“When Leyden is safe from the Spaniards——” and again the Prince sighed, adding, “well, you have a true heart, young sir, and a right spirit, for which I honour both of you. But I fear that things being thus the Jufvrouw cannot sleep so very peacefully in Norwich after all.”
“We must each bear our share of the basket,” answered Foy sadly; “I must do the fighting and she the watching.”
“It is so, I know it, who have both fought and watched. Well, I hope that a time will come when you will both of you do the loving. And now for the rest of the story.”
“Sir, it is very short. We read your proclamation in the streets this morning, and learned from it for certain what we have heard before, that you are in sore want of money for the defence of Leyden and the war at large. Therefore, hearing that you were still in the city, and believing this proclamation of yours to be the summons and clear command for which we waited, we have brought you Hendrik Brant’s treasure. It is there upon the cart.”
The Prince put his hand to his forehead and reeled back a step.
“You do not jest with me, Foy van Goorl?” he said.
“Indeed no.”
“But stay; this treasure is not yours to give, it belongs to Elsa Brant.”
“Sir, the legal title to it is in myself, for my father was Brant’s lawful heir and executor, and I inherit his rights. Moreover, although a provision for her is charged upon it, it is Elsa’s desire—I have it written here under her hand and witnessed—that the money should be used, every ducat of it, for the service of the country in such way as I might find good. Lastly, her father, Hendrik Brant, always believed that this wealth of his would in due season be of such service. Here is a copy of his will, in which he directs that we are to apply the money ‘for the defence of our country, the freedom of religious Faith, and the destruction of the Spaniards in such fashion and at such time or times as God shall reveal to us.’ When he gave us charge of it also, his words to me were: ‘I am certain that thousands and tens of thousands of our folk will live to bless the gold of Hendrik Brant.’ On that belief too, thinking that God put it into his mind, and would reveal His purpose in His own hour, we have acted all of us, and therefore for the sake of this stuff we have gone to death and torture. Now it has come about as Brant foretold; now we understand why all these things have happened, and why we live, this man and I, to stand before you, sir, to-day, with the hoard unminished by a single florin, no, not even by Martin’s legacy.”
“Man, you jest, you jest!” said Orange.