The Begum's Daughter

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY:

A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics.

VOL. LXIV. — OCTOBER, 1889. — No. CCCLXXXIV.

XIX.

ONE morning, before he was dressed, Leisler was told that, a lady in much distress waited below to speak with him. This every-day incident failed to awaken any interest in the commander, who finished his toilet with deliberation.

On his way down-stairs, as it chanced, he met a slave going up with a dish of fresh olykoecken. A circumstance so very unusual directly excited his curiosity, and he stopped to question the woman, who explained that it was a gift to Hester from Vrouw Van Dorn, just left at the door by Rip with his basket of garden stuff.

Content with this plausible explanation, the fasting official, without thinking of his action, helped himself to one of the cakes from the heaped-up dish, and munched it as he went his way.

Hester greeted her gift with a look of joy, — with the look of a gourmand at sight of his favorite tidbit. In her eagerness she even proceeded to count the cakes. Suddenly her face fell. She counted them again ; she overturned the dish upon the table, and carefully replaced them one by one. The tale was always the same. Her face settled into deeper disappointment.

“ Ye-es — ‘t is very kind in Vrouw Van Dorn to remember me — I like olykoecken so much — and these seem very good. Go take them to the kitchen.”

The puzzled slave withdrew, leaving her distraught young mistress to finish dressing. Called presently to breakfast, Hester went moodily down-stairs, where she found her father still occupied with his visitor. She caught a glimpse of the petitioner’s face as she passed through the hall: a. pale woman, with a look of faded beauty and an air of suffering. Her father was talking in a voice even louder and rougher than usual. She heard the tag-end of the conversation ; she had no choice. It was for anybody s benefit within stone’s-throw of the house.

“So! he has found out. then, who is master here, — and so will the rest of his damned crew, every traitor of them. They will hatch Papist plots, they will stir up the French and Indians, will they ? ”

“ Whatever my husband did, he thought it his duty ” —

“ Bah-h-h-h ! ” ‘

“ If he has done wrong, he has paid a hitter penalty. He has been punished enough; he is sick. he is suffering. ’T is cruel to keep him in that dreadful prison ! ”

“ So! he finds it not a bower, then ? I ’m glad of that.”

“ ‘T is a deadly place: the damp stands in drops on the wall ; ‘t is not fit for a beast, much less a Christian. His health fails, he is wasting away — he cannot live there.”

“ Hah ! better men have lived all their lives in a dungeon.”

“ He will pledge himself to meddle in public affairs no more.”

“ He is late with his pledges,” with a scoffing laugh. “ I take care myself now of all that.”

A gleam of spirit leaped up for a moment in the woman’s eyes, and it was with great difficulty she kept her voice pitched to the petitioner’s key.

“ If you could but see him now,” she began, after making sure of the conquest over herself; “he has not strength left to do you any harm. If you will but let him come back to his family ” —

“ No, I say; you have my answer. Get you gone ! Let the dog humble himself ! Let him do his own begging! ”

Bolting his breakfast after the agitation of this scene, the commander went away to the fort without another thought of the olykoecken.

Near the dock, as it chanced, two ox-carts, passing, obstructed the narrow street and brought him to a stand-still. As he stood waiting, a man and a woman, turning into the street from the direction of the Heeren-Gracht, came full upon him. Whirling about with a suppressed exclamation, the woman gazed fixedly at the bay. The man stopped to speak.

“ Well, Staats ? ”

“ I have been to see the prisoners, as you desired, and ’t is fit I should call your attention to their condition.”

Leisler scowled.

“ Bayard is in a bad state. If he be not presently brought forth from that place and well cared for, I will not answer for his life.”

“ Let him die and rot, and go to hell, then ! Look to your own affairs, and keep your hands from meddling in matters of state.”

Roaring out this answer as he brushed past them, the commander held his way to the fort.

There was an interval of silence ; then the begum, slowly turning, laid her clawlike hand on her husband’s arm. He looked down at her sullenly. Raising herself upon her toes, she peered into his face.

“ This is the great, good man God sends to save the people! ”

Regardless of the effect of his words, Leisler strove, by a fierce application to other matters, to forget the unwelcome subject which had been forced upon his attention twice in the course of the morning.

Arrived at the fort, notwithstanding the early hour, an expectant crowd was already waiting to get speech with him. Silent and scowling, he stalked through the midst of them, roughly thrusting off one or two who were bold enough to pluck him by the sleeve, in the hope thereby of getting an earlier hearing.

The large, low-studded room which he had made his headquarters was a scene of confusion : arms, ammunition, provisions, harnesses, broken furniture, parts of uniforms, were scattered about on benches or on the floor, while a large table near the windows was piled high with papers in hopeless disorder.

At this table he took his seat, and one by one the petitioners filed in.

A stout farmer from Hempstead, sent up by his neighbors, came to warn the commander that if he persisted in enforcing the last, tax levy there would be an uprising ; that the people had borne all they could bear ; and that certain outspoken folks boldly said his assembly, called together from here, there, and everywhere, had no right to lay taxes on folks not represented in it.

The man stopped to take breath and observe the effect of his words. Despite his hulking form, his heavy sunburnt features framed in long matted locks of tow-colored hair, his coarse homespun, which added to the general clumsiness of his appearance, there was an earnestness in his manner, a significant, look of resolution about his coarse mouth, which should have inspired respect.

Leisler, however, gazing sternly at the wall before him, said only, —

“ Is that all ?”

“ Ei ? Is it not enough ? ”

“ Bring in the next,” to the sentinel.

As the discomfited farmer withdrew, two deacons from the Vlacktebos church came to beg for the release of their pastor, Dominie Varick, who had been shut up in prison for too plain speaking in the pulpit. The big furrows between the listener’s eyebrows deepened, as the worthy pair went on to urge that worse talk than the dominie’s could be heard on every corner ; that folks could not be hindered from speaking their minds; that on account of this and other like acts of severity-people were getting daily more outspoken, and it would be well for them in power to take warning.

“ The next! ” bawled the commander for answer.

A tradesman in the dock came to complain that some of the soldiers from the fort helped themselves to his wine and brandy, and when they could drink no more destroyed and made waste of it.

