this childish interruption at a moment of deep preoccupation, the begum promised to dispatch a messenger at once to advise Hester that the visit was postponed, and further appeased her daughter by proposing, —
“ If you must needs go out, you shall visit Tryntie. In that direction is no danger. Outside the walls all is at peace.”
After some demur, Catalina accepted the compromise, for in her faithful nurse she had a sympathizing confidant. Once reconciled to the change of plan, she lost no time in making her way to the bouwerie. As her mother had predicted, the road in that direction was clear.
It was Saturday morning. Like a model huysvrouw, Tryntie was putting things in shining order for the Lord’s Day. The pewter ware stood in a row above the fireplace. The brown and blue Delft had been taken down piece by piece, and rearranged in the corner cupboard; the hearth-tiles had been stained red, the furniture polished, and Tryntie, with arms bared and skirts tucked up, stood holding a box of fine white sand, wherewith she was about to sprinkle the floor, already scrubbed to spotless cleanness.
Dropping the box, she spread wide her arms to receive her loved fosterling, who came rushing to embrace her.
££ Oh, Tryntie, you are glad to see me! ”
“ Mm-m ! Mm-m ! ”
“ I have come to eat dinner.”
“ ’T is too much happiness for me.”
“ But you must go on with your work, mark you,” continued Catalina, tossing her hood and jacket on the table. " Where is Ripse ? I will play with him.”
Tryntie silently pointed to a barrier built across the bedroom door, behind which the chubby infant was seen busily engaged with some hits of broken china.
“ I will get over there, too, and watch you,” said the visitor, stepping over the light boundary. " Nobody can make such patterns in the sand as you, Tryntie.”
“ Ei! Ei ! ” cried the flattered little woman, hastening to fetch one of her best chairs.
“Oh, Tryntie, I’’m so glad — you know not how glad — to see you ! I wish I could run away, and come to live with you.”
“ Zoo ! Zoo ! ”
“ Mother is like some other one ; she thinks to herself. She does not heed one. She grows harsh and strange.”
“ ’T is nothing.”
“ Yes, but it is. Mind you the time she would not let me go to Staaten Island, and Hester, Hester herself, came to beg for it ? And now, this very morning, when I asked to go and see Hester, she broke out with such anger.
I never saw her so. I cannot think what is the matter.”
“ 'T is nothing, quite nothing,” said Tryntie, soothingly, as she cast the sand thickly about her.
“And Hester, — she also is grown strange, these last days,” continued Catalina, as she watched the busy huysvrouw. “ She thinks to herself, too. Sometimes she heeds not at all when I speak.”
“ What matter? ” interposed Tryntie, as she went on dexterously forming with her broom, in the sand, a wide border of an intricate shell-work pattern all around the room.
“ Because she has secrets from me. Only yesterday I came upon her suddenly, and she hid something in her bosom.”
“ M-m! ” exclaimed Tryntie, leaning her chin upon the top of her broomhandle, and gazing at Catalina with a knowing look. " Did she do that ? ”
“ Yes, did she and turned red as a rose up to her very hair.”
“ Zoo ! ” said Tryntie, nodding her head significantly.
“ What is it ? ” cried Catalina in uncontrollable curiosity. “ Tell me, Tryntie ! ”
“ I see something in the meal, that day they come from the Kolch together.”
“ They ? ”
“ And the buttermilk ” —
“ What ? ”
“ ’T was all for him.”
“ Him ? ”
“She touched not a drop; ’twas all for him. See that ? ”
“No, no. What is it ? ”
“ And Staaten Island ? ”
“ Yes ? ”
“ I go with them. They say not a word to me all the day, but whisper, whisper, whisper to themselves.”
“ What do you mean ? ”
“ Come here, my treasure. Help me with the schoorsten valletje,” said Tryntie, bringing forth a long strip of pink-checked calico, freshly washed and ironed. “ There, take you hold of that end. I mean,” continued the dame, as she pinned up her end of the long valance across the top of the fireplace, “she has a sweetheart.”
“ Hester ? ” cried Catalina in a shrill, startled tone, dropping her end in the ashes.
