Leatherface: A Tale of Old Flanders

  Nothing more is said just then; the grey day is already yielding todusk; the fire of artillery and musketry is less incessant, the clash ofpike and halberd can be heard more distinctly, and also the cries of thewomen and the groans of the wounded and the dying.

  A few moments later a tall, lean man in the borrowed dress of a Spanishhalberdier is ushered into the presence of the council. Water, food andclothes have effected a transformation which Alva surveys critically,and not without approval. The man--lean of visage and clean oflimb--looks intelligent and capable; the Duke orders him to advance.

  "'Tis good for thee," he says dryly, "that thy death is moreunprofitable to me than thy life. I want a messenger ... art afraid togo to the miserable wretch who dares to lead a rebel horde against ourSovereign King?"

  "I am afraid of nothing, Magnificence," replies the man quietly, "saveyour Highness's wrath."

  "Dost know where to find the rebel?"

  "Where musket-balls fly thickest, your Highness."

  "Then tell him," says Alva curtly, "that as soon as the night has fallenand the fire of culverins and muskets has ceased, I will have thedrawbridge at the south-east of this castle lowered, and I will comeforward to meet him, accompanied by my captains and the members of mycouncil. Tell him to walk forward and meet me until we are withinearshot of one another: and to order his torch-bearers to throw thelight of their torches upon his face: then will I put forward a proposalwhich hath regard to the eternal salvation of every man, woman and childinside this city. Tell him to guard his person as he thinks fit, buttell him also that from the ramparts of this Kasteel three hundredmuskets will be aimed at his head, and at the slightest suspicion oftreachery the order will be given to fire. Dost understand?"

  "Every word, your Highness," says the man simply.

  "Then go in peace," concludes Alva, and the man is dismissed.

  XI

  An hour later the drawbridge at the south-east gate of the Kasteel waslowered. Twilight had now faded into night; the dull, grey day hadyielded to black, impenetrable night. Here and there far away in theheart of the city lurid lights shot through the darkness, and every nowand then a column of vivid flame would strike up to the dense black sky,and for a while illumine the ruined towers, the shattered roofs andbroken chimneys around ere it fell again, sizzling in the dampatmosphere.

  The Duke of Alva rode out in the gloom; he was seated upon his blackcharger, and was preceded by his torch-bearers and by his bodyguard ofarchers. Behind him walked his captains and the members of his council.The procession slowly wended its way under the portal of the gate-houseand then over the bridge. At the farthest end of the bridge the Dukereined in his horse, and his bodyguard, his captains and the members ofhis council all stood behind him so that he immediately faced the tractof open ground beyond which were the Orangist lines.

  The flickering light of resin torches illumined the commanding figure ofthe Duke, dressed in sombre clothes and silk-lined mantle, and wearingbreast and back plates of armour, with huge tassets over his widebreeches and open steel morion on his head. To right and left far away,toward the open country, the bivouac fires of the insurgents gleamedweirdly in the night.

  All noise of fighting had ceased, and a strange silence had fallen overthe city--a silence which hid many secrets of horror and of despair.

  Suddenly something began to move, something that at first appeareddarker than the darkness of the night; a few moments later it appearedas a speck of ruddy light which moved quickly--now toward the castlebridge; anon it was distinguishable as a group of men--a dozen orso--with a couple of torchbearers on in front, the light from whosetorches fell full upon a tall figure which stood out boldly amongst theothers. Now the group came to a halt less than fifty paces away, andthose upon the bridge could see that tall figure quite clearly; a man inragged doublet and hose, with grimy hands and face blackened withpowder; he held his head very erect and wore neither helmet nor armour.

  At sight of him, de Vargas gave a cry of rage and surprise.

  "Mark van Rycke!" he exclaimed. "What hath he to do with it all?"

  "Thy daughter's husband," said Alva coolly. "Nay, then we'll soon makeher a widow."

  But to the Orangists he called peremptorily: "'Tis with the rebel whomye call Leatherface that I wish to speak."

  "I have been known as Leatherface hitherto," retorts Mark van Ryckecoolly. "Speak without fear. I listen."