“ And what better use could it be put to ? Get along with ye ! ”

“ Captain Ludowyck ! ”

Notwithstanding the scowl with which he was greeted, the new-comer walked boldly forward and delivered himself of his errand in a firm voice.

“ I come here to ask ye no favor, Jacob Leisler. I come to tell ye the truth whether ye like it or no. The whole town is stirred up over this story of Bayard; ‘t is said he is in a bad state and growing worse. ‘T is said ye know it. well, and will not let him forth. Heed me or not. as ye choose ; but I warn ye, if harm comes to him, ‘t is not these walls nor yonder handful of men will save ye from the wrath of the people.”

Clutching the heavy table before him with his big hairy hands, the listener had much ado to control the paroxysm of rage which convulsed his whole person, as his former fellow-captain of the trainbands turned on his heel and walked calmly away. Doubtless he was amazed that there still lived in the community a man bold enough to make such a speech to his face.

Dr. Gerardus Beekman ! ” called the sentinel, opening the door again.

At sight of his next visitor, a tall, spare, dignified figure in clerical dress, the commander’s face somewhat relaxed.

“ What now, doctor ? ” he asked, extending his hand.

“ Heigho! little that’s cheering, I grieve to say.”

“ So ? ”

“ We are losing ground, I fear ; there is much discontent ” —

“ Bah-h! ”

“ Worse than that, there is daily defection ” —

Leisler gave a scornful nod. " The people are ready to believe anything, and where there are eager ears, as you know, there is never dearth of wherewithal to fill them.”

“ What is said ? Out with it! ”

“ The worst is that you are sending every week ship-loads of things to the Indies to be sold, — household stuff you have stripped from these aristocrats, — and ” —

Lies ! lies, —damned infernal lies ! ” cried Leisler hoarsely, while his thick skin flushed crimson.

— “and that you line your own purse with the proceeds,” continued the doctor calmly. “ ’T is said and believed you have a rabid thirst for money, and that you are prepared to go any length to get it.”

“ Can I fight the Indians, can I build fortifications, can I carry on the government, without money ? ” asked the commander hotly.

“ No, but it must be raised by lawful methods. The pocket is the sore place. Let it be once believed that you will empty it without scruple, and your power is gone.”

The listener moved uneasily in his seat, and swallowed an execration that rose to his Ups. He knew this man was his friend, that he came with a friendly purpose to tell him the truth, — the truth at once so interesting and exasperating to hear.

“ Go on ! Go on ! What other lies, what worse slanders, are ye keeping back ? ”

“ There is great indignation that you meddle with the preachers.”

“ And think ye I ’ll have ’em preaching treason in the pulpit ? No ! ” striking the table with his clenched fist.

“ I ‘ll nail up every church door and thrust every parson into a dungeon first! ”

“ Have a care,”said the doctor, shaking his head. “ I speak for your good, as you well know. You are lost, if you go on after this fashion. The whole island is stirred up over Dominie Varick’s case, and this morning comes news from Albany that Dominie Dellius has been hunted out of town by Milborne for a slip of the tongue in his morning prayer, and this upon your order and procurement.”

The angry outburst which awaited the conclusion of this protest was cut short by an altercation at the door. The sentinel was denying entrance to somebody, who. rudely shoving that official aside, strode boldly into the room.

“Joost! ” The speaker’s face beamed with unmistakable delight, as he stepped forward, with both hands outstretched, to meet the sun-browned ensign just arrived from his long sea-voyage.

Dr. Beekman turned to go ; his leave-taking was unheeded. The two were left alone.

“ Well ? ” cried the commander, compressing into one short, sharp word all his unbounded curiosity and interest.

Honest Joost drew up a chair, and entered upon his story at once. He did not mince matters ; he blurted out the bald, ugly truth. His journey had been in vain. He had been snubbed at court; he had been kicked, and cuffed, and knocked about, thrust into corners, neglected, contemned, ignored.

“ But the king — his Majesty — ye saw him ? ”

“ That did I, and often ! ”

“ Ye spoke of me — ye told him how I saved the city — the province — from the Papists ? ”

“ All — everything — I tried to tell it.”

“ What said he to that ? ”

“ Said ! He heard nothing. He looked at me sideways — thus!” imitating with his fat neck and clown’s head the royal manner—“with just one look downward from my poll to my shoe-huckles — like this, see! —another illustration — “ and then ye would think I was there no more, for he turns to talk to some popinjay of a fine lord.”

“ And ye were put down by a look ? Why called ye not out, ‘ I come from your Majesty’s humble servant Jacob Leisler, to set forth how he suppressed a damnable plot of the Papists to seize upon your rich province of New York ’ ? ”

“All that I said, — all that and more ; but when I would go on, his Majesty turns him about, and waving his hand, — as it might be in this way. — ‘ Go,’says he. ‘ tell your story to the lord secretary ! ’ ”

Leisler started to his feet, nearly overturning the chair in his violence.

“Why did I ever send such an ass on this business ? I know ye well : ye went in to his Majesty in a greasy doublet, I ‘ll be hound, with dung on your shoes and your locks in a snarl.

“ That did I not! There was never a man in the chamber finer than I, — nor so fine : a grand new velvet doublet, which took every stuyver in my purse to pay for, with yellow hose, knots of green ribbon at my garters, new pinchbeck buckles in my shoes, my hair reeking with bear’s fat and a goodly sprinkling of civet. Ye d have sworn I was born to it, to see me ducking and kneeling down with my hat under my arm, like the best of ’em! I watched them close, never fear, to get tire trick of it.”

“ But the lord secretary, — what said he ? ”

“ Nothing but a ‘ Humph ’ and a ‘ Ha ’ and ‘ I ‘ll think upon it,’ and never looked fairly at me all the time I was there, but got upon his legs in the midst of my story, yawned in my face as he would swallow me, and went mincing and ambling out of the closet.”

“ Fool! And ye were content with this ! Ye took this for answer, and went no more!” broke in the listener fiercely, as if resolved to find his henchman at fault.

“ That did I not. I went every day, once, twice, and again, to his Majesty, to his Lordship, to the Plantation Committee, to everybody who had voice or vote in the matter, and I soon smelt out the rat.”

“ Ei ? ”

“ The reason of all the neglect and the insults.”