“ Mm-m.”
“ Who — who is it ? ” she demanded, clutching the little vrouw’s arm.
“ No less than the son of the worshipful mayor himself.”
“ That big — rough — saucy — hateful creature ? ” gasped Catalina.
“No such a one, but a fine, tall junker as ever I saw.”
“ Oh, Tryntie. you are the only friend I have left in the world ! ” and throwing herself into her nurse’s arms, she burst into a violent fit of sobbing.
X.
Catalina was inconsolable at what she considered the loss of her friend. That Hester should have deserted her was had enough ; that she should have kept from her a secret, and a secret of such moment, was worse; but the cruelest blow of all was to find herself supplanted in her friend’s affection by that odious junker Van Cortlandt.
She met this first trial of her life in a rebellious, undisciplined spirit. By turns she was a woman, by turns a child. She underwent rapid changes of mood, abounded in whims and caprices, developed a contempt for food and sleep, together with other small eccentricities betokening a mind ill at ease.
The begum, used to frequent fluctuations in Catalina’s spirit thermometer, gave little heed at first to these new symptoms, and not until several days had passed awoke to the fact that something unusual had happened.
Her action, upon this discovery, was interesting. She did not question Catalina; she refrained from talking with her; she only narrowly observed her. By patient brooding over the matter, it gradually dawned upon her mind that the trouble dated from her daughter’s last visit to Tryntie.
Communication with the bouwerie was frequent, and a pretext was soon found for summoning Tryntie to the house upon some domestic business. The unsuspicious Catalina was quietly sent away on an errand that morning, and the vrouw, when she arrived, was shown at once to the room where the begum sat at her embroidery.
The lady graciously nodded to her visitor, and by a gesture indicated a rug just in front of the tambour-frame as a place for her to stand.
“ You are always welcome,” she said, without interrupting her task. “Goes all well at home ? ”
“ At the best, many thanks.”
“ The little one grows ? ”
“ That does he.”
“ And the goodman is in health ? ”
“Always, I thank you much.”
“ ’T is fine weather now for your tulips,” continued the hostess, stopping to pick out a false stitch, while her visitor stood waiting with an air of deference.
“ Nothing can be better.”
“ Has it happened you have plucked your geese yet ?”
“ Not yet, my lady. I am waiting for a day.”
“ We have need of some feathers. Let me have all you can spare.”
“ That you shall, and the best.”
“ Catalina says you have a fine flock.”
“ ’T is not much.”
“Catalina goes often to your house. She plagues you, I fear.”
“ Never. She comes too little.”
“ She gave me no account of her last visit.”
“ Zoo ? ”
“ I hope nothing went amiss, " and the lady accompanied her words with a searching look.
Tryntie cleared her throat, and hesitated. The begum became intent upon a snarl in her silks.
“ She is heart-broke that Hester has a sweetheart.”
An effect like the passing of a ray of light across a picture was seen in the begum’s face.
“ And who is the junker? ”
“ Mynheer Van Cortlandt.”
The busy needlewoman pricked her finger. Pausing to stanch the blood, she murmured in a commonplace tone :
“Ah, my head, — it forgets everything ! We are in great need of eggs. Pray you, send a basket by Rip in the morning.”
Long familiar with the peculiarities of her former mistress, Tryntie showed no consciousness of this sudden change of subject.
“ He shall bring the last that are laid.”
“ So. Then I need not keep you longer here, when you are thinking of the little one at home.”
“ Take your time. I had not a thought of him.”
Casting a compassionating look upon the dullard who had failed to take her Hint, the begum went on with her work without, condescending to offer another. Tryntie, after waiting patiently several minutes for further recognition, shifting the while awkwardly from one foot to another, at last began to understand.
“ The feathers and—the eggs — 't was for that you wanted me ? ”
“ Only that.”
The lady’s small black eyes were as unfathomable as beads, as she gravely returned the vrouw’s parting salute.
After an understanding so explicit the begum was naturally astonished to hear, early next morning, that Vrouw Van Dorn was at the door again, demanding to speak with her. Dissembling a look of curiosity, she signified by a gesture that the visitor should be admitted.
