How freely Verbrugge breathed again!
And how strange the Resident thought Havelaar’s words.
The conversation lasted long. With politeness,—for Slymering was polite and well-bred,—he urged Havelaar to turn aside from such wrong principles; but with as much politeness the latter remained immoveable. The result was, that the Resident had to yield, in saying as a threat, what was to Havelaar a victory, that he should be compelled to bring the matter under the notice of the Government.
The meeting was ended. The Resident paid the visit to the Regent, to put to him the questions already mentioned, and then dined at the scanty board of the Havelaars, after which he returned in great haste to Serang, “because——he——had——still——so——much——to——do.”
The next day Havelaar received a letter from the Resident of Bantam, the contents of which may be understood from the reply, of which I here give a copy:—
“No. 93.—Private.
“Rankas-Betong, 28th February 1856.
“I have had the honour to receive your missive of the 26th inst. (La. O, private), containing mainly the following:— [[383]]
“That you had reasons for not accepting the proposals made in both my official letters of the 24th and 25th inst., Nos. 88 and 91;
“That you had desired a previous confidential communication;
“That you do not approve of my transactions described in both those letters;
“And lastly, some orders.
“I have now the honour again to assert, as I did verbally in the meeting of the day before yesterday:—
“That I fully respect the legality of your power as regards deciding whether to accept my proposition or not:—
“That the orders received shall with exactness be obeyed—with self-sacrifice, if need be, as if you were present to witness all I do or say, or, more properly, all I do not do or do not say.
“I know that you place confidence in my good faith in this matter.
“But I take the liberty solemnly to protest against the least semblance of disapprobation of any action, any word, any phrase, done, spoken, or written by me in this matter. I am convinced that I have done my duty:—in my object and in the manner of executing it quite my duty;—nothing but my duty, without the least deviation.
“I have long pondered before acting (that is: before examining, reporting, and proposing), and if I have been [[384]]to a certain extent mistaken in anything,—my fault was not precipitancy.
“In the same circumstances I should do again——yet a little quicker——exactly, exactly the same.
“Even if it happened that a higher power than yours disapproved anything which I did,—(except perhaps the peculiarity of my style, which is a part of myself, a defect for which I am as little responsible as a stammerer for his defect;)—even if that happened … but no, that cannot be, even if it were so, … I have done my DUTY.
“Certainly I am sorry—yet without being astonished,—that you judge differently of this; and as far as regards myself, I should rely upon what appears to me to be a slight——but there is a question about a principle, and I have conscientious reasons which require that it shall be decided which opinion is correct, yours or mine.
“Serve otherwise than I served at Lebak, I cannot.
“If the Government desires to be served otherwise, then I shall be obliged as an honest man to ask the Government to discharge me;—then I must endeavour, at the age of thirty-six years, to commence a new career;—then I, after seventeen years, after seventeen heavy difficult years of service as a functionary, after having devoted the best of my lifetime to what I considered to be my duty, then I must again ask society for bread, if it will give me bread, for my wife and child—bread in exchange [[385]]for thoughts—bread perhaps in exchange for labour with spade or wheelbarrow, if the strength of my arm is approved more than that of my soul.
“But I cannot and will not believe that your opinion is shared by his Excellency the Governor-General, and I am therefore compelled, before I pass to the bitter extreme of what I wrote in the last paragraph, to beg you respectfully to propose to the Government:
“To order the Resident of Bantam to approve so far the transactions of the Assistant Resident of Lebak, including his letters of the 24th and 25th inst., Nos. 88 and 91;—
“Or:
“To call the above-mentioned Assistant Resident to account on the points of disapprobation to be given by the Resident of Bantam.
“I have, finally, the honour to give you the grateful assurance that if anything could bring me back from my long calculated, and calm but fervently adhered to principles in this,—it would have been indeed the polite, engaging manner in which you, at the meeting of the day before yesterday, opposed those principles.—The Assistant Resident of Lebak,
(Signed) “Max Havelaar.”
Without deciding as to the correctness of the suspicions of Slotering’s widow, concerning the cause which made her children orphans, and only accepting what may be [[386]]proved, that there was a strong connexion in Lebak between fulfilment of duty and poison—even if that connexion existed only in public opinion—yet it may be conceived, that Max and Tine passed sorrowful days after the visit of the Resident. I believe that I need not paint the anguish of a mother, who, when offering food to her child, has continually to ask whether she is not perhaps murdering her darling?
And certainly little Max was an “adored child,” who had stayed away seven years after the marriage, as if the rogue knew that it was no advantage to come into the world as the son of such parents.
Twenty-nine long days had Havelaar to wait before the Governor-General communicated with him, …
But we are not yet so far.