He is
desperate, and, as you know, relentless. My house has always been
guarded by six stout fellows since we returned from the Hague; and
any open attempt to carry off my daughter would be useless. It is
difficult to see what he proposes to himself by stirring up a party
against me; but he might have some scheme which we cannot fathom.
Our Dutchmen are slow but obstinate, and once they get an idea in
their head it is difficult to discharge."
"You do not fear any public tumult, surely?" Rupert said.
"I do not anticipate it, and yet I regard it as possible," Van Duyk
said. "The people in our town have been given to bursts of frenzy,
in which some of our best men have been slain."
"Why don't you go down to the Hague again till this madness has
passed by?"
"I cannot do that. My enemies would take advantage of it, and might
sack my house and warehouses."
"But there is the burgher guard; and all the respectable citizens
are with you."
"That is true enough," the merchant said; "but they are always slow
to take action, and I might be killed, and my place burnt before
they came on to the ground. I will send Maria with you down to the
Hague to her aunt's. If this be the work of the man we wot of, it
may be that he will then cease his efforts, and the bad feeling he
has raised will die away; but in truth, I shall never feel that
Maria is safe until I hear that his evil course has come to an
end.
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