Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

harness and war-weapons, was resolute to the last gasp for his country, his religion, and his privilege to worship God according to his faith and conscience.

At length, when he had reached the open space in front of the Maison de Ville, one of the crowd cried out to him, "Speak to us, Adrian-speak to us, noble Adrian von Halen-tell us what we shall now do."

The magistrate had already mounted two or three of the steps leading to the Gothic doorway of the town hall when this cry arose and was reiterated by two or three faint voices, and followed by a feebler cheer. Immediately the old man turned about, and addressed them in a high and resolute tone.

mene and Brouvershaven, and they have store of pinnaces and galleys."

"No! no! we will

"No! no!" cried many more. not go-none of us! none of us!-did not they crucify Peter Schenck with his head downward, and sew Martin Vanderhagen up in the carcase of a dead horse, whom they caught carrying letters to Boissot? No! none of us will do that-death is nothing; but tortures like that are worse than twenty deaths."

"Then, Heaven have mercy upon us," he replied, "for earth has no hope." And, with the words, he entered the town house and ascended the stairs to the council chamber, where six or eight old men and four or five in the prime of manhood were assembled about a table, covered with scarlet cloth. That was a splendid chamber, adorned with arms, hangings, and fine pictures of the great Flemish masters, and carvings in wood-work, and elaborate gildings, and Venetian mirrors, and soft Turkey carpets; and, notwithstanding all of suffering and sorrow, famine and pestilence, that had so long brooded over that most unhappy town, that chamber had been preserved in all its splendor with a care which appeared to hold it sacred; and it was swept on this night and garnished as if for some high festival.

The men too, old and young, who were gathered there, perhaps for the last time, though thin, and wan, and ghastly, with not a hue of color in their sunken

"Brethren," he said, "and fellow-sufferers, we are of a truth very hard bested, and, save in the Almighty, we have no hope left of any succor or salvation; and, before Heaven, where I trust we shall all soon be reassembled, I know not well how to counsel you. Haerlem and Naerden, my friends, teach us how Spaniards keep their faith with those who capitulate; and loth should I be to confide whom I love to their honor, or their mercy. Moreover, brothers, I believe not altogether the truth of this their proclamation. If it be true, why should they hesitate to let us learn its truth in our persons? If it be true, why should they offer us conditions so seeming fair and honorable that, for that very seeming, I but the more suspect their falsehood? My advice, therefore, is, at least, to hold out until to-morrow. I think they will not hurl them-cheeks, not a gleam of life in their watery and unselves needlessly against the edge of our despair by assaulting us, and if they should, why we can yet make a pretty hash of them, few as we are and feeble; and it is better always to die like heroes on a welldefended breach, than to be slaughtered, slave-like, in our cellars or our garrets. Let us, I say, hold out until to-morrow, and then if we should learn that the prince is indeed driven back we can submit; or, if they then refuse us terms, we can set fire to our houses, die to a man in the last ditch, leave to our oppressed and groaning countrymen a proud example, and to our overwhelming foes a solitude which, if they will, they may call peace."*

"Well said, well said, Adrian von Halen," replied fifty voices from the multitude; "well hast thou said, and as thou sayest we will do."

"War to the last!" screamed one who had lost the power to shout. "Death rather than submission to the treacherous Spaniard!"

"But tell us, Adrian," exclaimed another, cooler and more thoughtful than the rest, "how shall we know if William of Nassau have indeed retreated ?" "That is what I go now to deliberate with the council," replied Adrian; "the only plan I see is to send a boat across the inundation, to make its way into the Grevelingen by Brouvershaven, seek out the fleet, and require some signal by which we may be certified, but I much fear me it will be hard to find a messenger, or men to row him over, could we find one."

"It were sure death," answered nearly a hundred persons in a breath; "they lie in force both at Bom

*Solitudinem faciunt, pacem vocant.-Tacitus.

meaning eyes, and scarce strength enough to totter to and fro on their attenuated limbs, were accurately and even richly dressed-the burgomasters in their accustomed suits of black velvet, with huge ruffs about their necks, and massive chains of gold-the rest in rich coats of plate-armor, with gorgets round their necks, and heavy swords buckled on their thighs, too heavy it would seem to be wielded by arms so feeble as those which hung listlessly by the sides, or were crossed with an air of patient resolution over the bold breasts of the wearers.