“ What ? ”

“ I found it all out.”

“ Will ye speak, fool ? ”

“ That damned Nicholson ! ”

Leisler snorted with rage.

“ I find him everywhere : creeping, — creeping like a snake out of the king’s closet, creeping into the lord’s waitingroom ; whispering, — whispering till he has turned all to poison.”

“ ‘T is true, then, that tale ? ”

“ He is sent to Virginia.”

“ And New York ? ”

“One Slonghter is appointed.”

Again the commander clutched the table, while his breath sucked in between his clenched teeth sounded like escaping steam.

” And that is not the worst,” continued the inexorable Joost.

“ Ei ? ”

“ Those dogs yonder are made councilors to the new governor.”

“ Who ? ”

“ Philipse, Van Cortlandt, and” —

“ And ” —

“ This one below,” pointing downward.

“ God Almighty ! ”

Seizing a heavy glass containing the lees of a stale dram, which stood near him upon the table, the incensed official dashed it into a thousand pieces on the floor.

” And not a word of Jacob Leisler.”

« Ei ? ”

“ Your name not mentioned in it all.”

“ Go ! Go ! Get along ! Leave me alone, will ye ? ” roared the agonized man, as he raged about the room like a wild beast.

Shocked and overawed at sight of the wrestlings of that strong spirit, the faithful ensign withdrew at last and left him alone.

Overwhelmed with a flood of curses at his attempt to usher in the next suitor in waiting, the wondering sentinel held the door against all comers, and the commander had it out with himself.

An hour passed. The sentinel ventured at length to open the door and take in a paper. There, white and haggard, sat his master glaring at the table, upon which lay a significant result of his meditation in the shape of a freshly written letter to Milborne, summoning him home from Albany. Leisler took the paper, opened it, and perfunctorily read the first few lines. His look of indifference quickly gave way in turn to one of surprise, to one of eagerness, to one of triumph, and finally, as he studied the signature at the bottom of the page, to a passing contortion of the muscles which fulfilled the functions of a smile.

That extraordinary signature the commander glared at so eagerly still merits study after the lapse of two centuries. It has become historic. With its elaborate flourish it looks like nothing so much as a skein of black silk hopelessly snarled, yet among the tangled lines stands out boldly enough the name Nicholas Bayard.

It was pathetic, that signature, in its feeble execution of a dashing intent; for it was the only bold touch in the paper. All the rest was meek enough. Grievous indeed must have been the case of the writer when he brought himself to address Leisler as “ lieutenant-governor,” when he promised respect and deference for the future, and humbly begged for pardon and release.

Straightway all the vexations of the morning are forgotten. The commander lifts again his head, the fire returns to his eye, and as the bell in the steeple close at hand rings forth the noontide hour he sets out, with a deep-heaved sigh, for his dinner in the Strand.

He walks along deeply absorbed in thought; he takes no heed of what goes on about him. Neighbors and townsmen pass and repass, like the figures in a dream. He sees them through a mist; their voices come like a distant murmur ; he is blind to their angry glances shot at him askance, deaf to their niutterings, not always low, as he passes.

High above their heads, grappling with great odds, he strides along. Something happens, — a common street incident. A hulking fellow is rolling a cask into a shop. His passage barred by this necessary business, the dreamer stops patiently. Through his abstraction the thought gradually penetrates to his mind that the fellow is purposely and impudently blocking his way ; directly he flames forth : —

The man, as if waiting for this remonstrance as a cue, makes a loud and saucy answer. Straightway a crowd of his fellows begin to gather from the neighboring shop-doors. The commander, nothing daunted, raises his halberd, whereupon, like the sudden bursting of a thunder-cloud, the whole pack set upon him.

“ Dog-driver! ”

“ Down with him ! ”

“ General Hog ! ”

“Butcher! ”

“ Tread him in the mire! ”

“ We have him now! ”

“ Give him no quarter ! ”

“ Deacon Jailer ! ”

“ Blockhead ! ”

“ Little Cromwell! ”

Pressing upon him, thrusting him into the mud, knocking off his hat, pelting him with offal, they were every moment advancing to greater indignities, when in a trice he turned upon them. Without a word of parley or threat, without deigning to draw his sword, lie fell upon them as upon a pack of dogs, with buffets and kicks, routing them utterly. Then pausing only to catch his breath and cast about him one wide-flashing look of triumph, he went his way.

Doubtless he little realized what a potent ally in the fray was the terror of his name. One man does not rout a multitude by the strength of his arms alone. But though he had come forth a victor, he had also learned a lesson. He took it to heart, and next morning a guard was appointed to wait upon the commander-in-chief wherever he went.

It is a proof otherwise how little weight the matter had with him that he made no mention of it at home.

“ Where is Rhynders ? ” he asked of Cobus, on reaching the house. “Go find him, and bid him make ready to go at once to Albany on a pressing matter ! ”

“ Barent ? He is gone ! ”

“ Where ? And who gave him leave ? ”

“Oh, little he cared for anybody’s leave ; be was ready to jump into the dock but for me.”

“ What ailed the lad ? ”

“ He bade me not tell.”

“ Out with it, I say ! ”

“ ’T is Hester, then,” went on Cobus, only too glad to unbosom himself.

“ What had Hester to do with him ? ”

“ He wanted to court her, and she turned him a cold shoulder, and when he pressed the matter let him know that never would she have anything to say to him.”

“ Will she not? So! What, she sends packing a lad like that, and just at the minute I have need of him ? Go call the hussy to me! ”

Quite unsuspiciously Hester came at her father’s bidding.

“ Ei, ei ! A fine trick ye have played with your airs and graces ! Ye send away Barerit — now— now when I want him ? Ye with your damned nonsense will have nothing to say to him, ei ? ”

Mary’s wedding was not forgotten. Hester turned ghastly white.

“ Ye will have nothing to say to the best junker in the province, — one that can keep his mouth shut, that has an old head on his shoulders ? Ye will have nothing to say to him ? ”

“ I — did he — who has said this ? ” stammered the dismayed culprit.