Entering the room, Tryntie walked forward, and without a word of warning or preamble exclaimed : —
“ Hester is shut up ; the door is locked against her; she is never to see or speak with her sweetheart again! The beautiful junker is driven home like a dog! Hester cries herself sick! She sends for Catalina ! ”
Although the begum sat motionless while these spasmodic sentences were exploded in her ear, certain interesting changes took place in her countenance. She plainly resisted divers impulses to exclaim, to interrupt, to start from her seat. To such good effect did she control herself, however, that Tryntie waited impatiently a whole minute for her to speak.
“ Her father does this ? ”
“ Who else ? ”
“ He hates Mynheer Van Cortlandt ? ”
“ 'T is like.”
“ He cares nothing to make his child happy? ”
“ Not he.”
“ He shuts her up like a thief. He thinks only of himself. He will make all bend to his will.”
Even in her own agitation Tryntie noted the growing intensity of these utterances. Her look of wonder warned the speaker, who, checking herself, said abruptly: —
“Catalina is in the garden. ’T is better for you to tell her.”
Tryntie, nothing loath, went on her errand. Left alone, the begum, throwing off her head-dress, passed her hands nervously over her face, and otherwise showed signs of agitation. Directly, however, at the sound of footsteps in the passage, she resumed her self-control as effectually as if it had been a garment.
Tt was Tryntie again. Quite forgetful of decorum, she came rushing in with the announcement, —
“ She will not budge ! ”
The begum was plainly very much astonished.
“ Not? ”
“ Not a step.”
Through and beyond the breathless dame, as it she had been imponderable ether, the lady stared for several minutes. The result of her reflection directly appeared. Her action, however, remains as puzzling now, after the lapse of nearly two centuries, as it seemed at the moment.
“Go bring her here,” she said presently, as if awaking from sleep.
Tryntie Went out, and after a few minutes came leading in the reluctant Catalina.
“ You will not go to your friend ? ” asked the mother in a tone of reproach.
“No! no! no! ” vehemently. “She is no friend, — she has left me. Her heart is changed, — she has another. Let her have him ! I am glad she is shut up, — glad ! glad ! glad ! Now she sees who is her friend, — now she thinks of her dear Catalina ! ”
Waiting until this outburstof passion had spent itself, the mother said simply :
“ ’T is yourself, then, you love, yourself you most think of. If you had loved your friend, you would have pity on her when she is unhappy.”
This deft and nicely timed touch did its work.
“ I do pity her, — I do pity her, and I will go to see her, but she is no longer my friend ! No longer — no longer — no longer! ”
Burning indignation at the insult put upon him by Leisler for a time overmastered all softer emotions in Steenie’s heart. Impatiently he waited for the condign punishment which he felt sure would be visited upon the offender. Undue notions of his father’s official power added to a warranted faith in his mother’s strength of purpose confirmed him in this belief.
Thus occupied with himself, he was for a long time blind to the significance of things going on in the town. Little by little, however, he awoke to a realizing sense that something very unusual was taking place; that in some inscrutable way the Winckel Street liquor-seller had risen into sudden and uncomfortable prominence; and that his own worshipful father, far from any thought of making the militant leader of the train-bands an object of discipline, was striving by frantic efforts to hold fast to the few shreds of authority still vouchsafed him by that worthy.
Together with the discovery that Captain Leisler had become a personage to inspire respect, not to say fear, came the news that Hester was shut up in the house by orders of her stern parent. There could be no mistaking the cause. Wrath straightway admitted Love a cotenant of his heart.
Thereupon, despite the threats of the tyrant and the warnings of his own family, he began to haunt the neighborhood of Hester’s prison. Back and forth he paced through the Strand, reckless of consequences, keenly scrutinizing every opening blind or fluttering curtain; but never a glimpse had he of the longed-for face.
With patience well-nigh exhausted, he was meditating some bolder move, when one morning he saw coming towards him, from the direction of the dock, a figure, in whom he presently recognized his new acquaintance of Smiet’s Vly.