It was to these that Adrian von Halen entered with the sad tidings of which he was the bearer, nor did he look to them with any thing of confidence for the assistance which he needed. For how could he expect that any man would expose himself to the almost certain risk of death, protracted not through hours alone, but days and nights of excruciating and insufferable torture?

Still, he laid the matter before them fairly-he told them the whole import of the proclamation, and the terms offered-of the refusal of the besiegers to permit any inquiries concerning the truth of their tidings; of his own resolution, and that of the assembled population-rather to fire the town, and perish in the flames, with all that was dear to them on earth, than to surrender uninformed and blindly. He pointed out the only method of obtaining tidings, and asked if any there would volunteer to be the messenger, in case men could be found to row the boat. Dull looks and gloomy silence only replied to his question-and, when he asked each after each, a cold refusal followed.

[ocr errors][merged small]

many years left to live, even if it were peace. I have outlived all that I loved on earth these many years, except one being, my sweet and gentle Gertrude; had it not been for her I would have laid me down and died long, long ago, upon the grave where sleeps my sainted Rachel. But now the time has come when my death may well be of more use to my country than my life has been, though I have striven ever to advance it in peace and preserve it inviolate in war. I, therefore, will go now, right cheerfully and gladly, if so be, men can be found to man the boat to carry me. Say, gentlemen, and fair citizens, which of you will exchange the sword for the car, and pull the old man seaward over the flats?-it is but a gallant boat-race, if ye would only think so."

Still there was no response, for, though there was not one man there who would not have exposed himself cheerfully to death on the breach, or in the daring sally, all shrank aghast from the idea of affronting the barbarity of the Spaniards, exercised as it had been on all who attempted to break out of the beleaguered town; and incurring the penalties denounced against all who should be taken within the lines of the besiegers-penalties which they well knew, from examples too manifestly certain to be doubted, would be unsparingly enforced, without regard to age, or sex, or station.

There was no answer from the magnates of the town-the council was silent, and heart-fallen. Then the old man advanced to the windows which overlooked the great square, and, opening one of them, stepped out upon the balcony, conspicuous in the glare of many torches which were held up by the multitudes below, and once more addressed them.

"Brothers," he said, "there is no need of many words. I will go forth myself, if any six of you will come forward manfully and volunteer to row me over. Moreover, out of my own private coffers, I will give a thousand guilders to each man that will so offer himself, and if he fall in the undertaking, the good town shall provide for his wife and little ones, and his name shall be ennobled forever."

The reply was a laugh!—yes! a laugh! a wild, hysterical and mocking laugh! The proffer of wealth, of money, valuless dross and rubbish in times such as those-of nobility, a mere name and empty title, and above all of the town's proctection, when there appeared no chance that the town would be in existence twenty-four hours afterward, seemed so fantastical and wild, that the starved, miserable, desperate wretches laughed-yes! laughed with a shrill, fearful merriment.

"Out on you, wretches! Do you laugh?" cried Adrian severely. "Do you laugh at honor, and manhood, and faith to the last? Laugh, then, when you see your wives and daughters writhing in agony in the despoiler's arms-laugh when you see your infants sprawling upon the points of Spanish pikeslaugh when your houses blaze and their rooftrees fall, -laugh in your own death-pangs!-laugh then, but be silent now-and, if ye be cowardly and vile, be at least reverent, and for shame hold your peace!"

The stern rebuke checked them for the moment,

but after a little pause there was a cry, "He is mad! old Adrian is mad! Hunger and watching have made him mad. All is over!-let us go pray! To the churches! to the churches!"

And with the cry the multitude dispersed-thereafter, by the order of the burgomasters, proclamation was made, by torch-light and trumpet-sound, through the streets, offering five thousand guilders each to any six men who would undertake to row a boat with Adrian von Halen over the flats between Bommene and Brouvershaven, into the Grevelingen Channel, and put him on board some vessel of the Prince's fleet. But, as before, the reply was silence!

