The Lifeguardsman ... Adapted from Schimmel's 'De Kaptein van de Lijfgarde.'

Front matter

[All Rights Reserved.] A Tale of the English Revolution ADAPTED FROM SCHIMMEL'S "DE KAPTEIN VAN DE LIJFGARDE " LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK TO Sir WALTER BESANT GOOD AUTHOK AND GOOD FKIEND WHO WROTE "'FOR FAITH AND FREEDOM" AND MANY OTHER GOOD STORIES THIS ENGLISH VERSION OF A GOOD DUTCH ONE $s Qzbicatiis BY A MERE " ADAPTER" INTRODUCTORY NOTICE The substance of this historical romance is drawn, by permission of the Dutch author, Hendrik Jan Schimmel, from a work of greater length, De Kaptein van de Lijf garde, published in 1888, which has passed through five or six editions. As a poet, dramatist, and novelist, he has during nearly half a century been one of the most vigorous and success ful contributors to modern Dutch literature. It is hoped that English readers will be gratified with a story written by a countryman of our King William in., in which the memorable transactions of 1688 and the following two years, the advent of the Prince of Orange, the settlement of the new reign here, the conspiracies against William's person and Government, and the campaign of the Boyne, ax-e vividly illustrated by the personal experiences of a Dutch officer in his service.

But historical considerations are subordinate, in this narrative, to the imaginative and dramatic interest of a plot involving the characters and the INTRODUCTORY NOTICE fortunes of a husband and wife exposed to peculiar trials of their mutual fidelity in a separation caused by the circumstances of a stirring and adventurous time. There is a noble Dutch proverb, the full meaning of which is this : " A man is one man : his word should be one word." And his deed, one doing ? If so, Karel Semeyns is not a hero. But is not William of Orange ? October 1896.

Chapter I

A visitor to the Hague on the 16th day of October 1688, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, would have witnessed the modest pomp, official and military, of the Dutch Republic. He would have seen a full gathering of ruling personages at the plain palace of the Binnenhof. The sides of the square were lined with three battalions of foot-soldiers and a squadron of dragoons. The standard of the princely House of Orange was fluttering in the breeze. Many grave looking Dutchmen, some alighting from their coaches, others walking in together and earnestly talking, were admitted, on the right-hand side or on the left, at the doors of the two Assemblies of the States- General. These were, first, the Assembly of Knights and Nobles, the Ridderschap, from each province ; and secondly, the Deputies elected by the provincial councils and by the civic municipalities.

The latter were substantial and influential burghers, merchants and lawyers mostly, from the chief towns. Utrecht Gelderland, and Overyssel, as well as the Dutch portions of Brabant and West Flanders, were not, at that time, able to return deputies to the States- General, having too recently been delivered from the French rule. The French invasion of sixteen years before had been only the commencement of a series of conflicts with King Louis xiv., the insolent and rapacious foe of almost every rightful sovereign and self-ruling State in Europe. His schemes then were to annex to his Crown every remaining Burgundian, Flemish, and Belgian territory, the German Palatinate and all the Western Rhinelands, reducing the ecclesiastical princes of Cologne and Liege to life-tenants of his own nomination, with a view to the ultimate appropriation of their dominions, along with those to be wrested from the Spanish monarchy.

All these, and other legitimate possessions either of the Spanish House of Hapsburg, or of the House of Lorraine, or of the German sovereigns bound together in the Empire, had been formally guaranteed by the Treaty of Westphalia, and their preservation was essential to the safety of the Netherlands. But Louis xiv., in almost every year of his long reign, continued to perpetrate acts of violence and rapine, to the spoliation of his neighbours, attempting to swallow up the whole of Western Europe, and breaking through all treaties without the slightest hesitation. His most steadfast opponent was Holland, without whose persistent support neither the Empire and the princes of Germany nor the enfeebled kingdom of Spain would have long resisted the great military power of France. The Dutch wanted for themselves nothing but a " barrier " between the sea-coast of Flanders and the Scheldt, the Meuse and the Rhine.