“ Good-day, little one! ” he said, in the involuntary tone of patronage one uses towards a child.
He might have spared his condescension. The object of it ignored him utterly, and passed on her way without a look of recognition.
Steenie laughed aloud at this lofty air. He even turned with an amused look to watch the haughty damsel down the street. Where was she going? A thought flashed through his mind. Darting forward, he ran with all his might to overtake her.
” Wait! Wait. I beg you ! Catalina, I would speak with you ! ”
The little lady turned a deaf ear.
“ Catalina — Catalina ! ” he panted, in his eagerness actually laying hold of her arm. “ Wait 1 Listen to me !”
“ Dare to touch me,” she cried, almost fiercely, “ and I will call for the schout! ”
“ I mean no harm,” he faltered, quite humbly. “ I want to see you. I would have you stop.”
“ I will not stop.”
“ Truly, I must speak with you.”
“ Go speak with them that want to hear you.”
“ But you are the only one who can help me.”
“ I do not want to help you.”
“ Fie! Fie ! Do you bear malice for a little fun ? ”
” I do what I like. I ask not your advice.”
“ But I need your aid. I would ask a favor. You can do me a great service. Listen ! ” placing himself in her path. “ If I have given you offense, I am truly sorry. I ask pardon; I will make amends. I meant no harm. This is no time to bear grudges. Here is a grave matter. Hester, your friend, is shut up yonder. I cannot get speech with her. I cannot send her a message. You are going to see her. They will let you in. Take a word from me, I beg you! ”
” I will take no word. I will not listen to you. Never speak to me again. Let me go, I say ! ”
The astonished Steenie moved aside, and the wrathful girl swept by him.
At a loss what to do next, the junker sauntered down into the dock, where he saw a crowd gathered. In his aimless mood any distraction was welcome. He elbowed his way to the front, and found himself in luck. A young negro woman was about to be flogged ; they were just tying her to the whipping-post. Here was something which promised for the moment to lift his own weight of care. The girl merely shrank when the first blow fell upon her bare back. Atthe next stroke she screamed lustily, and the vigor of her outcries increased with the progress of the punishment. A murmur of appreciation ran through the crowd. Steenie’s own eyes glistened with a languid interest. Although a common sight, the incident had dramatic elements which raised it to the dignity of a diversion.
Finding, when this was over, no other such happy resource, the junker wandered vaguely across the bridge, and following the bank of the canal, climbed the Verlettenberg, the steep little hill at the head of the Heeren-Gracht. Here, for lack of anything better to do, he sat listlessly throwing sticks and stones into the canal, when his attention was drawn by a heating of drums.
Looking down upon the little fortress which lay below him to the right, he saw several of the train-bands under arms and undergoing drill. He saw, too, messengers coming and going, ox-carts of provisions arriving, and a general appearance of bustle and activity outside as well as within the walls.
A natural thought occurred to him. He looked to the left, down upon the Stadthuys: not a sound nor a sign of life appeared. The contrast was suggestive. The startled junker sprang to his feet.
“ The governor — the council — my father ! ” he cried. " Are they asleep ? What are they doing ? Do they know what is going on ? Will they make no move until it is too late ? ”
Urged on by a sudden resolution, he quickly descended the hill, and was about to cross the bridge, when he felt himself plucked by the sleeve.
He turned about, and beheld Catalina standing with averted and forbidding look.
“ You ? ”
“ She wanted me to come,” began the messenger in an implacable tone. “ I do it for her, and not for you.”
“ You have seen her! ” burst in Steenie, oblivious of all lesser considerations. “ What did she say ? How did she look ? ”
“ She says she will go to church on Sunday.”
“ Yes, yes.”
“ Perhaps her father may not be there.”
“ Whether he be or not ” —
“Then she may get a word with you.”
“She shall! she shall! Thank you, Catalina; thank you a thousand times! ”
“ I don’t want your thanks. I won’t have your thanks. I do it for her.”
XI.