  Vargas' cry of rage was echoed by more than one Spanish captain present.They remembered Mark van Rycke, the ne'er-do-well with whom they had oftdrunk and jested in the taverns of Ghent and Brussels, aye! and beforewhom they had oft talked openly of their plans.

  "Spy as well as rebel!" they cried out to him wrathfully.

  "Pity he cannot hang more than once," added de Vargas with bitter spite.

  But to Alva the personality of the rebel was of no consequence. Whatcared he if the man was called van Rycke and was the husband of hisfriend's daughter? There stood an abominable rebel who had gained bytreachery and stealth a momentary advantage over the forces of hissuzerain Lord the King, and who would presently suffer along with thewhole of this insurgent city the utmost rigour of Alva's laws! In themeanwhile he deigned to parley with the lout, for he was sore pressedinside the Kasteel, and the messengers who were speeding to Dendermondefor reinforcements could not possibly bring help for at least anotherfour-and-twenty hours.

  Therefore, now he--the Lieutenant-Governor of the Netherlands andCaptain-General of His Majesty's forces--demanded attention in the nameof the King.

  "Do ye come as traitors?" he asked in a loud voice, "or as loyal men?If as traitors ye shall die ere ye advance another step. But if ye areloyal men, then listen, for I will speak with you in amity and peace."

  "Thou knowest best, Magnificence," came Mark's clear voice out of thegroup, "if we are loyal men or no. Thou didst send an emissary to us;he goeth back to thee unhurt: thou standest before our bowmen even nowand not an arrow hath touched thine armour. We are loyal men and areprepared to listen to what ye have to say."

  "Listen then," resumed the Duke curtly, "but let no false hopes lure yethe while. Ye are rebels and are under the ban of the law. Nothing butunconditional surrender can win mercy for your city."

  "Nothing but humility can save thee from the wrath of God," retortedMark boldly. "We are unconquered, Magnificence! and 'tis thou whoaskest to parley--not we."

  "I do not ask," retorted Alva loudly, "I demand."

  "Then since 'tis the vanquished who demand, let us hear what they wishto say."

  "To-morrow is Sunday, rebel, hadst forgotten that?"

  "No, tyrant, I had not. God hath forbidden us to work on that day, butnot to fight against oppression."

  "He hath also enjoined us to attend Mass on His day. Are ye hereticsthat ye care naught for that?"

  "We care for the Lord's Day as much as Spaniards do."

  "Yet will ye prevent His people from praying in peace!"

  "We'll pray for those whom thy tyranny keeps locked up within thy castlewalls."

  "Not so," exclaims Alva, "my men are free to go: they will attend Massin the churches of this city. Will you butcher them whilst they are atprayer?"

  There was no immediate reply to this taunt, but from the insurgents'ranks there came a loud, warning call:

  "Do not heed him, van Rycke! Remember Egmont and Horne! Do not fallinto the tyrant's trap! There's treachery in every word he says."

  Alva waited in silence until the tumult had subsided. He knew what hewanted and why he wanted it. A few hours' respite would mean salvationfor him ... a few hours! ... and the garrison of Dendermonde would be onits way to Ghent. He wanted to stay the hand of time for those fewhours and had invented this treacherous means to gain that end.

  "'Tis no wonder," he said quietly as soon as the clamour on the Orangistside was stilled, "that ye who are traitors should seek treacheryeverywhere. What I propose is loyal and jus
t and in accordance withGod's own decrees. If ye refuse, ye do so at the peril of thousands ofimmortal souls."

  "We know not yet what it is ye ask," said van Rycke quietly.

  "We demand a truce until the evening Angelus to-morrow--the Lord's Daywhich is also the feast of the Holy Redeemer. We demand the right toattend Mass in peace ... and in exchange we'll agree not to molest youwhilst ye pray and whilst ye bury your dead."

  "A truce until the evening Angelus," broke in Mark hotly, "so that yemay send for reinforcements to the nearest garrison town. We refuse!"

  "You refuse?" retorted Alva. "For two days and a night ye have raisedyour arms against your lawful King. If you fight to-morrow you will addsacrilege to your other crimes."

  "And thou, treachery to thine!" said van Rycke boldly. "Whence thisdesire to keep holy the Sabbath day, tyrant? Wouldst thou have ceased todestroy, to pillage or to outrage this day if we had not raised our armsin our own defence?"

