The Laughing Cavalier · Chapter 30 (3/3)

“You forget, mejuffrouw,” he retorted, “that I am so much less than a man⁠ ⁠… a menial, a rogue, a vagabond⁠—so base that not even the slightest fear of me did creep into your heart⁠ ⁠… you came to me, here, alone at dead of night with an appeal upon your lips, yet you were not afraid, then you struck me in the face like you would a dog with a whip, and you were no more afraid of me than of the dog whom you had thrashed. So base am I then that words of mine are not worthy of your ear. Whatever I said, I could not persuade you that for one man to measure his strength against twelve others were not an act of valour, but one of senseless foolishness. I might tell you that bravery lies oft in prudence but seldom in foolhardiness, but this I know you are not in a mood now to believe. I might even tell you,” he continued with a slight return to his wonted lighthearted carelessness, “I might tell you that certain acts of bravery cannot be accomplished without the intervention of protecting saints, and that I have found St. Bavon an admirable saint to implore in such cases, but this I fear me you are not like to understand. So you see, mejuffrouw, that whatever I said I could not prove to you that I am less of a blackguard than I seem.”

“You could at least prove it to this extent,” she retorted, “by keeping silence over what you may have guessed.”

“You mean that I must not sell the secret which you so nearly betrayed⁠ ⁠… have no fear, mejuffrouw, my knowledge of it is so scanty that the Stadtholder would not give me five guilders for it.”

“Will you swear.⁠ ⁠…”

“Such a miserable cur as I am, mejuffrouw,” he said lightly, “is surely an oath-breaker as well as a liar and a thief⁠—what were the good of swearing?⁠ ⁠… But I’ll swear an you wish⁠ ⁠…” he added gaily.

“Surely you⁠ ⁠…” she began.

But with a quick gesture he interrupted her.

“Dondersteen, mejuffrouw,” he said more firmly than he had yet spoken before, “if beauty in you is tempered with pity, I entreat you to spare me now: even knaves remember become men sometimes and my patron Saint Bavon threatens to leave me in the lurch.”

He held open the door for her to pass through, and gravely held out one of the pewter candles to her. She could not help but take it, though indeed she felt that the last word between that rogue and herself had not by any means been spoken yet. But she hardly looked at him as she sailed past him out of the room, her heavy skirt trailing behind her with a soft hissing sound.

As soon as she heard the door shut to behind her, she ran up the stairs back to her own room with all speed, like a frightened hare.

Had she remained in the passage one instant longer she would have heard a sound which would have terrified her; it was the sound of a prolonged and ringing laugh which roused the echoes of this sleeping house, but which had neither mirth nor joy in its tone, and had she then peeped through a keyhole she would have seen a strange sight. A man who in the flickering candlelight looked tall and massive as a giant took up one of the wooden chairs in the room, and after holding it out at arm’s length for a few seconds, he proceeded to smash it viciously bit by bit until it lay a mass of broken debris at his feet.