Moved by the instinct of self-preservation. the procrastinating gentlemen at the Stadthuys at last made an attempt to appeal to public opinion. At the eleventh hour they decided to step down from their pedestals and have a talk with the people.
In ordinary times personal influence or official dignity might have gained them a hearing, but here were times out of joint, and, as they soon discovered, the malady they undertook to treat had already long since passed beyond the reach of preventive remedies. The fever was in the blood, and day by day fired more deeply the hearts of the lethargic Dutchmen.
There is reason to believe that Bayard disapproved these long-delayed and futile measures, but at the instance of his fellows he went forth with the mayor and Mynheer Philipse to reason with the excited crowds, gathered about the landing-place in the dock or upon the fort green.
“ What’s the matter here, my friends ? ” said the mayor, approaching the mob in the dock. What brings you together ? Has some harm befallen ?
With the lifelong habit of subordination, the men made way for their chief magistrate, but with no look or word of welcome.
“ What new thing has happened, I say ? Have you not work to do and bread to eat? Have you not wives and children and comfortable homes ? Is not God mindful of you more than you deserve, making your seeds to sprout in the ground, and sending sun and rain for your crops ? ”
Having no answer at hand to these awkward questions, the listeners maintained a sullen silence.
“ What’s lacking, I say ? Or who has done you any wrong ? What brings you here, forsaking your tasks and wasting the fair daylight with knitted brows and mutterings ?”
“ We 'll have no Papist to rule over us! ” cried out some one bluntly from the outskirts of the crowd.
Directly there was a hoarse cry of applause.
“ And who, tell me, is a Papist ? Is it Mynheer Philipse, or Colonel Bayard, or I ? ”
“ Them that go with Papists are no better than their company.”
“ Who is the Papist, I ask ? Not his Excellency ? ”
The speaker was interrupted by a loud murmur from the crowd.
“ Who dare stand forward and lay such a charge ? ” demanded the mayor, with a show of indignation. “Colonel Nicholson is no more a Papist than Dominie Selyns himself. He is an upright, honest man who will abide by the law and do justice to all.”
But though they could not answer, the good citizens would not approve. One by one each little group melted away and disappeared, and the astonished mayor found himself again and again without an audience. The other councilors had the same mortifying experience, and, meeting at noon near the Stadthuys, they gloomily confessed to each other the hopelessness of continuing their efforts.
Meantime, as weak measures are worse than none, they had done their cause a positive harm. The mob bad no stomach for truisms. They wanted dogmatism, not logic ; brute force, not persuasion. They wanted boldness, decision, action, — in short, leadership. And they found it.
Down at the fort, like a clarion, rang out incessantly, morning, noon, and night, the warning voice of their self-appointed leader, the prophet of the hour.
The fateful wheel was already set whirling, and it knew no pause. In motion only a revolution has life and being. Like an unquenched fire, it must needs move on with ever swifter and fiercer progress until its desolating work is done.
Affairs in the province grew momently worse. News of discontent, of msubordination, of outbreaks, poured in daily from the country districts. In the town something in the very air told of the impending crisis. The old leaders seemed stricken with paralysis, the new nerved with a superhuman energy. The people awaited in tragic suspense the approach of the fateful Lord’s Day, concerning which so many dark forebodings had been uttered.
At last it came. Strange to say, Providence saw fit to lighten the darkness of doom by causing the sun to shine, the birds to sing, and the waves to dance in the bay as usual. The worthy citizens were shocked by so gross an incongruity. They confidently expected the day to be marked by awful convulsions of nature : tempests, earthquakes, and upwhirled Sulphurous flames from the bottomless pit. With equal trust they looked for invading hordes of French and savages, for the uprising of some secret mysterious order in society, to annihilate all good and virtuous men.
Heavily the moments of the fair May morning wore away. Suddenly the tense silence was broken by the tolling of the silver-tongued bell in the fort. The sweet familiar sound sent a chill to the very marrow of the watching and waiting citizens. Had it come at last? M as this the signal for the massacre to begin ? Was it their own knell ? No.
It was simply the call to the morning service, — a call which all their lives they had obeyed. Now, too, they must obey it, though fire and sword or devastating flood barred the way.