The council were still sitting, although it would have puzzled any one of them to say wherefore, for no proposal had been advanced since Adrian's was rejected; and the magistrates sat round the board silent and utterly cast down, for every hope had fled, and, though none dared do that which each knew that in virtue and in honor he ought to do, all were ashamed at their own want of courage; all self-convicted of dastardly, unpatriotic selfishness. And sullen fear, and impenitent remorse, and irresolution, and despair sat upon every brow but that of Adrian, and he walked to and fro the chamber, chafing, like to a caged hyena, at the fate that barred his will, and uttered now and then bitter, and violent, and sarcastic words against his companions, which met but the same reply as the former-the silence, not of scorn, but of dismay and mortal terror.

An hour had perhaps elapsed since the last flourish of the trumpets rang through the streets, and the last cry was heard of the heralds making proclamation, when the sounds of a great uproar in the marketplace, shouts, and tumultuous cheering, and loud voices came suddenly up to the ears of the council, filling them with surprise and, as it were, a sort of consternation.

Before, however, they had much time for reflection, the doors of the chamber were thrown wide open by two ushers, the stairs were seen through the aperture, lined by a small party of the governor's halberdiers, and a cry followed of "Place! place for the Lady Gertrude ! Place for the noble Lady von Halen !"

The next moment, a tall, fair, well-formed girl, very much emaciated, it is true, and wearing many marks of suffering on her pale face, yet with the traces still distinctly visible of the sublimest and most noble style of beauty, walked with a step singularly majestical and queen-like across the corridor, and paused upon the threshold, for it was contrary to an immutable and inviolate decree of the states that any woman should, under any circumstances or on any pretext, intrude her presence into the precincts of the sacred council-chamber.

She paused, for a moment, on the threshold, and addressed the magnates of the city in a clear, liquid and unfaltering voice, full of strong, rich harmony, but firmer, deeper, and more resonant than the ordinary tones of woman.

"Burghers," she said, "and noble men of Ziriczee, I would not be so overbold as thus to force myself

and am informed thoroughly—and of this be sure, Adrian von Halen, that no dishonor or disgrace shall e'er befall the girl who bears thine unblemished name. For the rest, a Holland maiden's breast can meet a dagger's edge as boldly as a Roman matron's. But God, I feel and know, will bless my undertaking, and

me on my way; for the fast race-boat, which won the prize last year, lies manned and ready in the canal hard by the lust haus in our garden, and Vander Bosch is grumbling before this, I am sure, that we are not already under way.”

into your solemn conclave, but that the sound of your proclamation has reached my ears, and the cries, and groans, and sufferings of my fellow citizens pierced even to my heart. I have heard what my great and glorious father has offered to do in behalf of this calamitous and lamentable city, and how the city has failed to enable him to make good his offer. But II shall yet succeed and save all of you-now speed thank the great and all-merciful God, whose every deed is one of wisdom and mercy, that, through this very poverty and lack of spirit in the men of Ziriczee, he has worked out a deliverance for his people. Lo! burgomasters, and thou, father and governor, I, Gertrude von Halen, have succeeded better with our stout mariners than your wisdom and valor, or your most liberal terms of nobility, and name, and guerdon. I proffered myself to go forth as messenger to the good Prince of Orange, and lo! I have got not six, but sixty stout oarsmen to waft me over the inundation, were there means to employ them. Give me, then, my credentials, noble sirs, and let me begone, for the night wears on rapidly, and it will much concern us whether we reach Brouvershaven in the mirk morn-shaven, and was fully manned by six powerful, wilding, or after the sun shall have arisen."

"Thou, Gertrude!" exclaimed the old man, a tear starting to his eye; "thou, child of my sainted Rachel, never, never!"

Overpowered by her determination, and convinced in part by her reasoning, they offered no more opposition to her will, but made out instantly her missives to the prince, and rising one and all accompanied the noble and heroic girl to the place of embarkation.

The boat, a long light narrow skiff, very low in the water, lay by the little garden dock, in a cut from the canal which joins the water-gate of Ziriczee to the river falling into the Grevelingen Channel at Brouver

looking Zealanders, with their faces all seamed and scarred by the wounds which they had received in the terrible naval encounter by which the maritime states had for the time won the sovereignty of the sea, and And the unanimous voice of the council replied, displaying their indomitable resolution and utter "No! no! we will not have thee for our messenger-hatred of the Spanish yoke by the badges which they no! no! it is too perilous!"

