CHAPTER VII
HENDRIK BRANT HAS A VISITOR
Nine months had gone by, and for more then eight of them Lysbeth had
been known as the Countess Juan de Montalvo. Indeed of this there
could be no doubt, since she was married with some ceremony by the
Bishop in the Groote Kerk before the eyes of all men. Folk had
wondered much at these hurried nuptials, though some of the more ill-
natured shrugged their shoulders and said that when a young woman had
compromised herself by long and lonely drives with a Spanish cavalier,
and was in consequence dropped by her own admirer, why the best thing
she could do was to marry as soon as possible.
So the pair, who looked handsome enough before the altar, were wed,
and went to taste of such nuptial bliss as was reserved for them in
Lysbeth's comfortable house in the Bree Straat. Here they lived almost
alone, for Lysbeth's countrymen and women showed their disapproval of
her conduct by avoiding her company, and, for reasons of his own,
Montalvo did not encourage the visiting of Spaniards at his house.
Moreover, the servants were changed, while Tante Clara and the girl
Greta had also disappeared. Indeed, Lysbeth, finding out the false
part which they had played towards her, dismissed them both before her
marriage.
It will be guessed that after the events that led to their union
Lysbeth took little pleasure in her husband's society. She was not one
of those women who can acquiesce in marriage by fraud or capture, and
even learn to love the hand which snared them. So it came about that
to Montalvo she spoke very seldom; indeed after the first week of
marriage she only saw him on rare occasions. Very soon he found out
that his presence was hateful to her, and turned her detestation to
account with his usual cleverness. In other words, Lysbeth bought
freedom by parting with her property--in fact, a regular tariff was
established, so many guilders for a week's liberty, so many for a
month's.
This was an arrangement that suited Montalvo well enough, for in his
heart he was terrified of this woman, whose beautiful face had frozen
into a perpetual mask of watchful hatred. He could not forget that
frightful curse which had taken deep root in his superstitious mind,
and already seemed to flourish there, for it was true that since she
spoke it he had never known a quiet hour. How could he when he was
haunted night and day by the fear lest his wife should murder him?
Surely, if ever Death looked out of a woman's eyes it looked out of
hers, and it seemed to him that such a deed might trouble her
conscience little; that she might consider it in the light of an
execution, and not as a murder. Bah! he could not bear to think of it.
What would it be to drink his wine one day and then feel a hand of
fire gripping at his vitals because poison had been set within the
cup; or, worse still, if anything could be worse, to wake at night and
find a stiletto point grating against his backbone? Little wonder that
Montalvo slept alone and was always careful to lock his door.
He need not have taken such precautions; whatever her eyes might say,
Lysbeth had no intention of killing this man. In that prayer of hers
she had, as it were, placed the matter in the hand of a higher Power,
and there she meant to leave it, feeling quite convinced that although
vengeance might tarry it would fall at last. As for her money, he
could have it. From the beginning her instinct told her that her
husband's object was not amorous, but purely monetary, a fact of which
she soon had plentiful proof, and her great, indeed her only hope was
that when the wealth was gone he would go too. An otter, says the
Dutch proverb, does not nest in a dry dyke.
But oh! what months those were, what dreadful months! From time to
time she saw her husband--when he wanted cash--and every night she
heard him returning home, often with unsteady steps. Twice or thrice a
week also she was commanded to prepare a luxurious meal for himself
and some six or eight companions, to be followed by a gambling party
at which the stakes ruled high. Then in the morning, before he was up,
strange people would arrive, Jews some of them, and wait till they
could see him, or catch him as he slipped from the house by a back
way. These men, Lysbeth discovered, were duns seeking payment of old
debts. Under such constant calls her fortune, which if substantial was
not great, melted rapidly. Soon the ready money was gone, then the
shares in certain ships were sold, then the land and the house itself
were mortgaged.
So the time went on.