With nerves high strung by long suspense, with faces ominous of evil, they marched forth, those honest burghers, followed by their wives and children, — marched stoutly forth, with the air of conscious victims to the martyr’s post.
Arrived within the fort, they found a passing relief in the presence of the large crowd of their friends and neighbors assembled. The fortifications gave a sense of security, and their place of worship was a second home to them all.
The famous little church is well known to students of history ; it stands forth a prominent and striking feature in all the early views of the town, with its double-peaked roof and its marble inscription proclaiming: —
WILHELM KIEFT DIRECTEUR GEN ERAL
HEEFT DE GEMEENTE DESEN TEMPEL DOEN BOUWEN
Within, though severe, it was not less picturesque, with its big stoves hoisted up on stilts to a level with the gallery, its old chandelier fitted with long candles, its droll little octangular pulpit in which the dominie looked dangerously like a jack-in-the-box, and its hell-rope dangling in the middle aisle.
Filing in as the last stroke of the bell sounded, the men took their places on a raised bench which ran around three sides of the room, while the women and children silently seated themselves in the middle space. The church seemed cold and a little damp after the warmth of the outer air and the pervading smell of tobacco denser than usual this morning, as the men puffed fiercely at their pipes.
Precisely upon the point of the hour Dominie Selyns climbed into the pulpit, inverted the hour-glass on the desk, and looked down upon the deacons sitting in a row beneath him as if noting the absence of a well-known figure ; then gazing calmly about upon his anxious congregation, in unfaltering tones he gave out the hymn “ A firm city is our God.”
The zieken-trooster, with less command of himself, pitched the tune a full half tone below the key, and the congregation sang it through in distracting discord. The hymn ended, there was an unusual interruption to the service.
A dozen or more slips of paper were handed up to the clerk, who in turn passed them one by one up to the high pulpit, on the end of a split stick.
It was a matter of much surprise to the congregation that, notwithstanding these numerous petitions, no allusion was made to the disturbed state of affairs Save this one brief passage in the long-drawn prayer: —
“ O God of hosts, in the multitude of Thy creatures we are as nothing, yet Thon carest for us ! Teach us, we pray Thee, to put away vain fears, to dread no evil but Thy wrath ! Teach us that while Thou art near no harm can befall us, and that Thou art with the chosen of Thy people even from everlasting to everlasting!”
Midway the sermon the dominie suddenly stopped. The deacons marched out and stood in a row under the pulpit, facing the people, each carrying upon his shoulder a pole with a bag at the end, from which depended a little bell. The dominie solemnly pronounced a blessing upon the collection about to be taken, and the deacons started upon their rounds, passing the bag scrupulously under the nose of each individual, the poor and rich alike, who, warned by the tinkling of the bell, could by no means feign abstraction.
From his seat on the raised bench set apart for the men Steenie commanded the whole congregation. Presently his eyes brightened, his lips moved, he started forward in his seat, and with difficulty restrained himself from crying out. Vrouw Leisler, with her daughter, was coming down the aisle. One glance at Hester’s pale cheeks and downcast eyes sent the hot blood in a flood to his face. He saw her unhappiness, and remembered the cause of it.
Oblivious now of the preacher’s words, oblivious of the people’s anxiety, the junker sat with unconcealed impatience gazing upon that one rude bench and its occupant. Hitherto, Hester, glancing furtively about, had failed to discover him ; but in the general movement attending the taking of the contribution she made a more careful survey. Their eyes met. A hundred words were compressed into the glance.
Meantime, the anxious people, although intent upon every outside movement, were yet somewhat reassured by the serenity of their pastor and the calm and orderly conduct of the service. Coming forth from the little sanctuary, however, they found themselves once more in the stifling atmosphere of plots and omens. It was whispered that Leisler and the captains of the train-bands were closeted in secret session in the governor’s house, of which they had latterly taken possession. Several of the train-bands stood drawn up in arms, ready for any emergency. The sentinels stalked up and down with a portentous mien.