Ask me no questions ! No matter who said it. ‘T is the truth. I know ye. Ye think still of that sneaking cur of a Papist. Listen to me ! Mark ye, I say : I will have no child’s play. I send this very day for that junker to come back. I bring ye face to face with him, and let me hear ye say no to him then ! ”

Even the lips of the poor girl blanched, and her eyes had the look of one in a swoon. But though sorely tried, her nerves bore the strain. Leaning against the wall to steady herself, she directed a look at her father and tried to speak. Once — twice — thrice, but her voice stuck in her throat. In desperation she shook her head.

“ Ye will not! ” he ejaculated in hoarse amazement.

Uttered with shaking limbs, but with a look as resolute as his own, at last the faltering answer came : " An’ ye kill me for it, I will never marry him ! ”

XX.

This scene with her father proved to Hester a veritable moral crisis ; that is to say, a dividing point between all that had gone before and all that was to come. Like an electric storm, it had cleared the air. She could now look about her to better purpose, and, whatever else might come of it, her own position, at least, was sharply defined.

Despite her courage at the moment, however, directly it was all over she was seized with a feeling of panic. She well knew her father’s strength, she had little confidence in her own, and then there was the experience of Mary.

Pacing back and forth in her fireless little chamber all the next morning, careless of the biting cold, she scratched peep-holes in the thick hoar-frost covering the window-panes to catch glimpses of the outer world, as if in hopes thereby to find suggestion or relief.

At last the constraint of the four walls became intolerable. She must get out under the sky, away from the oppressing sense of human nearness. Putting on her quilted hood and long cloak, she left the house, turning, as it seemed, at random, hut in reality in obedience to the sub-conscious tension of a guiding rein which directed her thought always to one spot, her mount of promise, her outlook of hope and expectation.

Slipping and floundering up and down over the snow hummocks, worn to stony hardness by foot-passengers and ox-carts, which covered all the city streets, she made her way, in the teeth of a whistling wind, around to the bridge, and climbed the icy slope of the Verlettenberg.

There, with eyes turned wistfully northward, she studied long and anxiously every detail of the landscape. It lay in winter desolation, cold and still. Above the jumble of chimneys, gables, and snow-covered roofs in the near foreground there bristled the jagged line of the palisades. Beyond, as the island widened towards the mainland, the ground rose into high wooded hills, the leafless forests relieved here and there by rich masses of evergreens, while the interlying valleys were marked by white stretches where the thick, untrodden snow covered the frozen bouweries.

Again and again Hester intently scanned this whole region from river to river. A hawk soaring high in air, the pines and hemlocks of the distant forest billowing like ocean waves in the wind, the shadows of the clouds sweeping over the hills, the smoke curling up from a far-off farm-house, — these were the only signs of life and movement in the wide and varied scene.

What did Tryntie mean ?

The bleak wind, the hard, bright sun. the whity-gray sky, the outer solitude, — were these the comforting influences she sought ? Plainly Nature had no message for her. Thereupon, by a swift revulsion neither strange nor rare, she straightway yearned for the closer touch of her human kind. She bethought her of Catalina. Indeed, Catalina was intimately connected with this crisis. It was she who, however unconsciously, had brought it all about; who, whether by instinct or insight, had instantly detected the truth. Moreover, notwithstanding her caprices and fits of passion. Catalina’s loyalty was as steadfast as the sunshine. To Catalina she would go.

Down at the bottom of her father’s garden, where a miniature pond formed by the melting snow had frozen over, Catalina was found skating with her sisters. Hester stopped a moment to look on. The busy skater was reveling in her sport. With her fair hair blowing about, her eyes glowing, her cheeks well-nigh as bright as her scarlet hood, she was at the moment a sight to gaze upon. Despite the grotesque clumsiness of her dress, with its multitudinous petticoats and quiltings, despite the thick, shapeless shoes and clumsy Dutch skates which encumbered her feet, her figure asserted itself through all its uncouth wrappings in lines of grace and beauty.

Uttering a cry of joy at sight of Hester, she came plunging and staggering up through the drifts to welcome her. Filled with the abounding life, with the sense of power, with the madcap rollicking spirits, produced by vigorous exercise in the clear, cold air, she seized upon her friend with affectionate violence, hugged and kissed her, whirled her about, and dragged her breathless and protesting to the pond, where she fitted her, would she or no, to a pair of skates.

Although pleased with so cordial a reception, Hester was by no means in accord with this romping mood. It jarred upon her nerves ; it seemed, too, very silly and childish after her own late experiences. None of this internal discord, however, appeared upon her placid face, as she glided mechanically about after Catalina, who, like a young bacchante, whirled and swayed and circled around her with gay tauntings, with teasing gestures, with mucking, mischievous eyes, and all with the wild freedom of a swallow in its flight.

Now and then, as if to goad her dumpish visitor to some retaliation, the merry hoiden came down upon her with a tremendous bump, which brought them both, amid shouts of laughter, in a swirl of petticoats, to the icy floor.

Sitting still a moment to catch her breath after one of these downfalls, Catalina noted her friend’s preoccupation.

“ Something is the matter ? ”

The visitor looked in doubt whether to confess or deny.

“ Come, now, you need not shake your head. Out with it. I must hear. I love secrets, as you know. Will you tell ? ”

Still confidence hung fire.

“ You shall not budge from this place till you do. See, I will hold you fast ! You cannot stir! Come, I say ! ” with an imperative little shake. " What is it ? ”

Seeing the growing seriousness in the pleading face. Hester, who seemed only waiting for a sympathetic mood, at last yielded.

“ Do you remember, when you were last at our house, what you said ? ”

Catalina shook her head, with a puzzled look.

“ You were very peevish and rude. You got into a passion and went home before your time, and I thought you a silly little fool, as sometimes — pardon me — you are. Nay, you need not redden, for this time you were in the right.”

“ So ? ”

“About the junker,” continued Hester, reddening in her turn.

“ The new junker ? You are in love with him ? ”

“ No — yet ” —

“ You made him think so ? ”

“Yes, but I was innocent. It came about I know not how. He was always there ; he was like the air, the sunshine, comfortable like, but one took no note of him.”

Catalina drew closer, with increasing interest.

“ You came ; you opened my eyes. I was affrighted and drew back.”

“ And he ? ”

“ He thought me fickle.”

“ Yes.”

“ That I was sporting with him.”

