He turned at the same time to Laurence and stretched out his hand to him. The young man at once bent the knee and kissed the gracious hand.
"The little that we have done, Monseigneur," said Clemence softly, "hath been done with great gladness seeing that it was in your service."
"Not only mine, mevrouw," rejoined the stranger. "I am but the instrument of G.o.d"s will, an humble follower of His cause. What you have done was done for Him and for the cause of liberty, of justice and of right."
"May G.o.d"s blessing rest upon your Highness" enterprise," murmured Clemence fervently. "For G.o.d and William of Orange is our cry. Your cause is the cause of G.o.d."
"Alas!" said the Prince, with a sigh of utter weariness and dejection, "you know how little success I have had in this city ... promises!
promises! promises I have in plenty, and a couple of thousand young men from the town have rallied to my standard. A poor result indeed after all my efforts! So much tyranny!" he exclaimed bitterly, "such wanton oppression! the dastardly outrages at Mons and at Mechlin! and only two thousand men among thirty, willing to take up arms to defend their liberty, their ancient privileges, their very homes!"
He leaned his elbows on the table and buried his head in his hands.
Clemence van Rycke was silent as were the men; their hearts echoed all the bitterness which had surged up in William of Orange"s heart.
"Yet your Highness refuses to take me with you," said Laurence with gentle reproach.
"Only for the moment, Messire," rejoined the Prince, "only for the moment. Never fear but I will send for you as soon as I have need of you. Can I afford to reject so devoted a champion? But for the moment you can do so much more for me by staying quietly at home than if you followed me on my recruiting campaign. I have not yet exhausted the resources and enthusiasm of this city--of that I feel confident, I shall try again--for another week. There are still several likely houses that I have not visited, and whose cordial invitation I have received..."
"Beware of treachery, your Highness!" broke in Clemence van Rycke suddenly.
"Nay, Madonna," he said, whilst that same winning smile lit up the sombre dejection of his face, "but have I not told you that my dragon is on the watch? Not a step am I allowed to take in this city without his permission. He allowed me to come to this house to-night, because he knew that I desired to express my grat.i.tude to you personally. But I can a.s.sure you," he added, laughing softly to himself, "I had to fight for the permission."
"Is that not insolence?" exclaimed one of the others hotly. "Were we not to be trusted with the care of your sacred person?"
"You all, seigniors, and Messire van Rycke and his mother," rejoined the Prince; "but there are others in this house. Do not blame my devoted Leatherface," he continued earnestly; "but for him I should not be here now. No man could be more watchful, no man more brave or more resourceful. Countless times did he save me from the a.s.sa.s.sin"s dagger and the poisoner"s cup. If my life is necessary for the cause of freedom and justice, then have freedom and justice in Leatherface their truest and most efficient champion."
"Amen to that," rejoined Clemence van Rycke with fervour. "I only wish I knew who he was, that I might pray more personally for him."
"Ah! we none of us know who he is, Madonna," said William of Orange more lightly. "He is Leatherface, and that is enough for us. And this reminds me that he begged me to be back at my lodgings by ten o"clock, so I have not much time to spend in this pleasing gossip. Shall we to serious business now?"
"At your Highness" service," replied Laurence, and the others also murmured a quick a.s.sent.
II
"Well then, seigniors, having decided on our coup we have only the details to consider. You have all a.s.sured me that the Duke of Alva will come to Ghent within the next few days, and that our two thousand recruits are ready to carry out the orders which we have framed for them."
"The numbers will be doubled within the next few days," interposed one of the grave seigniors with conviction. "Your Highness" presence in the town--though only known to a very few loyalists--hath wrought miracles already."
"The wave of enthusiasm is spreading," a.s.serted another.
"Well! if we had more men," quoth the Prince cheerily, "our plan would, of a surety, be more certain of success. I cannot say that I altogether approve of the plan--for as you know, I am a soldier and have no great mind for plots and conspiracies; but those on whose judgment I place infinite confidence--men such as Messire Paul Buys, pensionary of Leyden, Marnix of Tholouse, Marnix of St. Aldegonde and others, all approve of it, and I have therefore given it mine a.s.sent."
He sank his voice yet lower to a whisper, and he leaned right across the table as did the other men so that their ears were quite close to his mouth.
"The Duke of Alva comes to Ghent in about a week"s time," he continued.
"The idea is to seize his person and hold him a prisoner here and an hostage whilst we demand the withdrawal of all the Spanish troops from the Netherlands and the abolition of the Spanish Inquisition."