For a time, after the conclusion of peace in 1648, the mercantile aristocracy of Amsterdam, underrating the peril of a land invasion from that quarter, and having become jealous of the hereditary Stadtholder ship and Captain-Generalship of the army, had neglected to provide for the defence of their frontiers. This neglect was punished and the sturdy valour of the small Dutch nation was aroused by a tremendous danger, in the unprovoked French war of 1672. Three armies, the most completely equipped and the most formidable that had ever been raised in France, with the ablest commanders, Luxembourg, Cond^, and Turenne, aided by the Bishop of Munster's auxiliary troops, suddenly invaded the Netherlands. Louis xiv., in person, with great pomp, came as far as Utrecht. Charles II. of England, personally bribed with secret gifts of money, violating the public national engagements, helped France with a fleet.

Scarcely any part of the Dutch provinces except Holland and Zealand, and Groningen to the north east, withstood the attack. They were saved by water — doubly saved by water ; for while at sea the Dutch fleet, under De Ruyter, kept off the French and English, the flooding of the low inland plains baffled the farther advance of the French army. The hero of that memorable national deliverance was a youth, not then twenty-two years of age. William of Nassau, the third of his name, Prince of Orange, had been called by a spontaneous demonstra tion of the public will, in spite of a narrow-minded civic oligarchy and of intriguing officials, to exercise the same administrative powers that had been wielded victoriously by his predecessors, Maurice and Frederick Henry. In a few months he created, armed, and drilled a sufficient military force to check the French movements, at every point not covered by cutting the dykes — an operation effected just in time.

In the next year he compelled the enemy to retire from every position that had been occupied on Dutch territory : he then proceeded to carry on the war up the Rhine, and on the southern and western Belgian frontiers. The peace of Nymeguen, obtained in 1678, would have proved satisfactory and adequate but for the French king's insatiable greed of conquest. French aggression, as was clearly perceived, could be effectually resisted only by a strong combination which should include Great Britain. In all ages of modern history, the safety of England has required that the Netherlands shall not be absorbed in a great Continental military empire. This perpetual necessity was understood by wise English statesmen, as well under Queen Elizabeth as in the seventeenth century and under Queen Anne, and again in the later wars of the French Revolution and of the first Napoleon.

The two last Stuai't kings alone, with their venal ministers and frivolous or profligate courtiers, were capable of betraying that national interest which had inspired the Triple Alliance. But the champion of that cause was their nephew, William Prince of Orange, whose marriage to his cousin, the heiress of the British Crown, was cordially hailed by the best of the English people as their fairest hope of political salvation. The time had now arrived when he was called upon to act, as husband of Princess Mary, by many of the most eminent Englishmen, peers and bishops and privy councillors, who disbelieved in the recent birth of a Prince of Wales, and who dreaded the attempts of King James to re-establish the Roman Catholic Church, to destroy the authority of Parliament, and to trample upon the laws of the realm.

To protect the election of a free Parliament, which should investigate the claim of succession to the throne, and should provide legislative securities for the Protestant Church, the Universities, the municipal corporations, the judicial tribunals, and legality in all the administration of government, was the design now undertaken by William, and approved by the Dutch States-General. The details of this expedition were concerted with him by the leading patriots of England : their agents in Holland were Edward Russell, Edward Herbert, Henry Sidney, Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, and the Rev. Dr. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. It was perfectly well known that the advent of the Prince of Orange would be heartily welcomed in England by the greater part of the nobility and gentry, both Whigs and Tories, and by the clergy and the middle classes.

Holland aided him mainly by lending money and the equipment of a fleet. The Prince, on his own responsibility, and by his authority as Captain - General, collected a body of troops at Nymeguen for the ostensible purpose of defending the eastern frontier against a French attack, combined with the renewal of war in the Netherlands and on the Lower Rhine. But he had privately arranged to replace these with other troops borrowed from his German allies, and to remove them to North Holland for his English expedition, which was now ready to sail from Helvoetsluis. Such was the state of affairs on this notable day of October when in the morning, at the Stadtholder's entrance to the Binnenhof, while the Ridderschap and the provincial and civic deputies were assembling in their halls, some thousands of people gathered to see the President of the Republic alight from his carriage.