Almost immediately after his refusal by Lysbeth, Dirk van Goorl had
left Leyden, and returned to Alkmaar, where his father lived. His
cousin and friend, however, Hendrik Brant, remained there studying the
jeweller's art under the great master of filigree work, who was known
as Petrus. One morning, as Hendrik was sitting at breakfast in his
lodging, it was announced that a woman who would not give her name,
wished to see him. Moved more by curiosity than by any other reason,
he ordered her to be admitted. When she entered he was sorry, for in
the gaunt person and dark-eyed face he recognised one against whom he
had been warned by the elders of his church as a spy, a creature who
was employed by the papal inquisitors to get up cases against
heretics, and who was known as Black Meg.
"What is your business with me?" Brant asked sternly.
"Nothing to your hurt, worthy Heer, believe me, nothing to your hurt.
Oh! yes, I know that tales are told against me, who only earn an
honest living in an honest way, to keep my poor husband, who is an
imbecile. Once alas! he followed that mad Anabaptist fool, John of
Leyden, the fellow who set up as a king, and said that men might have
as many wives as they wished. That was what sent my husband silly,
but, thanks be to the Saints, he has repented of his errors and is
reconciled to the Church and Christian marriage, and now, I, who have
a forgiving nature, am obliged to support him."
"Your business?" said Brant.
"Mynheer," she answered, dropping her husky voice, "you are a friend
of the Countess Montalvo, she who was Lysbeth van Hout?"
"No, I am acquainted with her, that is all."
"At least you are a friend of the Heer Dirk van Goorl who has left
this town for Alkmaar; he who was her lover?"
"Yes, I am his cousin, but he is not the lover of any married woman."
"No, no, of course not; love cannot look through a bridal veil, can
it? Still, you are his friend, and, therefore, perhaps, her friend,
and--she isn't happy."
"Indeed? I know nothing of her present life: she must reap the field
which she has sown. That door is shut."
"Not altogether perhaps. I thought it might interest Dirk van Goorl to
learn that it is still ajar."
"I don't see why it should. Fish merchants are not interested in
rotten herrings; they write off the loss and send out the smack for a
fresh cargo."
"The first fish we catch is ever the finest, Mynheer, and if we
haven't quite caught it, oh! what a fine fish is that."
"I have no time to waste in chopping riddles. What is your errand?
Tell it, or leave it untold, but be quick."
Black Meg leant forward, and the hoarse voice sank to a cavernous
whisper.
"What will you give me," she asked, "if I prove to you that the
Captain Montalvo is not married at all to Lysbeth van Hout?"
"It does not much matter what I would give you, for I saw the thing
done in the Groote Kerk yonder."
"Things are not always done that seem to be done."
"Look here, woman, I have had enough of this," and Brant pointed to
the door.
Black Meg did not stir, only she produced a packet from the bosom of
her dress and laid it on the table.
"A man can't have two wives living at once, can he?"
"No, I suppose not--that is, legally."
"Well, if I show you that Montalvo has two wives, how much?"
Brant became interested. He hated Montalvo; he guessed, indeed he knew
something of the part which the man had played in this infamous
affair, and knew also that it would be a true kindness to Lysbeth to
rid her of him.
"If you /proved/ it," he said, "let us say two hundred florins."
"It is not enough, Mynheer."
"It is all I have to offer, and, mind you, what I promise to pay."
"Ah! yes, the other promises and doesn't pay--the rogue, the rogue,"
she added, striking a bony fist upon the table. "Well, I agree, and I
ask no bond, for you merchant folk are not like cavaliers, your word
is as good as your paper. Now read these," and she opened the packet
and pushed its contents towards him.
With the exception of two miniatures, which he placed upon one side,
they were letters written in Spanish and in a very delicate hand.
Brant knew Spanish well, and in twenty minutes he had read them all.
They proved to be epistles from a lady who signed herself Juanita de
Montalvo, written to the Count Juan de Montalvo, whom she addressed as
her husband. Very piteous documents they were also, telling a tale
that need not be set out here of heartless desertion; pleading for the
writer's sake and for the sake of certain children, that the husband
and father would return to them, or at least remit them means to live,
for they, his wife and family, were sunk in great poverty.