After the service many of the little flock gathered about their pastor for comfort and advice. He could give them no good reason for so sudden and profound a disturbance of the peace, but bade them be of good cheer, and he would go himself and confer with Captain Leisler, and learn, if possible, the real state of affairs.
True to his promise, the dominie went straight to the governor’s house, and demanded admission. After some delay he was ushered into a large, low-studded room, where stood the object of his search busily haranguing his associates.
Leisler paused, and a momentary look of discomfiture swept over his face upon the abrupt entrance of his pastor.
“ Deacon Leisler,”said the divine, not without severity, “ I missed your presence at church. If leaders and elders be wanting, how shall the common sort be kept to their duty? ”
“ Dominie, ye know well I am not often wanting,” answered Leisler in a tone of respect, “nor would I now be but for matters of grave moment which hold me here.”
“ There be no matters of graver moment than your duty to God, nor can ever be.”
Somewhat taken aback by this prompt reproof, Leisler had need to consider a moment his reply.
“ There be other duties than praying and psalm-singing.”
“ What other duty may there be to warrant you in breaking God’s divine commandment to keep holy the Sabbath Day ? ”
“Watching over the safety of his people,”retorted Leisler quickly ; “taking care they be not betrayed to the enemy; taking care that fire shall not visit his sanctuary nor destruction overcome his flock.”
“ And whence comes this peril ? ”
“ From the arch-enemy of mankind, from yonder whore of pollution, the Church of Rome.”
“ The damned Papists ! ” broke in Stoll.
“ Where find you proof of this ? ”
“ Everywhere. On every side they are plotting to destroy us. They lie in ambush in our midst. They are ready to rise. When the hour comes and the signal is given, the town will run red with the blood of its people, and the sky be blackened from the ruin of our homes.”
“ How comes this to your ears, and not to mine ? ”
“ I am not to tell every man what I know,”answered Leisler, his eye flaming with enthusiasm, and his person assuming a lofty port. " 'T is enough that I know it. And yonder traitors have done it all! ” pointing towards the Stadthuys.
A loud murmur of approbation from those about him encouraged the speaker to proceed.
“I am put forth by my fellow-citizens to protect them. I stand in the breach.
I stand here ready and waiting, and if those dogs and traitors do but raise a hand ” —
“ By God, we will sweep them from the earth !" shouted Stoll, finishing the sentence.
“Silence!” thundered the dominie, turning with blazing eyes upon the speaker. “One breath from Him whose awful name you mouth so glibly would send your hardened soul to burn in everlasting fire ! ”
The abashed ensign quailed before this vigorous rebuke, and interfered no more in the conversation.
And as for you, Deacon Leisler,” pursued the dominie in a warning tone, " take heed what you do in the name of the Almighty ! Take heed you stir not men to strife without cause! Take heed the fever of ambition or the greed of revenge moves you not to deeds for which you shall answer before a mightier tribunal than that of men ! ”
With these words the undaunted preacher turned upon his heel and withdrew.
In the general confusion attending the coming forth of the congregation, Hester found no difficulty in slipping away with Steenie. Regardless of the general panic, regardless of the impending peril, they walked calmly out of the fort, and, following a beaten path which led towards the water, made their way to the Copake rocks, a bold ledge which formerly jutted forth into the North River, not far from the fort. Here, among the nooks and crannies of the cliff, they easily found a seat quite secure from landward observation.
They sat for a space silent, clasped in each other’s arms.
“ Steenie ! ”
“ My sweetheart! ”
“ What shall we do ? ”
“ We will run away.”
“ No — no ; that I dare not,” said Hester, startled at the bold suggestion.
“ Would you go back to that — to him yonder ? ”
“He is my father,” faltered Hester, in meek protestation.
“ And what if he be ? ”
“ I owe him duty and obedience.”
“ You owe him nothing. He has forfeited all claims upon you.”
“ The Bible says ” —
“ Honor your father and mother. Good, while they are worthy of honor; it says nothing of honoring a tyrant.”
“ We live in great dread of him,” she went on, after a little, in a tone of self-justification, “Mary and mother and I, — he is so changed. We are nothing now to him. His head is full of plots and conspiracies. He calls himself a prophet.”
