“I swear by God that I cannot do it. Is it right or natural that a man should be forced to kill his own son-in-law?”
“You could bear evidence against your own son-in-law, Henri Marais,” answered the stern-faced commandant. “Why then cannot you kill with your rifle one whom you have already helped to kill with your tongue?”
“I will not, I cannot!” said Marais, tearing at his beard. But the commandant only answered coldly:
“You have the orders of the court, and if you choose to disobey them we shall begin to believe that you have sworn falsely. Then you and your nephew will also appear before the great council when the Englishman is tried again. Still, it matters nothing to us whether you or Hernando Pereira shall fire the shot. See you to it, as the Jews said to Judas who had betrayed the innocent Lord.”
Then he paused and went on, addressing Pereira:
“Do you also refuse, Hernando Pereira? Remember before you answer that if you do refuse we shall draw our own conclusions. Remember, too, that the evidence which you have given, showing that this wicked Englishman plotted and caused the deaths of our brothers and of our wives and children, which we believe to be true evidence, shall be weighed and investigated word by word before the great council.”
“To give evidence is one thing, and to shoot the traitor and murderer another,” said Pereira. Then he added with an oath, or so vowed Hans: “Yet why should I, who know all this villain’s guilt, refuse to carry out the sentence of the law on him? Have no fear, commandant, the accursed Allan Quatermain shall not succeed in his attempt to escape to-morrow before the dawn.”
“So be it,” said the commandant. “Now, do all you who have heard those words take note of them.”
Then Hans, seeing that the council was about to break up, and fearing lest he should be caught and killed, slipped away by the same road that he had come. His thought was to warn me, but this he could not do because of the guards. So he went to the Prinsloos, and finding the vrouw alone with Marie, who had recovered her mind, told them everything that he had heard.
As he said, Marie knelt down and prayed, or thought for a long while, then rose and spoke.