They were not all Dutch citizens. Many Englishmen and Scotchmen were there, some of rank and social importance ; some, officers of the army and navy ; some, dignified or beneficed ministers of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches ; and some who had sat in the House of Commons. Many German Protestant refugees from Alsace and the Palatinate, many French Huguenots who had fled from cruel persecution, were mingled with the popular throng. It was known that William of Orange was now about to do something for that sacred cause, liberty of conscience in religion, with government by law, which his revered and illustrious great-grandfather, the first of the same name and title, had maintained against Philip II. and Alva in the preceding century. He came and entered the Binnenhof. Loud cheering for the Stadtholder was not customary, but hats and caps were respectfully doffed, and his Highness silently bowed.

In the Ridderschap hall, divested of his cloak and hat, William took his proper seat, a figure with a face which may be seen in portraits by contemporary painters. The figure, tall, bony and muscular, but meagre, was attired in a great black wig covering head and ears, with curls hanging almost to the shoulders ; a coat of dark -blue velvet with gold buttons, fastened only just below the throat, with a starched muslin cravat, broadly depending in front of the breast, and held there by a diamond clasp ; wrist-cuffs of gold-coloured silk, and lace ruffles ; an embroidered vest; a gold-hilted sword, a gift from the colonels of his army, under the left coat-skirt: knee-breeches of blue velvet, white silk stockings, and shoes of brown leather with red clasps. His face, though he was not quite thirty-eight years of age, seemed more like that of a man over fifty; it was not only pallid and sallow, but worn into deep lines by care and thought and wasting ill-health : its features were a high, square, narrow forehead, a big aquiline nose, eyes keen and fiery, yet capable of the tenderest expression, and lips firmly pressed together, the mouth surrounded by rigid furrows dividing it from the thin cheeks and from the bony chin.

It was a face commanding and fascinating, but neither handsome nor pleasing. He rose and addressed the Assembly, with no gesture and without any grace of manner, in a cold and unemotional voice, as though he were reading an ordinary State paper. He observed that he had always served the States - General faithfully, and with a view to the welfare of their country. He was now going over to England with the same view, for the objects already set forth in his Declaration, which had been printed, and in which, God knew, he was sincere. God alone knew, indeed, what fate would befall him. If it were death, all mankind were mortal, and he would but recommend, in that case, the Princess, his consort, to their care ; for he could assure them that she too loved their country, as well as if it were her native land.

After bidding farewell to the Knights and Lords, and shaking hands with them, he went across to the Assembly of Deputies. Speaking in like manner to these, he thanked them for having provided for him during his youthful minority, and afterwards since he had come of age. He asked for a continuance of their kindness. He hoped yet to have a better opportunity of showing his gratitude for it, but he had never been lacking in the disposition. So long as he lived, he would zealously strive for the welfare of the United Provinces, and especially of Holland, whose large and valuable help, upon this occasion of his intended voyage to England, he could never for get. He prayed for the blessing of God upon an undertaking designed for the maintenance of true religion, and for the advantage of their country.

The Pensionary State - Councillor of Holland, Mynheer Fagel, an elderly invalid, worn out with public toils, and consciously approaching the end of his life, spoke with much emotion in reply. He declared his belief that the Prince's intentions were just, " not to make foreign conquests, but to defend the Church of Christ ; to uphold the liberties of a neighbour nation which had contributed much towards gaining the freedom of the United Provinces at the beginning of their own struggle; and further, to secure the peace and safety of their country in these times. Being convinced of the attachment of his Highness to its interests, the States-General would always regard him with esteem and affection, would pray God for the safety of his person, and wished him now a prosperous voyage."

Chapter II

The Prince's usual sitting-room at the Binnenhof, where he sat at work, receiving and writing des patches and giving audience, after taking leave of the States-General, had a plain, businesslike aspect. The middle of the oaken floor was covered with a Smyrna carpet. The walls, panelled to half their height, were decorated above with paintings repre senting scenes near the Hague and Delft. A table of oak, substantial but unadorned, a writing-desk with some papers laid upon it, an armchair and four other chairs in dark brown leather studded with brass nails, were all the furniture. In the open fireplace there was burning cheerfully a fire of turf and wood. The Prince's hat and mantle lay on two of the chairs. He was thinking of the intended order of sailing for the fleet which was to convey himself and his troops to England ; more particularly of the English Admiral Herbert, who was to lead the fleet, holding the chief command, and of the Dutch Admiral Evertsen, who was to command the rear squadron.