"But if ye will hear reason," answered the dauntless girl, "I will show you at once why you will have me. To me it will be a gain so great and manifest, that, were it not for the good it shall work to the city, it were but selfish to propose it. If no one go forth to discover this thing which ye would learn, very clear is it that within three days, at the farthest, the city must needs yield at discretion-what then should I gain by remaining here-three days of agony, famine, and sorrow, and despair, and no hope or chance of safety-three days with a choice, at the end, of death or dishonor. Now, on the other hand, if I go forth as I propose, the chances are great in our favor that, steered by old Dirck Vander Bosch, and the oars manned by six sturdy Zealanders from the Seven Wolden, we escape safely to the fleet, where I shall be out of reach of any arm that Spain can thrust out to seize me-and this is the only thing that grieves me, that I should seem to fly, and shun bearing my part of the sufferings of my fellow citizens and friends-if we escape not, and be taken-" she paused and cast up her large serene blue eyes to heaven with an expression of seraphic resignation, mixed with the fortitude of a dying martyr, and ere she continued her father interrupted her. "Well! Gertrude, if you be taken-"

had adopted and wore in their caps, crescents of silver with the motto in embroidery, "Turks rather than Papists." Old Vander Bosch, the pilot, the most famous in those waters, having made up his mind to incur the risk for the sake of his patron's daughter, was now all anxiety to be off, and cut all leave-taking and parting admonitions very short by his continued grumbling.

But he could not prevent old Adrian from clasping his good and noble child to his heart, and whispering in her ear, "Remember, Gertrude, should you succeed in reaching the prince's fleet in safety, and should you never see me any more, which would be nothing strange, it is my last wish that you should give your hand, as you have given your heart long ago, to young Fleureant von Alleyne. Bear thou my greeting to him. God speed you, girl, and bless you." And the next moment she was wrapped in a huge boat-cloak of blue serge, with a rough fur cap covering her luxuriant golden hair, and reclining in the stern sheets of the skiff, while the crew plied their long oars powerfully but noiselessly in the muffled row-locks, making the light boat fly over the stagnant waters of the canal with a motion as elegant and steady as that of a swallow on the wing.

The water-gate was opened silently, and the boat shot out into the open country, all deluged now for

"Still," in her turn she interrupted him, "there is leagues on leagues of distance with the foul stagnant the choice between death and dishonor."

"The Spaniards leave no choice!" answered the old man, with a fearful expression of horror and hatred on his marked features.

"They cannot but do so-they who are lords of their own souls, and fear not to die, never need fear dishonor. I have conversed with our good minister,

waters which lay rotting, motionless, and tideless, over the devastated fields. The night was very dark and misty, and for an hour or more they pulled rapidly and uninterrupted, except by the hoarse clang of the mighty flocks of aquatic fowl which rose at times in myriads from some shoal place, or floating reed-bed, through the dull channel of the little river, half stream

and half canal, the muddy banks of which peered out at intervals above the surface of the flood, with here and there a stunted willow pining and fading from excess of the very moisture, which it so dearly loves in moderation.

At the end of the time I have mentioned, a hoarse, gurgling sound began to be heard as of a strong but sullen current, and the accelerated motion of the boat, which now floated rapidly on the waters, indicated that they were approaching something like a sluice, or waterfall.

"In with the bow oar, Oost," whispered the old pilot; "catch hold of yon clump of bullrushes, and then get out upon the bank and crawl as silently as may be along the water's edge to the sluice, and see there that all is clear, and then bring us back tidings as quickly as may be."

His orders were obeyed as soon as they were uttered, the boat was made fast to the shore, the tall Zealander stepped out upon the bank, and, throwing himself flat on his face in the mud and ooze, stole forward with a motion as guarded and as silent as that of a serpent winding upon its prey. Ten minutes had perhaps passed and Vander Bosch was beginning to grow impatient, when a little plash was heard close by the spot where they were lying, and the man, Oost, raised his head from the other side of the bank, but did not rise to his feet.

"Come, come," said the pilot, somewhat roughly, and rather too loud for caution, "we are losing time sadly-step aboard, man; is all clear?"

[ocr errors]

Hush! hush, Dirck," answered Oost. "Be quiet, and pass me out the cross-bow and quarrels, they are under the bow thwart. The water is running over the sluices merrily enough to carry three times our burthen, but here have the cunning Dons posted a sentinel on the platform close beside it. There he is pacing up and down, with his long firelock and his match ready lighted, humming the war-song of the Cid. But give me the cross-bow, and I'll soon put a stop to his music."