“ And then ? ”

“ He would take no hints, no warnings ; he must needs make me speak, and I had no course but to speak truth.”

“ What said he then ? ”

“ He must needs be pleading,”

“ To he sure.”

“ Whereupon I thought it right and honest to have done with the matter then and there, and so made him understand there could be nothing betwixt us.”

“ How did he look at that ? ”

“ Woful he looked, poor junker, and wofully he took it. all to heart; for he straightway left his work and everything, and stole away home to Albany.”

Catalina drew a long breath of tragic interest,

“ But mark you now what befalls. Just then my father has need of him upon some public business. He is not to be found. The truth comes out. Father sends for me in terrible rage. He has heard an idle rumor somewhere that I had to do with it.”

“ What then ? ” demanded the listener, almost beside herself with impatience.

“He makes me speak. I tell the truth, whereupon he swears an awful oath that he will send and hale the junker back, and that I shall marry him, yea or nay.”

“He is a devil ! ” cried Catalina, with clenched fists. " My mother says so.”

Hester stared, even in the excitement of her confession, at this outspoken opinion of her father.

But you — you will not do it? What did you then ? ”

“ was affrighted almost beyond speech, hut I mustered strength to say I never would do it.”

“ He was worse at that ? ”

“I thought he would kill me upon the spot, for sure I am he suspected the truth ” —

“Suspected ’ ? But just now you said you had told him.”

“Nay, but the cause of my refusal.”

“You did not love the junker. That is enough."’

“ You grow a dullard.”

“Ei ? ”

“ Can you think of no other reason?”

An odd quick movement disturbed the listener’s face, a hot Hush mingled with the cool glow in her checks.

“ You see at last, little dunce ? ”

Without answering, Catalina turned and gazed a long minute, as it seemed, upon the ice-hound harbor.

“ Ei ? ”

“ You mean the other junker ? ” The tone was too elaborate in its indifference.

“ Who else ? ”

“ There is hope, then, he may come back ? ”

“ I don’t know,” faltered Hester, choking with tears at the unexpected question.

“ He is in danger ? ” cried her friend, all indifference gone.

“No-o, I hope not — perhaps. Tryntie has sent me a message. ’T is not the one I thought to get. I know not what it means. I only know he is near, — but sh-h ! ” looking timorously about. “Never breathe a word of this. It might bring harm to him.”

“ Have no fear.” The speaker drew herself up stiffly.

“ I must needs have fear. I am filled with fear. I breakfast and sup on nothing else. What will become of him ? What will become of me ? ” She quite broke down, and sobbed aloud.

Catalina was greatly shocked, for Hester was not of the weeping sort. Never before in all their childish troubles had she seen that steadfast face so convulsed. She stood for a moment in doubt. The struggle was short and sharp ; the victory not unworthy the pen of the recording angel. Throwing her arms about her weeping friend, she cried : —

“ Sh-h, Hester ! You shall not — you must not — I will not let you weep. All will come right. You will be happy. I will pray God for you. He will let no harm come to you.”

“But — but when that junker is fetched back from Albany, as surely he will be, to take me to wife, what then ? ”

“ I will tell you.”

“ Eh ? ”

“ Run away ” —

“ Catalina ! ”

— “ and — go — to — him ! ”

Four breathless little words, and every letter of them heroic. The listener saw nothing of that. She was thinking only that she had received the same advice from another source.

As usual, that night a squad of men kept watch and ward over the city walls. For many months this careful precaution had been taken against any surprise from the mysterious foe, who had never yet shown his head. As. however, night after night set for the dreaded onslaught wore peacefully away, the cry of Wolf began to lose its terrors, and the doughty sentinels, having spent the earlier hours of their watch in smoking, singing, and cracking stupid jokes, passed the later in impudently napping at their posts.

By good or ill chance, as it may be judged, Rip Van Dorn had been stationed at the Waterpoort. It will not be forgotten in what comfortable proximity this was to Vrouw Litschoe’s taproom, and justifiable doubts may arise as to the vigilance of the guard. But strange as it may appear, it was due to this very proximity that when the distant fort hell rang out its midnight peal there was one trusty sentinel awake to count the strokes.

His voice might have been a trifle thick and his step somewhat uncertain, but he was unmistakably awake, else had he never seen and clutched a dark figure which came leaping stealthily over the wall, in his very face, as lie staggered hack to his post from a visit to Vrouw Annetje.

“ Hola there ! ” muttered the stranger, struggling to his feet. “ Let go your hold ! Let go, I say ! ”

“We — th-think about that by and by, my fr-friend.”

“ Let go ! I come here on business.”

“ Zoo ? Ye come — hic — on business ? Good ! I —1 come on b-business too.”

“ Let go, my good man. ’T is a most pressing matter I have on hand.”

“ ’T is always p-pressing when one climbs o-over the wall.”

“ I had no choice but to climb the wall, when I could make nobody hear at the gate.”

“ Ei ? ” gasped the startled sergeant.

“ I might have pounded till doomsday for all of you, — a set of lazy rascals that sleep at their posts. Wait till the commander hears of it.”

“ We open not ga-gates to nighthaw-awks,” hiccoughed the sergeant defensively.

“You must open to him who gives the countersign, night or day.”

“ But we wait first till — hic — till he comes, that man with the count-countersign.”

“ He is here: I have the countersign ! ”

“ Truly ! ” with drunken irony. “ Out — out with it, then ! ”

“William of Orange ! ”

“ ‘T is true, as I live ! ” muttered the astonished sergeant.

“ Come! Come, then, let go your hold ! I must be on my way.”

“ Zoo ? ”

“ Beware how you detain me ! ”

“Who — who does bus-business at this — hic — this hour? ”

“ Quit your trifling ! ’T is with the commander himself.”

Far from being taken aback by this bold announcement, the worthy sentinel answered : —

“ Zoo ? Then I go with ye.”

“ Eh ? ”

“ I go — go — hic — with ye : I too have bus-business with the coin-commander.”

“ What ? Desert your post ? Have a care ! What I did others may do,” pointing to the wall.

“I — I go with ye to the coin-commander, persisted the sergeant, with tipsy concentration.

