The Laughing Cavalier · The Prologue (1/2)

The Prologue

Haarlem⁠—March 29th, 1623

The day had been springlike⁠—even hot; a very unusual occurrence in Holland at this time of year.

Gilda Beresteyn had retired early to her room. She had dismissed Maria, whose chatterings grated upon her nerves, with the promise that she would call her later. Maria had arranged a tray of dainties on the table, a jug of milk, some fresh white bread and a little roast meat on a plate, for Gilda had eaten very little supper and it might happen that she would feel hungry later on.

It would have been useless to argue with the old woman about this matter. She considered Gilda’s health to be under her own special charge, ever since good Mevrouw Beresteyn had placed her baby girl in Maria’s strong, devoted arms ere she closed her eyes in the last long sleep.

Gilda Beresteyn, glad to be alone, threw open the casement of the window and peered out into the night.

The shadow of the terrible tragedy⁠—the concluding acts of which were being enacted day by day in the Gevangen Poort of ’S Graven Hage⁠—had even touched the distant city of Haarlem with its gloom. The eldest son of John of Barneveld was awaiting final trial and inevitable condemnation, his brother Stoutenburg was a fugitive, and their accomplices Korenwinder, van Dyk, the redoubtable Slatius and others, were giving away under torture the details of the aborted conspiracy against the life of Maurice of Nassau, Stadtholder of Holland, Gelderland, Utrecht and Overyssel, Captain and Admiral-General of the State, Prince of Orange, and virtual ruler of Protestant and republican Netherlands.

Traitors all of them⁠—would-be assassins⁠—the Stadtholder whom they had planned to murder was showing them no mercy. As he had sent John of Barneveld to the scaffold to assuage his own thirst for supreme power and satisfy his own ambitions, so he was ready to send John of Barneveld’s sons to death and John of Barneveld’s widow to sorrow and loneliness.

The sons of John of Barneveld had planned to avenge their father’s death by the committal of a cruel and dastardly murder: fate and the treachery of mercenary accomplices had intervened, and now Groeneveld was on the eve of condemnation, and Stoutenburg was a wanderer on the face of the earth with a price put upon his head.

Gilda Beresteyn could not endure the thought of it all. All the memories of her childhood were linked with the Barnevelds. Stoutenburg had been her brother Nicolaes’ most intimate friend, and had been the first man to whisper words of love in her ears, ere his boundless ambition and his unscrupulous egoism drove him into another more profitable marriage.

Gilda’s face flamed up with shame even now at recollection of his treachery, and the deep humiliation which she had felt when she saw the first budding blossom of her girlish love so carelessly tossed aside by the man whom she had trusted.

A sense of oppression weighed her spirits down tonight. It almost seemed as if the tragedy which had encompassed the entire Barneveld family was even now hovering over the peaceful house of Mynheer Beresteyn, deputy burgomaster and chief civic magistrate of the town of Haarlem. The air itself felt heavy as if with the weight of impending doom.

The little city lay quiet and at peace; a soft breeze from the south lightly fanned the girl’s cheeks. She leaned her elbows on the windowsill and rested her chin in her hands. The moon was not up and yet it was not dark; a mysterious light still lingered on the horizon far away where earth and sea met in a haze of purple and indigo.

From the little garden down below there rose the subtle fragrance of early spring⁠—of wet earth and budding trees, and the dim veiled distance was full of strange sweet sounds, the call of night-birds, the shriek of seagulls astray from their usual haunts.

Gilda looked out and listened⁠—unable to understand this vague sense of oppression and of foreboding: when she put her finger up to her eyes, she found them wet with tears.

Memories rose from out the past, sad phantoms that hovered in the scent of the spring. Gilda had never wholly forgotten the man who had once filled her heart with his personality, much less could she chase away his image from her mind now that a future of misery and disgrace was all that was left to him.

She did not know what had become of him, and dared not ask for news. Mynheer Beresteyn, loyal to the House of Nassau and to its prince, had cast out of his heart the sons of John of Barneveld whom he had once loved. Assassins and traitors, he would with his own lips have condemned them to the block, or denounced them to the vengeance of the Stadtholder for their treachery against him.

The feeling of uncertainty as to Stoutenburg’s fate softened Gilda’s heart toward him. She knew that he had become a wanderer on the face of the earth, Cain-like, homeless, friendless, practically kinless; she pitied him far more than she did Groeneveld or the others who were looking death quite closely in the face.

She was infinitely sorry for him, for him and for his wife, for whose sake he had been false to his first love. The gentle murmur of the breeze, the distant call of the waterfowl, seemed to bring back to Gilda’s ears those whisperings of ardent passion which had come from Stoutenburg’s lips years ago. She had listened to them with joy then, with glowing eyes cast down and cheeks that flamed up at his words.