  "Well said, van Rycke!" cried the Orangists.

  "The immortal souls which your obstinacy would send to hell," said theDuke of Alva, "will return and haunt you till they drag you back withthem."

  "Can you not pray in your Kasteel?" retorted Mark.

  "We have no priest to say Mass for us."

  "We will send you one."

  "We have no consecrated chapel."

  "The priest will say Mass in your castle-yard, beneath the consecrateddome of heaven. The Walloon prisoners whom we have taken are receivingthe ministry of our priests in the guild-houses where they are held."

  "Nay! but such makeshift would not satisfy the children of Spain who arealso the chosen children of the Church. But," continued Alva with asudden assumption of indifference, "I have made my proposal. Take it ornot as ye list. But remember this: the dead who lie unburied in yourstreets will have their revenge. Pestilence and disease will sweep yourcity of your children, as soon as we have vanquished your men."

  "Treachery!" cried some of the Orangists, "do not heed him, van Rycke."

  But of a truth the cry was not repeated quite so insistently this time.Alva's last argument was an unanswerable one. Pestilence these days wasa more formidable foe than the finest artillery wielded by a powerfulenemy: there were over two thousand dead lying unburied in the city atthis hour: as the tyrant said very truly, these would take a terriblerevenge. And there was something too in the sanctity of the Lord's Daywhich touched the hearts of these men who were deeply religious anddevout and had a profound respect for the dictates of the Church. Mostof them were Catholics--the importance of attending Mass on the Lord'sDay on pain of committing a deadly sin weighed hard upon theirconscience. Alva was quick to note the advantage which he had alreadygained, and when the first dissentient voice among the Orangists washeard to say: "A truce can do no harm and 'twere sacrilege to fight onthe Lord's Day," he broke in quickly:

  "Nay! 'tis not fighting ye would do, but murder. Aye! murder on the Dayof the Holy Redeemer who died that ye should live.... My men areCatholic to a man! not one of them but would far rather let himself bebutchered than commit a deadly sin. Rebels, who have outraged yourKing, to-morrow morning the church bells will be calling the faithful tothe Holy Sacrifice: the truce which you refuse to hold with us we willgrant you of our own free will. We will not fight you on the day of thefeast of the Holy Redeemer. But to-morrow every Spaniard and everyWalloon in our armies will go unarmed and present himself at your churchdoors. I--even I--with my captains and the members of the King'sCouncil will attend Mass at the church of St. Baafs and we will beunarmed, for we shall have placed ourselves under the care of the HolyRedeemer Himself. And now tell thy soldiers, rebel, tell them thatSpaniards and Walloons will be in the churches of Ghent in theirthousands and that they will be defenceless save for the armour ofprayer which will encompass them as they kneel before the altar of God!"

  "And in the meanwhile," retorted van Rycke, "ye will be sending toDendermonde and Alost and Antwerpen: and when after the evening Angeluswe take up arms once more against your tyranny, there will be fivethousand more Spaniards at our gates."

  "By the Holy Redeemer whom I herewith invoke," said Alva solemnly andraised his hand above his head with a gesture of invocation, "I swearthat no messenger of mine shall leave the city before ye once more takeup arms against your King. I swear that no messenger of mine hath leftthis city for the purpose of getting help from any garrison town, andmay my soul be eternally damned if I do not speak the truth."

  Those who were present at this memorable interview declare that whenAlva registered this false and blasphemous oath a curious crimson lightsuddenly appeared in the East--so strong and lurid was it that theperjurer himself put up his hand for a second or two as if blinded bythe light. Philip de Lannoy, seigneur de Beauvoir, assures us that thelight was absolutely dazzling and of the colour of blood, but that hetook it as a warning from God against the sacrilege of fighting on thisholy day, and that it caused him to add the weight of his influence withMark van Rycke to grant the truce which the Spaniards desired.