“ Very good, then,” coincided the junker, as if seized with a happy thought. “ Come along, so you make haste ! ”

“ Oh, we ’ll make ha— hic — haste enough.”

Stumbling and plunging along the snow-blocked Strand, the staggering officer, however unsteady in his gait, kept ever a tight clutch on his prisoner. Presently they came to a low, squat house in which a feeble light was still burning.

“ T is very cold,” said the stranger, with a suggestive shiver.

“ Humph — ’t is — ’t is — hic — that! ”

“ A glass of brandewyn might warm the blood.”

“ That would it, like — hic — nothing else in the world.”

“ What say you, then, to waking up old Annetje ? Think you she could be coaxed to give us a dram?”

“ One knows n-nothing till he tries — Mynheer,” chuckled the sergeant, turning with his prisoner into the wellknown haunt. “ Here, Annetje — where are ye, An-netje, I say ? ”

The wakeful vrouw came promptly forth from her flock-bed in a neighboring closet, lighted more candles, mended the fire, and made them welcome.

The stranger, meantime, seated himself in the dark corner of the chimney, and kept his broad-brimmed hat pulled forward over his face ; and as he spoke as little as possible he was clearly somewhat startled when the sergeant, warmed up by his first dram, hiccoughed slyly: —

“ ’T is the way to — tr-treat an old frfriend, this — ’n’ we — we ’re no strangers, ye — ye ‘n’ I ‘re no strangers, Mynheer.”

“ So ? ”

“ No-o ; we ’re old fr-friends, ye ’n’ I! ”

“ You are mistaken, my good man.”

“ Zoo ? There ’s a look — look about ye — one might th-think ‘t was Mybnheer Van ” —

“Ahem - hem ! ” coughed the prisoner, suddenly choking over his dram.

— " Mynheer Van Co-Cort— ” persisted the sergeant.

So ? Another dram there, vrouw ! ”

It was only by repeated drams that the inquiring sergeant could be deterred from the question of identification.

At last they rose to go. The stranger beheld with satisfaction the increased unsteadiness of his captor’s gait. None the less, on coming to the highway, he found it no such easy matter to shake loose from him.

“ Come, now, my good fellow, ‘t is time you were back at your post. Let us part. I thank you for your civility, and wish you good-night.”

“ Not, so f-fast,” hiccoughed the other, with drunken cunning. “I — I go with ye to — lic — the c-c-com-n-nder ! ”

“ Not to-night. I am in haste. Next time, my good friend.” objected the captive, striving to break loose from the still vigorous clutch.

“ I too, I go — to the com-com-mander’s with ye ! ”

Realizing that the moment for action had come, the prisoner, by a sudden and violent effort, wrenched himself free from the sturdy Rip, with one quick blow knocked him into the gutter, and sped away in the darkness.

Rip. however, like many another seasoned toper, clung fast to the main idea. Here was a running of the guard, the escape of a prisoner. Collecting himself, therefore, he took a horn from his belt and blew a blast that sent panic to the heart of the bold fugitive.

Taking by-paths and keeping in the shadow, the latter hurried with might and main through the sleeping town, his heavy boots making a crunching sound upon the frozen streets. Looking back, he heard the murmur of voices, the rush of feet; he knew the alarm had been given.

But his goal was almost reached. An anxious heart awaited him. A loving welcome was assured. His breath came quick and short, his pulse-throbs sounded like rumbling thunder in his ears, he felt cold and hot by turns. What mattered dangers and sufferings endured ? Was it not for her ? And she — was close at hand !

In such a tumult of thought and feeling he climbed the slippery hill, and stood at last upon the summit of the Verlettenberg. Hester was not there !

XXI.

In answer to a curt summons, Barent came reluctantly back from Albany in the train of Milborne. He realized, as it seemed, neither the gravity of his offense nor the clemency shown him, for he stared indifferently when told that he might have been shot for a deserter, and listened without apparent shame to the stern reproof of his superior. With the same stolid unconcern he accepted a warm hand-grip from his rugged chief when they met later in private.

At another time he might have fared worse. Just now there were more imperative things on the carpet than matters of petty discipline. Long consultations took place daily between Leisler and his returned lieutenant. They shut themselves up for hours at headquarters, while an impatient crowd thronged the gloomy waiting-room.

Far from being quiet, these closetings were marked by every sign of discord : shouts of anger, sniffs of contempt, stamping, and good round oaths not a few reached the wondering ears of those airing their heels in the passage. None the less, Leisler invariably came forth from these sittings with added courage and confidence.

Naturally enough, Milborne’s arguments were specious. He persuaded his listener — it was no difficult task — that his ill-success at the English court was due solely to the character of his envoy ; that, although prejudiced, his cause was by no means lost; that his petitions must still be read and would speak for themselves; that Sloughter’s appointment was only a sop thrown to the other side ; that there was no thought of really sending him over. Witness the long months which had intervened since his appointment, and still no news of his setting sail.

The commander took heart at this. He turned back with fresh energy to his work of levying new taxes, strengthening fortifications, and raising recruits, daily increasing the rigor of his rule as he noted signs of contumacy among the people, as he felt them writhe under his heavy hand and detected in their sullen looks hopes of speedy relief from over the water.

Time passed ; it presently turned out that Milborne had no divine gift of prophecy. One upon the other’s heels came two brief and momentous bits of news, two facts which resolved to air his soapbubble theories : item : all Leisler’s reports, justifications, and petitions had been referred by the king to the new governor and his council to pass upon ; item: the new governor himself, furnished with a goodly store of arms, ammunition, and troops, and a convoy of three fair vessels, had at last really set sail, and was coming, as fast as wind and wave would serve, to take possession of his government.

The commander’s thoughts and feelings upon hearing this news will never be known. To this hour his point of view remains a fruitful theme for study and dispute. What matters it now? Whether he was upheld by the serene faith of a fatalist, fired by the blind infatuation of a zealot, or nerved by the stubborn, dogged courage of a beast at bay, the result remains the same. Enough to know that he rose to the crisis and was equal to it; that if a doubt or misgiving pierced his breast-plate of confidence it carried no panic to his heart, nor shook the firm nerve with which he bided the event.