Those officers had just left his presence. It required all the Prince's powers of persuasion to overcome the natural unwillingness of the sturdy Dutch seamen, Evertsen and others, to accept the proposed arrangement, while remembering the prowess of their great naval heroes, the two Tromps and De Ruyter, in their famous conflicts with the English during the Commonwealth and in the reign of Charles II. But William made them understand that his object was, above all, to gain the adherence of the English fleet to his cause ; and Admiral Herbert had prepared an address to all the officers and sailors in his fleet, exhorting them to join in that cause, for the sake of the Protestant religion and the liberties of England. " I shall be at Helvoetsluis this evening," said the Prince ; " we shall then put out to sea directly.

I believe we shall get the north-east wind." When they had gone he said to himself, " That has cost me a good deal of trouble, but it has been arranged to my satisfaction. For three weeks, at least, I trust they will keep the peace towards each other." The sound of fifes and drums outside drew him to look out of the window. The regiment of Guards was marching off through the Buitenhof, on its way to the Delft Canal, where the barges lay ready for its conveyance to Helvoetsluis. The Prince thought of all his soldiers then moving towards the ports of embarkation. On the day before, as he knew, the troops, which had for six weeks past been encamped at Nymeguen, were on the shore of the Zuyder Zee, and they had now crossed over to Nieuwediep, where they would be embarked for the English expedition.

All the military and naval preparations had been correctly executed. William had no other business now to keep him at the Hague, except to see a trusty messenger from Colonel Mackay, the commander of the first English regiment in the service of the States- General. From the window looking into the Binnenhof he saw a man who appeared like a common citizen, wearing a mantle and a slouched hat, walking about as if looking for some one. He was approached by a servant of the city bailiff, and after a little talk was conducted to the guardroom. The Prince looked down, his attention distracted by this little episode. He had forgotten it a minute later, when a tap at the door brought him back to the room. The chamberlain had been ordered to give admittance on that day to a soldier of the English regiment coming in the name of Mackay.

That name had been given by the man just now taken to the guardroom. The Prince ordered him to be brought to his presence. In a few moments the man stood before him — a soldier evidently, who carried himself modestly but steadily. The door, by the Prince's orders, was closed behind him. He was about to speak to the man in English ; but, looking at him attentively, seemed to recognise him, and said in Dutch—" I know you, Captain " — ■ " Semeyns, sir," the man respectfully put in. " Semeyns ! — you were at Seneff ? " " With the Solms regiment, Highness." He raised his left hand to his forehead, and put aside a lock of thick chestnut-brown hair so as to show the deep scar of an old wound. He was a soldier, with whose appearance the Prince was well pleased. His clear, steel-blue eyes, firm mouth, and sinewy limbs were features of manhood worthy of the sword that he wore at his plain leather girdle.

He had indeed fought at Seneff, a battle the recollection of which was agreeable to the Prince, for it was his first regular engagement with one of the finest French armies, under Conde; and though it was a failure, almost a defeat, on William's side, it had been so stoutly borne as to assure him a future victory. But how could this officer, then of the Sohns regiment, now belong to the English regiment of Mackay I William understood when he recollected that his father-in-law, King James H., had recalled from Holland, at the time of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, the three regiments of British soldiers in the Dutch service ; part of those troops were sent over again, but some officers, Dutch and English respectively, had been allowed to exchange from the one service into the other, with higher pay for those who could speak both languages.

Such a man was Semeyns, whom the Prince's faithful servant, Colonel Mackay, had now sent to his Highness in charge of a private message. William tried him in English, and found him able to speak it fluently and correctly. " Semeyns — not a well-known family name ! " he remarked. " Where did you learn English ? " " In campaigning, sir. The Solms regiment, at Seneff was quartered next to the 1st English regiment. I made a friend in that regiment, and learned English from him." " What was your own rank at that time ? " "Sub-lieutenant, from 1672," he added in a slightly resentful tone. " Have you ever been in England ? " " Yes, sir; just after I joined the English regiment. My colonel gave me a letter to deliver in London." " To whom ? " " To Mr. Berkley, the chamberlain of Lord Churchill." " Come nearer," said the Prince, rising from his chair, and taking out of his escritoire a little packet with a red wax seal which was not that of the House of Orange.