“ He is ” — The wrathful junker checked himself. " 'T is all talk, brag, and bluster, to deceive the vulgar, to bring himself to power.”
“ We know not what to think. He talks of a great work he is called to do, of blood to be shed, of fire and ruin and slaughter— Oh, 't is terrible to hear! Then he fixes his eye on a point in the air, and talks in a way we cannot understand. We dare not speak. We dare not cross him. If anything goes wrong, he flies into a mighty passion, and swears most wickedly.”
“ He is a madman. 'T is not safe to live with him. You shall not go back, — never! ”
“Truly I shudder at the thought. We watch for his coming. We dread to hear his step. When we wait to meet him, ’t is a mercy if we miss a cursing. If, however, we run away and hide out of his sight, he sends fiercely to hale us forth.”
“You shall never go back.”
“ Oh, what else can I do ? There is no help for me.”
“ There is, I say.”
“ How, tell me, and where ? ”
“ Listen! I have a kinswoman at Vlacktebos. She will receive you for my sake. ’T is far away enough from town to be secure.”
Hester looked tempted, but irresolute.
“ She is a good, pious woman, and will give you kind treatment. After ’t is discovered you are gone, and the storm is blown over, I will go counsel with Dominie Selyns upon what’s to be done.”
“ I fear, — ’t is an awful thing to run away from home. How shall we come to this place ? ”
“ Easy enough. We may go in my ketch to Breuckelen, and make the rest of the way on foot, at the very worst.”
“ We might be seen setting forth.”
“ Not a bit. We will sail after nightfall. Come, let us go this very night,”
“ Sh-h ! ”
A sound of marching feet and a clatter of arms were heard approaching from the left. Looking around, they saw a sergeant of the train-bands with a squad of a half-score armed men, to whom had been assigned the duty of patroling the shore to guard against any hostile assault by sea.
“ Ei! Ei! ” hiccoughed the sergeant, with a vinous utterance. “ What’s here ? Here’s mis-mischief hatching! Misch— hic — mischief — see ! ”
“ Get away with you ! We are peaceable citizens minding our own business, " said Steenie, starting up indignantly,
“ and I warn you to have a care how you molest us.”
“ He-hear him, men ! Look ye here, young cock, no crowin’ here ! I ’ll — I 'll tell ye wh-what ye are !
“It’s Rip! ” exclaimed Hester in astonishment, as the men drew nearer.
“ Eh ? ”
“Rip Van Dorn, — Tryntie’s goodman.”
“He’s a meddling fool, whoever he be.”
“ 'T is only that he has stopped too often at Vrouw Litsehoe’s " —
“ I ’ll tell ye wh-what ye are,” pursued the vigilant sergeant. “ Pa-Papists, — a couple of damned Pa-Papists batching a p-plot.”
“ Hold your saucy tongue, and go your way! ” cried the junker, beside himself with rage.
“ A plot, I — hic — say, — hatching a plot ! I — I’ve been hunting for ye all day ! Fetch — fetch ’em along to the captain ! ”
“ Rip! ” cried Hester, aghast at this threat. “ Look at me ! Do you know who I am ? ”
“ ' Rip’! Humph ! There ’s no R-Rips here, mark ye ! ” with an unrecognizing leer. “Sergeant, if ye p-please,— Ser-Sergeant Van Dorn, at your bidbidding.”
“ Listen ! " continued Hester severely. “ You know very well who I am.”
“ That I do. Ye 're a Pa-Papist, — a damned fine little Papist ! ”
“ Hush, I say! I am nothing of the kind, and you know it well. So now pray lead your men away, and go about your business.”
Sergeant Van Dorn shook his head, and hiccoughed out a very cunning laugh.
“ My business ! So ! That will I, and t-take ye along with me ! Ye shall g-go to the captain and t-tell all about the p-plot ye ’re ma-making here with this other Pa-Papist! ”
Whereupon, in spite of entreaty, threat, or expostulation, the two were led away in custody by the triumphant Rip.
Edwin Lassetter Bynner.