Such news could not be suppressed. It was blown abroad upon every wind to the farthest limits of the province. The result was quickly seen. Like a giant in toils, the impatient people strained at their bonds. From highest to lowest all felt a strange stir in their blood. An ominous cloud of revolution loomed in the west. The poison of anarchy floated in the air. Work was given over, trade neglected; placemen quaked in their shoes, household discipline was relaxed, saucy slaves went unwhipped. Even the immaculate stoops grew dusty, and the shining brass knockers, the pride of every Dutch vrouw’s heart, lost their brightness.

Outside the walls, the overjoyed exiles, hearing in their retreat of the promised deliverance, came flocking to the gates, awaiting the signal to rush in. The country districts reëchoed with rumors of risings and riots. On every hand, from every side, low grumblings of fear and hate swelled day by day into a sullen and universal roar of execration.

As yet, however, rebellion hut showed its teeth and spent itself in noise. Not the hardiest dared lift hand in actual revolt while yonder in the fort sat that man, watchful, unintimidated, ready with swift might to crush out the first show of insubordination.

Thus in harrowing suspense days and nights wore on. That cloud yonder in the west began to look fleet and sheer as a phantom, those soaring hopes of the exiles to come fluttering down like tailless kites. What meant the delay? For weeks the little fleet had been overdue. Still the vaporous horizon was unbroken by a sail, and the mysterious voices of the ocean in their sighings, soughings, thunderings, brought no tidings of its fate.

In such distraction all the humdrum routine of life came to a stand-still, like the whirring machinery in a factory upon the shutting off of motive power. Living became simply waiting. One occupation alone went on, steadily, regularly, without let or interruption: the roll-call from the fort still sounded forth upon the prick of the hour, and the trainbands went through their daily drill.

At last, one lowering morning, as the commander sat before his table at headquarters giving orders for the day, there came a gasping messenger with tidings of three vessels anchored off Sandy Hook.

The convoys ! — but the leader of the fleet, the frigate Archangel, which bore his Excellency, where was she ? None could tell. Worthy Lieutenant Ingoldsby could only say that he had parted company with her in a gale, and that he expected her hourly to arrive. Meantime, what was to be said to the good lieutenant ? Never since he came to power bad Leisler been so at a loss. He took time to consider. Fateful moments ! While he waited others moved. He still sat pondering the matter when news came that Van Cortlandt and Philipse had already slipped down the harbor to greet and welcome the stranger. He started to his feet as if with a futile movement to intercept them. Too late: for once he had been found wanting; for once his enemies bad scored a point. One little lapse, one moment of indecision, and the whole course of history is changed to the end of time. Of what avail now to send off the perfunctory greeting and half-hearted offer of hospitality which Milborne insists upon ? He submits, but knows it is in vain. His enemies have had a hearing ; the ears of the new-comer are already stuffed with calumnies. His case is prejudged.

Proof! Here it comes in the form of a messenger, a saucy rascal, from Ingoldsby, demanding the immediate surrender of the fort.

Behold the hand of his enemies already ! But they shall miss their expected triumph. Like a lion aroused from his lair, the outraged man roared in defiance.

What followed is well known. The record of those days glows still in letters of fire upon pages of history as familiar as they are famous.

Day and night the commander stood at his post, eating and sleeping within the fort. Without a thought of retreat or concession be braced himself for the struggle.

Meantime, the family in the Strand were left to themselves, for Cobus was with his father. Ignorant, for the most part, of what was going on, having only a vague sense of some impending calamity, they sat and awaited the result.

Vrouw Leisler gave vent to her anxiety in a formula of lamentation which through constant repetition had lost significance and degenerated into an unheeded whine, wherewith she relieved her stuffed bosom and beguiled the tedium of her daily tasks. Hester was, in reality, little disturbed. These crises, in truth, had come to be an old story. At intervals, ever since her father had had to do with public affairs, there had been these recurring threats of disaster and ruin. With so little real knowledge of the situation, how could she distinguish this case from others ?

Besides, she had her own affairs to think of, and food enough for thought they gave her. Where was Steenie in all this time ? Why had she heard nothing more from Tryntie ? In the midst of these speculations and wonderings there came to her ears a rumor with a whole train of alarming possibilities. Barent had returned !

Her father, then, had kept his word. One half his threat was already fulfilled. She grew cold at the thought. Old fears started into life. Mary — Mary ! Directly uprose the figure of that dumb bride, that cheerless wedding, that night of tempest, and her sister’s white face vanishing in the gloom.

To whom else speak of all this? She must needs go again to Catalina. Despite public orders that women and children should keep shut up at home, she sallied forth. The streets were thronged with idle men gathered in groups, all busily talking and disputing, with now and then a bolder one haranguing his fellows.

In the dock she came upon the crier reading a proclamation. The crowd blocked her way ; she listened perforce. The commander warned all honest people against the new-comers, a party of Papists and disaffected persons who had fled from their own country with good reason, and come hither with forged credentials and commissions, and impudently taken possession of the Stadthuys. He warned good citizens to give them no credence, yield them no aid or comfort, nor hold any parleyings with them.

Listening with half an ear to this familiar phraseology, and getting no sense of the gist of the proclamation, Hester pushed through the crowd and went her way.

Sounding the knocker at Dr. Staats’s, she was astonished to see the slave peer timorously through the upper half of the Dutch door before opening to admit her. Having seated herself upon a bench in the hall while the woman went to find Catalina, Hester was presently conscious of a hum of voices close at hand. It proved to be Dr. Staats and another talking in the parlor. The door was open, and she listened without choice. From their deep tones and rapid utterance it was evident they were much in earnest.

” Know you where the king’s troops are quartered ? ” asked the doctor.

“They are fortified in the Stadtlmys.”

“There will be trouble,” in an ominous tone.

“ Surely he will give way.”

“ I doubt him ; he is more rabid than ever. ‘T was but yesterday he sent forth a proclamation forbidding the British soldiers to walk the streets,— mark ye, Mynheer Beekman, his Majesty’s own troops; he would keep them cooped up.”