Without a word, Dirck handed him the weapons, and he returned as silently as he had come, and for a few moments no sound reached their ears-but by and by there came a sudden harsh clang on the still night-air, followed by one deep groan, and a sulien plunge in the water.

The heart of Gertrude bounded fearfully, and then a death-like sickness came over her, and she felt that she must faint-but at the moment old Vander Bosch Oost has cried aloud, "Well done! well done! settled his hash! Give way, men, quick, give way." And the long oars dipped into the water, and the spray flashed from them, and in an instant the boat was whirling like a bubble on the swift sullen waters that gurgled through the cut which had been made in the bank to admit the inundation to the meadows.

The momentary bustle dispelled the sense of sickness and suffocation, and the next moment the skiff shot past the little platform, now vacant of its hapless watcher, and shot through the narrow chasm in the bank, Oost stepping silently into his place, and resuming his seat without checking the way of the little

vessel, just as it entered the shallower waters of the
artificial lake.

"There no time to lose, Dirck," he said; "they
will be relieving that fellow before an hour, and ten
to one they will fancy that he has deserted, and will
be cracking off their muskets and alarming the gar-
risons."

"It can't be helped, Oost. It can't be helped, man," answered the old pilot, replenishing his pipe and striking a light, for he had not dared to smoke "We are while in the canal for fear of detection.

in for it now, and all we have got to do is to pull our best, and keep a course for the Brouvershaven mouth, there is no other place where we can cross the bank and get out to sea-all will be safe if we can make it before daylight. So take a pull all round at the black bottle of Schiedam, and then pass it this way to me, and give way jollily."

All night they pulled steadily and the light boat made rapid way through the water, wherever it was deep enough to float her, but there were many banks and shoals, and the channels were so intricate and difficult to find, and they had to put back so many times, and to make so many circuitous deviations from their course, that the skies began to brighten, and the mist to clear away, long ere they reached the neighborhood of Brouvershaven.

At length, though it was still quite dark, except where in the east the sky was dappled with a few tiny gray streaks, it became perfectly clear, and they might see the waters stretching out on every side of them, dusky but bright as a shadowed mirror, with here and there black patches of seaweed, or bare spots of elevated mud, or vast flocks of aquatic birds breaking their gloomy sheen. Beyond this, on all sides, was visible the low range of sand hills which divided the inundation from the sea, looming up black against the transparent sky, with here and there a Spanish watch-fire sparkling cheerfully out of the shadows, and showing them the position of the out-posts of their foes. Directly ahead of them, at about eight miles' distance, were burning, perfectly distinct and visible, the lights of the fort at Brouvershaven, which had been stormed a few days before the investment of Ziriczee, and filled with a Spanish garrison.

"This is bad, Mistress Gertrude. I fear this is very bad-it will be broad day before we get off the batteries, and unless there comes in a sea-mist with this wind, which is blowing up a little fresh, I do not see how we shall clear them. They have boats, too! It looks very bad."

"But will there not be a mist? I thought there always was a mist in the morning."

"Not always, lady, not always, and I am afraid there will be none to-day. Look how hard and dry the day breaks yonder. If it is as clear below down to the water-line, as it is there above the hills, it is all over with us; but I cannot see, and until I can see I must say nothing. But keep a good heart nevertheless. Give way, my merry men, give way, this is the great deep, and there is water enough and more. Give way! give way!"

Thus they went on, closing gradually with the lights of Brouvershaven, and drawing toward the river again, into which it was necessary that they should pass before they could gain the open sea. It was now gray and glimmering daylight, not wanting above half an hour of daybreak.

"Hold water," exclaimed Vander Bosch; "now, Oost, look out ahead, man-where is the sluice?is it beside the second or the third windmill?"

"The third-the third, to be sure," cried Oost, as the boat lost its way for an instant; "steer straight upon that-the channel is deep all the way, but very narrow," and with the words he was again bending to his oar, when the pilot again exclaimed,

"No! no! look out, I say, Oost; your eyes are keener than any of ours here; look out, I say, and tell me what those black things are-there, a mile off, right in our line!"