"All this is sad enough," said Brant with a gesture of disgust as he
glanced at the miniature of the lady and her children, "but it proves
nothing. How are we to know that she is the man's wife?"
Black Meg put her hand into the bosom of her dress and produced
another letter dated not more than three months ago. It was, or
purported to be, written by the priest of the village where the lady
lived, and was addressed to the Captain the Count Juan de Montalvo at
Leyden. In substance this epistle was an earnest appeal to the noble
count from one who had a right to speak, as the man who had christened
him, taught him, and married him to his wife, either to return to her
or to forward her the means to join him. "A dreadful rumour," the
letter ended, "has reached us here in Spain that you have taken to
wife a Dutch lady at Leyden named Van Hout, but this I do not believe,
since never could you have committed such a crime before God and man.
Write, write at once, my son, and disperse this black cloud of scandal
which is gathering on your honoured and ancient name."
"How did you come by these, woman?" asked Brant.
"The last I had from a priest who brought it from Spain. I met him at
The Hague, and offered to deliver the letter, as he had no safe means
of sending it to Leyden. The others and the pictures I stole out of
Montalvo's room."
"Indeed, most honest merchant, and what might you have been doing in
his Excellency's room?"
"I will tell you," she answered, "for, as he never gave me my pay, my
tongue is loosed. He wished for evidence that the Heer Dirk van Goorl
was a heretic, and employed me to find it."
Brant's face hardened, and he became more watchful.
"Why did he wish such evidence?"
"To use it to prevent the marriage of Jufvrouw Lysbeth with the Heer
Dirk van Goorl."
"How?"
Meg shrugged her shoulders. "By telling his secret to her so that she
might dismiss him, I suppose, or more likely by threatening that, if
she did not, he would hand her lover over to the Inquisitors."
"I see. And did you get the evidence?"
"Well, I hid in the Heer Dirk's bedroom one night, and looking through
a door saw him and another young man, whom I do not know, reading the
Bible, and praying together."
"Indeed; what a terrible risk you must have run, for had those young
men, or either of them, chanced to catch you, it is quite certain that
you would not have left that room alive. You know these heretics think
that they are justified in killing a spy at sight, and, upon my word,
I do not blame them. In fact, my good woman," and he leaned forward
and looked her straight in the eyes, "were I in the same position I
would have knocked you on the head as readily as though you had been a
rat."
Black Meg shrank back, and turned a little blue about the lips.
"Of course, Mynheer, of course, it is a rough game, and the poor
agents of God must take their risks. Not that the other young man had
any cause to fear. I wasn't paid to watch him, and--as I have said--I
neither know nor care who he is."
"Well, who can say, that may be fortunate for you, especially if he
should ever come to know or to care who you are. But it is no affair
of ours, is it? Now, give me those letters. What, do you want your
money first? Very well," and, rising, Brant went to a cupboard and
produced a small steel box, which he unlocked; and, having taken from
it the appointed sum, locked it again. "There you are," he said; "oh,
you needn't stare at the cupboard; the box won't live there after
to-day, or anywhere in this house. By the way, I understand that
Montalvo never paid you."
"Not a stiver," she answered with a sudden access of rage; "the low
thief, he promised to pay me after his marriage, but instead of
rewarding her who put him in that warm nest, I tell you that already
he has squandered every florin of the noble lady's money in gambling
and satisfying such debts as he was obliged to, so that to-day I
believe that she is almost a beggar."
"I see," said Brant, "and now good morning, and look you, if we should
chance to meet in the town, you will understand that I do not know
you."
"I understand, Mynheer," said Black Meg with a grin and vanished.
When she had gone Brant rose and opened the window. "Bah!" he said,
"the air is poisoned. But I think I frightened her, I think that I
have nothing to fear. Yet who can tell? My God! she saw me reading the
Bible, and Montalvo knows it! Well, it is some time ago now, and I
must take my chance."