And as she listened to these dream-sounds others more concrete mingled with the mystic ones far away: the sound of stealthy footsteps upon the flagged path of the garden, and of a human being breathing and panting somewhere close by, still hidden by the gathering shadows of the night.

She held her breath to listen⁠—not at all frightened, for the sound of those footsteps, the presence of that human creature close by, were in tune with her mood of expectancy of something that was foredoomed to come.

Suddenly the breeze brought to her ear the murmur of her name, whispered as if in an agony of pleading:

“Gilda!”

She leaned right out of the window. Her eyes, better accustomed to the dim evening light, perceived a human figure that crouched against the yew hedge, in the fantastic shadow cast by the quaintly shaped peacock at the corner close to the house.

“Gilda!” came the murmur again, more insistent this time.

“Who goes there?” she called in response: and it was an undefinable instinct stronger than her will that caused her to drop her own voice also to a whisper.

“A fugitive hunted to his death,” came the response scarce louder than the breeze. “Give me shelter, Gilda⁠—human bloodhounds are on my track.”

Gilda’s heart seemed to stop its beating; the human figure out there in the shadows had crept stealthily nearer. The window out of which she leaned was only a few feet from the ground; she stretched out her hand into the night.

“There is a projection in the wall just there,” she whispered hurriedly, “and the ivy stems will help you.⁠ ⁠… Come!”

The fugitive grasped the hand that was stretched out to him in pitying helpfulness. With the aid of the projection in the wall and of the stems of the century-old ivy, he soon cleared the distance which separated him from the windowsill. The next moment he had jumped into the room.

Gilda in this impulsive act of mercy had not paused to consider either the risks or the cost. She had recognised the voice of the man whom she had once loved, that voice called to her out of the depths of boundless misery; it was the call of a man at bay, a human quarry hunted and exhausted, with the hunters close upon his heels. She could not have resisted that call even if she had allowed her reason to fight her instinct then.

But now that he stood before her in rough fisherman’s clothes, stained and torn, his face covered with blood and grime, his eyes red and swollen, the breath coming in quick, short gasps through his blue, cracked lips, the first sense of fear at what she had done seized hold of her heart.

At first he took no notice of her, but threw himself into the nearest chair and passed his hands across his face and brow.

“My God,” he murmured, “I thought they would have me tonight.”

She stood in the middle of the room, feeling helpless and bewildered; she was full of pity for the man, for there is nothing more unutterably pathetic than the hunted human creature in its final stage of apathetic exhaustion, but she was just beginning to coordinate her thoughts and they for the moment were being invaded by fear.

She felt more than she saw, that presently he turned his hollow, purple-rimmed eyes upon her, and that in them there was a glow half of passionate willpower and half of anxious, agonizing doubt.

“Of what are you afraid, Gilda?” he asked suddenly, “surely not of me?”

“Not of you, my lord,” she replied quietly, “only for you.”

“I am a miserable outlaw now, Gilda,” he rejoined bitterly, “four thousand golden guilders await any lout who chooses to sell me for a competence.”

“I know that, my lord⁠ ⁠… and marvel why you are here? I heard that you were safe⁠—in Belgium.”

He laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“I was safe there,” he said, “but I could not rest. I came back a few days ago, thinking I could help my brother to escape. Bah!” he added roughly, “he is a snivelling coward.⁠ ⁠…”

“Hush! for pity’s sake,” she exclaimed, “someone will hear you.”

“Close that window and lock the door,” he murmured hoarsely. “I am spent⁠—and could not resist a child if it chose to drag me at this moment to the Stadtholder’s spies.”

Gilda obeyed him mechanically. First she closed the window; then she went to the door listening against the panel with all her senses on the alert. At the further end of the passage was the living-room where her father must still be sitting after his supper, poring over a book on horticulture, or mayhap attending to his tulip bulbs. If he knew that the would-be murderer of the Stadtholder, the prime mover and instigator of the dastardly plot was here in his house, in his daughter’s chamber⁠ ⁠… Gilda shuddered, half-fainting with terror, and her trembling fingers fumbled with the lock.

“Is Nicolaes home?” asked Stoutenburg, suddenly.

“Not just now,” she replied, “but he, too, will be home anon.⁠ ⁠… My father is at home.⁠ ⁠…”

“Ah!⁠ ⁠… Nicolaes is my friend⁠ ⁠… I counted on seeing him here⁠ ⁠… he would help me I know⁠ ⁠… but your father, Gilda, would drag me to the gallows with his own hand if he knew that I am here.”