Oost now shipped his oar and looked out earnestly. "They are boats," he said; "by Heaven! they are boats, but I see no men in them at all-there are three lying together about a cable's length to the east of the channel, and one moored close to the western shore of it. But I can see no men; if there be any men they are all asleep on the thwarts, or in the bottom." "What in the fiend's name is to be done now?" exclaimed Vander Bosch, evidently very much perplexed.

[ocr errors]

"It is not possible, lady. Get you down into the bottom of the boat. Nay! it must be so. Cover her with the cloak, Jan Stein! Ha! I see a sail out seaward-two-four-eight! By the light of heaven! it must be the prince, and he is not a league beyond the forts-cheerily now! on board them!"

As he spoke the skiff shot alongside the barge, and in an instant the stout Zealanders sprang on board her, with their cutlasses flashing in the first sunbeams. A few fierce blows were made at the sleepers, the barge was crowded with men, and replied to only by groans of anguish. But anon the rest sprang to their arms, and for a minute or two there was a fierce and furious contest, but it was too unequal, and one by one the sleepers were stabbed and thrown overboard, and as yet no alarm had been given, when the last man, the very last, even as the death-blow reached him, discharged a petronel. On the instant, a loud shout followed from the other boats, and eighteen or twenty men sprang up on their thwarts, and, seeing what was in progress, uttered a long fierce war-cry, began to unmoor the boats very rapidly, and fired half a dozen muskets at the boat, although the distance was too great to allow of their doing any execution.

"In with you now, and give way for your lives!" cried the pilot; "here comes the mist-give way! or we shall never reach the sluice!"

At the same moment, a large sail-boat which lay a

Why, steer straight on the single boat-we will out knives, board her before they know we are along-quarter of a mile above the sluice in the river, fired a side, and have them all overboard before they can give an alarm. We shall be within a short mile of the sluice then!"

"There is nothing else for it, I believe," said the pilot; "yet it is a great risk-steady now and together. See, see, there comes the sun, and now we open Brouvershaven mouth," he added, fixing a long eager glance on the horizon at the embouchure of the little river, which might now be seen falling into the sea on the horizon.

"Aye! aye! and God be praised there comes the mist-we shall do! we shall do yet, I trust-give way! cheerily now, give way. If the mist comes in before we clear the sluice we are but lost men!" Speedily they shot on, and gallantly over the stagnant lake; and now they neared the boat, a large flat barge which lay close to the channel, with a Spanish flag furled round a staff in the stern, but no signs of any men on board. The other three boats, which lay moored to stakes at about three hundred yards' distance, were sharp fast-looking skiffs; but their crews too, if they had any on board, were buried in sleep. They were now within twenty fathoms of the barge, when the pilot made a signal to the four bowmen who laid in their oars and drew their short heavy cutlasses, and the long two-edged knives which they used in the right hand.

"Into her at once," he whispered, "as I lay her alongside-there is not a moment to lose-kill all as quietly as may be."

"Good God! but this is very horrible!-must this thing be? Oh, spare them, if it be possible, my good Dirck, spare them!"

[ocr errors]

gun and set all her sail to run down and intercept them; and a cannon replied from the fort, which was now a little short of two miles distant, showing that they were hemmed in with foes. Still the old helmsman was confident and undaunted, and Gertrude, now that the bloodshed was at an end, arose from the bottom of the boat, and sat by his side, pale indeed and agitated, but firm and silent, with her head resting on the hilt of a small double-edged dagger, her last desperate resource, which was concealed in the bosom of her robe.

The peril was now fearful, the little skiff of the fugitives lay about half way between the sluice and the boats of the pursuers, which gained on them terribly, rowed as they were by fresh men, exasperated by the slaughter of their comrades and burning for revenge and booty.

The mist too was driving in at a fearful rate before the sea-breeze, threatening to close over them before they should be able to shoot through the sluice into the open stream. The Spaniards too kept up a rapid and continuous fire, the bullets glancing and skipping over the waters round them on every side, though fortunately none took effect on any of the rowers, until the very instant when they whirled through the bubbling sluice-way, when one bullet pierced the brain of Oost that he fell overboard, without a word, a dead man, and another broke the left arm of the steersman, but he steered the boat quietly into the mid-current of the river, and cried out, "God be praised, lady-God be praised-we are safe!-look up, and look about you!"

And Gertrude did look up, as he desired her, but to

« ZurückWeiter »