  Undoubtedly, the solemn oath spoken by the tyrant who was such a devoutand bigoted Catholic greatly worked upon the feelings of the Orangists:never for a moment did the suspicion of the oath being a false one entertheir loyal heads: nor must they be blamed for their childish confidencein a man who had lied to them and deceived them so continuously for thepast five years. They were so loyal themselves, such a trap as Alva wassetting for them now was so far from their ken, that it was impossiblefor them to imagine such appalling treachery: as for the sanctity of anoath, they would as soon have thought of doubting the evidence of theirown eyes.

  Mark van Rycke, it is true, held out to the last. He knew theseSpaniards better than those simple burghers did: not in vain had hespent his best years in the uncongenial task of worming out their secretplans--their treacherous devices--over tankards of ale and games ofhazard in Flemish taverns. He mistrusted them all, he mistrusted Alvaabove all! he had no belief in that execrable monster's oath.

  "God is on our side!" he said quietly, "we'll bury our dead when we can,and pray when God wills. He'll forgive the breaking of His Sabbath forthe justice of our cause.

  "They are weary of the fight," he added obstinately, "we are not."

  But already every one of his friends was urging him to grant the truce:

  "For the sake of our women and children," said van Deynse who voiced themajority, "let there be no fighting to-morrow. The tyrant has pledgedhis immortal soul that he will not play us false. No man would dare todo that unless he meant to be true."

  "Rebel!" now shouted Alva impatiently, "I await thine answer."

  "Accept, van Rycke, accept," cried the Orangists unanimously now, "it isGod's will that we accept."

  "I await thine answer, rebel," reiterated Alva.

  "What answer can I give?" retorted van Rycke. "You say your men will goto our churches unarmed. We are not butchers as ye would have been."

  "You will let them pray in peace?"

  "As thou desirest. You who were prepared to destroy our city and tomurder our women and our children will have nothing to fear from uswhile ye are unarmed and at prayer."

  "Until the evening Angelus ceases to ring?"

  "Until then."

  "And until that hour we remain as we are. Our guard at the gates...."

  "Our prisoners in our hands."

  "And may God guard thee," concluded Alva unctuously.

  "May God have mercy on thy soul if thou hast lied to us," said Mark vanRycke quietly.

  To this Alva made no reply, but his grim face looked in no way troubled.Special absolution even for speaking a false oath could easily beobtained, alas! these days by any Duke of Alva or other tyrant powerfulenough to demand it; and no doubt the Lieutenant-Governor, sent tosubdue the rebellious Low Countries, was well provided with every kindof dispensation which embodied the principle that "the end justifies themeans!"

  He wheeled his horse round and, wholly callous
and unconcerned, he rodeback slowly over the bridge.

  As soon as the last of the Spaniards had filed under the gate-house ofthe Kasteel and the drawbridge was once more raised, Mark van Rycketurned with unwonted peremptoriness to his friends who were crowdinground him, eagerly approving of what he had done.

  "Van Deynse," he said curtly, "to-morrow at dawn, see that yourmusketeers are massed inside the ruins of the Tanners' Guild House, andyou, Laurence, place three hundred of your picked archers under thecover of the Vish Mart. Lannoy, your pikemen beneath the arcades of theAbbey opposite St. Baafs, and you, Groobendock, yours in the doorways ofthe houses opposite St. Pharailde, and every one of you under arms. Letthe Spaniards pray in peace if they have not lied. But at the firstsign of treachery, remember your wives and your daughters and do notspare the murderers of your children or the desecrators of your homes."

  CHAPTER XVII

  TRUTH AND PERFIDY

  I

  The cathedral bells of St. Baafs were the first to ring on thatunforgettable 23rd day of October which was the feast of the HolyRedeemer: the appealing, sweet, melancholy sound came clearly throughthe humid air. Lenora, who was in her room with Grete, stood quitestill for a moment and listened. The bells of St. Pharailde took up thecall, then those of St. Jakab and St. Agneten until the clang of bellsechoed from end to end of the city and drowned every other sound--ofstrife or of misery. The roar of the artillery now was mute, the clashof pikes and lances was no longer heard--only that curious medley ofweird and terrible sounds still lingered in the air--a medley made up ofsighs and groans, of men falling down exhausted with pain, of masonrystill crumbling and woodwork still sizzling--a medley to which now wasadded the roll of drums which on either side called to the men to layaside their strife and to go and pray in peace.