Ah! who could tell indeed?
Then, taking the miniatures and documents with him, Brant started to
call upon his friend and co-religionist, the Heer Pieter van de Werff,
Dirk van Goorl's friend, and Lysbeth's cousin, a young man for whose
judgment and abilities he had a great respect. As a result of this
visit, these two gentlemen left that afternoon for Brussels, the seat
of Government, where they had very influential friends.
It will be sufficient to tell the upshot of their visit. Just at that
time the Government of the Netherlands wished for its own reasons to
stand well with the citizen class, and when those in authority learned
of the dreadful fraud that had been played off upon a lady of note who
was known to be a good Catholic, for the sole object of robbing her of
her fortune, there was indignation in high places. Indeed, an order
was issued, signed by a hand which could not be resisted--so deeply
was one woman moved by the tale of another's wrong--that the Count
Montalvo should be seized and put upon his trial, just as though he
were any common Netherland malefactor. Moreover, since he was a man
with many enemies, no one was found to stand between him and the Royal
decree.
Three days later Montalvo made an announcement to Lysbeth. For a
wonder he was supping at home alone with his wife, whose presence he
had commanded. She obeyed and attended, sitting at the further end of
the table, whence she rose from time to time to wait upon him with her
own hands. Watching him the while with her quiet eyes, she noticed
that he was ill at ease.
"Cannot you speak?" he asked at last and savagely. "Do you think it is
pleasant for a man to sit opposite a woman who looks like a corpse in
her coffin till he wishes she were one?"
"So do I," answered Lysbeth, and again there was silence.
Presently she broke it. "What do you want?" she asked. "More money?"
"Of course I want money," he answered furiously.
"Then there is none; everything has gone, and the notary tells me that
no one will advance another stiver on the house. All my jewellery is
sold also."
He glanced at her hand. "You have still that ring," he said.
She looked at it. It was a hoop of gold set with emeralds of
considerable value which her husband had given her before marriage and
always insisted upon her wearing. In fact, it had been bought with the
money which he borrowed from Dirk van Goorl.
"Take it," she said, smiling for the first time, and drawing off the
ring she passed it over to him. He turned his head aside as he
stretched his hand towards the trinket lest his face should betray the
shame which even he must feel.
"If your child should be a son," he muttered, "tell him that his
father had nothing but a piece of advice to leave him; that he should
never touch a dice-box."
"Are you going away then?" she asked.
"For a week or two I must. I have been warned that a difficulty has
arisen, about which I need not trouble you. Doubtless you will hear of
it soon enough, and though it is not true, I must leave Leyden until
the thing blows over. In fact I am going now."
"You are about to desert me," she answered; "having got all my money,
I say that you are going to desert me who am--thus! I see it in your
face."
Montalvo turned away and pretended not to hear.
"Well, thank God for it," Lysbeth added, "only I wish that you could
take your memory and everything else of yours with you."
As these bitter words passed her lips the door opened, and there
entered one of his own subalterns, followed by four soldiers and a man
in a lawyer's robe.
"What is this?" asked Montalvo furiously.
The subaltern saluted as he entered:
"My captain, forgive me, but I act under orders, and they are to
arrest you alive, or," he added significantly, "dead."
"Upon what charge?" asked Montalvo.
"Here, notary, you had best read the charge," said the subaltern, "but
perhaps the lady would like to retire first," he added awkwardly.
"No," answered Lysbeth, "it might concern me."
"Alas! Senora, I fear it does," put in the notary. Then he began to
read the document, which was long and legal. But she was quick to
understand. Before ever it was done Lysbeth knew that she was not the
lawful wife of Count Juan de Montalvo, and that he was to be put upon
his trial for his betrayal of her and the trick he had played the
Church. So she was free--free, and overcome by that thought she
staggered, fell, and swooned away.
When her eyes opened again, Montalvo, officer, notary, and soldiers,
all had vanished.