” What hopes he to gain by such high-handed doings ? ”

“ To drive them out ! He says, as they cannot show credentials, they have no right here till his Excellency arrives, which ” —

“ Poh ! ’t is Milborne’s talk that, you may be sure,” broke in Mynheer Beekman impatiently ; " he is a braying English ass ! These men in the Stadthuys are the lieutenant-governor and secretary appointed by the Crown ; these troops are sent by the king to establish the new government: to resist them ” —

“ Is sheer madness ! ”

“ He must be reasoned with.”

“ As well reason with a beast ; he flies into a rage at the least word of opposition.”

“ Beast let him be, it must be done,” repeated Heckman firmly. “ This course he is taking is treason. We are known as his advisers; we shall be held to answer for it; moreover, the peace of the town and the lives of innocent men are at stake.”

“ ‘T will be like entering a lion’s den,” said Staats hesitatingly.

“ And if it were a very lion, no choice is left us. Come ! will you go ? Tomorrow it may be too late.”

A stir, a movement as of something close at hand in the air, drew the listener’s notice. Raising her eyes, she saw reflected from a mirror on the opposite wall a slight figure in soft draperies, bent forward, with head canted upon one side and claw-like hands extended in an attitude of tense attention. Hester uttered an exclamation, and the reflection glided noiselessly out of the mirror.

Presently the slave came back with word that Catalina could not be found. Hester did not note the woman’s faltering manner; she was scarcely disappointed. Her thoughts had taken a new direction. She remembered now the proclamation in connection with these words still sounding in her ears. Here was a crisis of a new sort. There might be war. Far from thinking such a result deplorable, she regarded it with equanimity ; it opened up a whole new world of chances, by some of which the ugly old stumbling-blocks might be cast from her path, and some short sunny byway to happiness revealed.

Several days passed. She heard nothing but the vague and conflicting reports brought in by the servants from the streets ; the suspense was almost intolerable.

One morning she went out upon the stoop, to see if anything could be picked up from the passers-by. A slave was loitering in front of the door. Upon her appearance he quickly handed her a note and disappeared. She opened it eagerly ; whatever the contents, they set her thoughts flying and her pulses bounding in a tremor of anticipation.

In the midst of her agitation came a squad of soldiers from the fort with a message to Vrouw Leisler from her imperious spouse, bidding the good dame get together her chattels and remove at once, bag and baggage, to the fort; the soldiers were to wait and escort her.

Instinctively Hester clutched the letter in her bosom. Incapable of counsel or comfort, she stared stupidly at her mother, while that distracted woman ran hither and thither, bawling contradictory orders to the panic-stricken slaves, and bewailing the absence of Mary and Cobus.

Striving in her bewilderment to decide upon her own course of action, Hester listened mechanically to the soldiers on the stoop.

“ Will it come to blows, think ye ? ”

“ Not a doubt of it. and straightway, too.”

‘‘But they yonder may give way.”

“ That will they not, nor budge a foot.”

“ Then will he drive them out like dogs.” ”

“ Wel zoo, they have had warning. Bully Joost went an hour ago to bid them lay down arms and begone, or bide the consequence.”

“ But think ye he will fire ? ”

“ The guns are loaded. I tell ye.”

“ And pointed, too ? ”

“ He gives them till nightfall.”

“ Lieve Hemel! ”

Like words heard in a nightmare, this talk sounded unnatural and awful. Had the crisis then come, and so soon ? Was war indeed at hand? Uncertain what of good or ill it might bode to her, Hester was filled with a vague dread, and turned with willing hand but wandering thoughts to help her mother. And in good time; poor Vrouw Leisler was well-nigli at her wits’ end. Never before in her peaceful life had she faced such an emergency.

To pack up and move the household gear gathered during a long married life, to do it at a moment’s warning and as it were at the point of the bayonet, was a task far beyond any powers Nature had given her. Straightway her good sense and clear housewifely judgment flew to the winds. She yielded to panic. Without plan, choice, or system, she sent the frightened slaves to bring her most precious belongings to the ground-floor, where they were thrown pell-mell: heavy bureaus, sofas, bedsteads, mirrors, feather-beds, china, glass, silver, linen, fireirons, all piled in hopeless confusion, while the smoke from the smouldering logs in the fireplace, driven about by counter-drafts and mingled with clouds of dust, filled the house to suffocation.

In the midst of it all the soldiers outside became clamorous for haste. In despair the poor huysvronw gave the word, and the rough troopers began loading her cherished goods with scant ceremony upon the ox-carts without.

Meantime, the brief spring twilight was on the wane ; a fierce wind blew out its flickering candle in the west. This, it would seem, was the signal Hester had been awaiting. With a cloak thrown over her head, she stole into the garden. The house behind her resounded with uproar, — the shouts and oaths of the troopers, the running back and forth of slaves, the slamming of doors, and the intermittent bewailings of Vrouw Leisler.

Hester went straight to the bottom of the garden, where some tall cherry-trees made a mass of shadow. Scarcely had she arrived when a tall figure leaped over the wall. Directly the two were folded in each other’s arms.

“It is you ! ”

“ Hester ! ”

“ Oh, I feared you might never come back.”

“ I have come at last.”

“ But will you stay ? ”

“ With God’s help ! ”

“ Oh, what will become of me, else ? ” “ What has happened ? ”

“ He ” —

“ What ? ”

“ He thinks to do with me as with Mary.”

“ He would marry you to another ? ”

“ To yonder junker from Albany.”

“ Never ! ”

“ He swears it shall he done.”

“Never while I live! But have no fear, sweetheart. His day is almost done : the new governor is at hand and hourly expected in town, and then he will be driven out of his kennel yonder.”

“ There will be no war. then ? ”

“War! poll! A war of words, perhaps, but that is all. He barks, but he dare not bite ; this talk of war is only to scare the people and keep them under.”

“ Hester ! Hester ! ” The voice of Vrouw Leisler was heard frantically calling from the house. “Hester! where are you ? We must go — Hester ! ” The servants and slaves joined in the cry. They were coming to search the garden. Their footsteps could be heard approaching.

With a rapturous embrace the two were taking leave, when a rumbling sound like distant thunder broke upon the air.

The junker stood as if petrified, muttering through his set teeth.

“ The madman ! ”

“ What is it ? ”

“ He has dared to do it! ”

“ What ? ”

“ He has fired upon the Stadthuys! ” “ Then the war is begun ! ”

Edwin Lassetter Banner.