“You must not count on Nicolaes either, my lord,” she pleaded, “nor must you stay here a moment longer⁠ ⁠… I heard my father’s step in the passage already. He is sure to come and bid me good night before he goes to bed.⁠ ⁠…”

“I am spent, Gilda,” he murmured, and indeed his breath came in such feeble gasps that he could scarce speak. “I have not touched food for two days. I landed at Scheveningen a week ago, and for five days have hung about the Gevangen Poort of ’S Graven Hage trying to get speech with my brother. I had gained the good will of an important official in the prison, but Groeneveld is too much of a coward to make a fight for freedom. Then I was recognized by a group of workmen outside my dead father’s house. I read recognition in their eyes⁠—knowledge of me and knowledge of the money which that recognition might mean to them. They feigned indifference at first, but I had read their thoughts. They drew together to concert over their future actions and I took to my heels. It was yesterday at noon, and I have been running ever since, running, running, with but brief intervals to regain my breath and beg for a drink of water⁠—when thirst became more unendurable than the thought of capture. I did not even know which way I was running till I saw the spires of Haarlem rising from out the evening haze; then I thought of you, Gilda, and of the house. You would not sell me, Gilda, for you are rich, and you loved me once,” he added hoarsely, while his thin, grimy hands clutched the arms of the chair and he half-raised himself from his seat, as if ready to spring up and to start running again; running, running until he dropped.

But obviously his strength was exhausted, for the next moment he fell back against the cushions, the swollen lids fell upon the hollow eyes, the sunken cheeks and parched lips became ashen white.

“Water!” he murmured.

She ministered to him kindly and gently, first holding the water to his lips, then when he had quenched that raging thirst, she pulled the table up close to his chair, and gave him milk to drink and bread and meat to eat.

He seemed quite dazed, conscious only of bodily needs, for he ate and drank ravenously without thought at first of thanking her. Only when he had finished did he lean back once again against the cushions which her kindly hand had placed behind him, and he murmured feebly like a tired but satisfied child:

“You are an angel of goodness, Gilda. Had you not helped me tonight, I should either have perished in a ditch, or fallen in the hands of the Stadholder’s minions.”

Quickly she put a restraining hand on his shoulder. A firm step had echoed in the flagged corridor beyond the oaken door.

“My father!” she whispered.

In a moment the instinct for life and liberty was fully aroused in the fugitive; his apathy and exhaustion were forgotten; terror, mad, unreasoning terror, had once more taken possession of his mind.

“Hide me, Gilda,” he entreated hoarsely, and his hands clutched wildly at her gown, “don’t let him see me⁠ ⁠… he would give me up⁠ ⁠… he would give me up.⁠ ⁠…”

“Hush, in the name of God,” she commanded, “he will hear you if you speak.”

Swiftly she blew out the candles, then with dilated anxious eyes searched the recesses of the room for a hiding-place⁠—the cupboard which was too small⁠—the wide hearth which was too exposed⁠—the bed in the wall.⁠ ⁠…

His knees had given way under him, and, as he clutched at her gown, he fell forward at her feet, and remained there crouching, trembling, his circled eyes trying to pierce the surrounding gloom, to locate the position of the door behind which lurked the most immediate danger.

“Hide me, Gilda,” he murmured almost audibly under his breath, “for the love you bore me once.”

“Gilda!” came in a loud, kindly voice from the other side of the door.

“Yes, father!”

“You are not yet abed, are you, my girl?”

“I have just blown out the candles, dear,” she contrived to reply with a fairly steady voice.

“Why is your door locked?”

“I was a little nervous tonight, father dear. I don’t know why.”

“Well! open then! and say good night.”

“One moment, dear.”

She was white to the lips, white as the gown which fell in straight heavy folds from her hips, and which Stoutenburg was still clutching with convulsive fingers. Alone her white figure detached itself from the darkness around. The wretched man as he looked up could see her small pale head, the stiff collar that rose above her shoulders, her embroidered corslet, and the row of pearls round her neck.

“Save me, Gilda,” he repeated with the agony of despair, “do not let your father hand me over to the Stadtholder⁠ ⁠… there will be no mercy for me, Gilda⁠ ⁠… hide me⁠ ⁠… for the love of God.”

Noiselessly she glided across the room, dragging him after her by the hand. She pulled aside the bed-curtains, without a word pointed to the recess. The bed, built into the wall, was narrow but sure; it smelt sweetly of lavender; the hunted man, his very senses blurred by that overwhelming desire to save his life at any cost, accepted the shelter so innocently offered him. Gathering his long limbs together, he was soon hidden underneath the coverlet.

“Gilda!” came more insistently from behind the heavy door.

“One moment, father. I was fastening my gown.”

“Don’t trouble to do that. I only wished to say good night.”