"To seize the person of the Duke of Alva!" murmured Clemence van Rycke, and so great was the terror which the tyrant inspired in every Flemish heart, that even those who already knew of this daring plot were appalled at the magnitude of such an outrage.
"Why not?" quoth William of Orange earnestly. "Less than a hundred years ago the town of Bruges held the Archduke Maximilian King of the Romans a prisoner within her walls, until he swore to dismiss all foreign troops from the Netherlands within four days, and gave hostages for his fidelity. What Bruges did then, cannot Ghent do now? With Alva a prisoner in our hands, we can dictate our terms to the King. It is a bold coup, seigniors, I own, but it hath every chance of success."
A murmur of approval went round the table. Clemence alone was silent.
She was old and feeble, perhaps she had seen more than one bold coup fail, and terrible reprisals follow such failures; but Laurence was full of eagerness and enthusiasm.
"It cannot fail," he a.s.serted vehemently. "Are there not two thousand men in the city who are devoted to your Highness heart and soul, and who are ready to give their lives for your cause? Two thousand, and within three days there will be five! more than enough for such a bold coup.
It will and must succeed! One lucky hazard, and we may win all that we have fought for, lived for, died for, for over a century."
"It cannot fail!" came with fervent conviction from every one of the others.
"Ghent can do what Bruges hath done!" they affirmed.
"With the tyrant a prisoner in our hands, we can dictate terms as Bruges did an hundred years ago."
"Well said, seigniors," rejoined William of Orange, "and your approval--you who know this city so much better than I do--hath given me further encouragement. And now," he added with serious earnestness, "you will want to know why I convened this meeting, which by Mevrouw van Rycke"s graciousness I have been able to do, and you will wish to hear what role hath been a.s.signed to each of you in the great event which we are preparing."
"Let me but offer my life..." interposed Laurence eagerly.
"Nay! not your life, I hope, Messire," quoth the Prince with a smile, "your forethought and prudence and your united co-operation are what we want. Ye are risking your lives, seigniors, in this enterprise, that I"ll not deny--but ye are men and know which you value most, your life or the very existence of your nation which is threatened with complete destruction."
"For Orange, for faith and for liberty!" said one of the men simply, and the others merely murmured: "Tell us what we must do."
"You must be wary and alert above all things, seigniors, for I have chosen you for a very arduous task in connection with this enterprise, and you must recognise that however carefully we organise it, there will always be one weak link in the chain which we are forging for the capture of that abominable tyrant, the Duke of Alva."
"One weak link?"
"Yes. We do not and cannot know for certain on which date Alva proposes to come to Ghent. The dates of his visits to Flemish towns are always kept a secret until the very moment of departure."
"He dreads a.s.sa.s.sination," interposed one man with a sneer.
"On the last occasion of the Duke"s visit to Ghent," said Clemence van Rycke, "my husband was only apprised of it by courier two hours before his arrival. The courier had started from Brussels a bare half-hour before the Lieutenant-Governor and his cortege left the city."
"Precisely, and even then the High-Bailiff was in advance of every one else with the news," nodded the Prince, "and that is where our difficulty lies. How to collect together a couple of thousand men at perhaps an hour"s notice--men who are scattered in different portions of this city and probably engaged in their usual avocations."
"Where will their leaders be?"
"Each at the different points where our secret stores of arms are kept.
There are four of these points and four captains whom I have appointed to command five hundred men each. Having distributed the arms, the captains will lead their respective companies to the Waalpoort, where a crowd is sure to collect as soon as the rumour has spread to the town that the Lieutenant-Governor is coming. Our men will mix with the crowd, and at a given signal--when the Duke"s cortege crosses the bridge--they will rush the bodyguard, scatter confusion among the escort, and in the melee seize the person of Alva. During the inevitable tumult that will ensue among the soldiers and the populace, our valuable hostage shall be conveyed in absolute secrecy to Het Spanjaard"s Kasteel, where of course we can easily keep him a close prisoner whilst we negotiate with the King. But this of course is for the future, seigniors," he added, "and my concern now is to explain to you the method which I and my councillors have devised for the calling together of our stalwarts as soon as the Duke"s coming visit is announced. Have I your close attention, seigniors?"
He had indeed. The four men round the table bent forward more eagerly still so as not to lose one word of their n.o.ble chief"s commands. But before they could formulate the words of loyalty and of enthusiasm which hovered on their lips, a soft sound like the beating of a bird"s wing against the window-pane froze those whispered words upon their lips.
Every head was immediately turned to the window, every face became rigid and pale, every brow was contracted with the effort to strain the faculty of hearing to its tensest point. It seemed as if six pairs of glowing eyes would pierce the folds of the velvet curtain which hung before the window.
III