When you delivered that letter from your colonel, did you get any letter in answer to it ? " " Yes, one addressed to Mynheer Bentinck." The mention of this name put an end to all hesitation in the Prince's mind. His friend Bentinck, who knew every secret thought of his heart, had put trust in the man before him. Handing the packet to Semeyns, he said to him earnestly, " It is best for your own safety that you should not know the contents of this letter. You see, it bears no address, but you are to put it into the hands of Lord Sunderland— of no other person. Whatever he tells you, that you must do. You will make haste to go by a fishing-smack which is lying at Zandvoort. Only mention the name of Mynheer Bentinck. Once in England, as you have been there, you know the shortest way to London.

Have you any family ? " " A wife and two children." "If anything happens to you, they will be cared for." These words the Prince spoke kindly in his mother tongue. "Your Highness takes a heavy burden off my heart." " Hope for the best, captain ! We are all in God's hand. You will rejoin your own regiment as soon as it shows its flag in England. Did Mackay give you any money ? " Semeyns answered that he had done so. There was no more to say. He bowed and withdrew. The entrance of a lady, dressed in black silk — it was the Princess Mary herself — quickened his departure. William and Mary were left together alone. " Have I disturbed you ? " she asked her husband in a cheerful tone; but her face was pale, looking anxious and uneasy, for it was near their hour of parting. Mary was then nearly twenty-seven years of age, tall and handsome, with the regular features of her mother's family, the Hydes, but with the face rather too long ; with soft blue eyes, sweet closed lips, and waves of dark hair.

She was a person whose entire aspect, if not the unseen influence that emanated from her mere presence, diffused a feeling of womanly gentleness, combined with a dignity that could relax into mirth, or could bend to humility at thoughts of duty or religion, or could sustain her calmness in the warmth of wifely affection. " Why, did you think, Mary," answered her husband, while he embraced her, " that I had forgotten our promise to be with each other to-day ? " " Surely not," she replied, looking tenderly into his eyes ; " but first, I had to go into the city to see my children." The Princess had not, it is true, during her ten years' married life become a mother, for which she was taunted by her French enemies and by some at her father's Court, saying that it was a judgment upon her for not belonging to the Catholic Church.

Those of whom she now spoke as "her children" were certain ladies of foreign Protestant refugees, whom she maintained in an institution she had founded at the Hague. But William's cough, as he held her more closely to his breast, aroused her alann. " You are ill again," she cried. " You have had so much anxiety ! " " I am quite well," he answered, with his deep, hoarse voice. " If I were ill, nobody must know it ; none but Mary." " It does me good to hear you say that," she sobbed. " Come, let us go to Honselaarsdijk. I shall hold up well at dinner-time, and in the evening with you. The carriage is ready for us." " I have something to say to you which I would rather say here." He placed her in the chair from which he had risen, put his left hand on the back of it, and took her right hand in his own.

" Mary," he said calmly, but with grave earnestness, " I know not how long I shall be away from you now. If you want any help or any advice, turn to Waldeck, Fagel, and Dykvelt ; they are persons whom you can trust." She bent her head. " Now, Mary, listen. If it be the Lord's will that I am not to see you again " — The wife shuddered through every limb, and her hand clasped his with convulsive force ; but he went on quietly, after pausing a moment to draw his hard breath — " If it should be so, Mary, then it will be needful for you to marry again." " Oh, my God ! " she moaned, covering her face and falling back, with a heart throbbing as if it would burst her bosom. " I need not say to you, that you must not marry a Papist " — But William could not speak more ; his own feelings were too strong for him.

Mary could not utter a word. " My dearest," he began once more in a broken way, "if I make this condition with you, it is that the freedom and the rights of conscience, for which our forefathers have striven, may be preserved. Mary, when I shall be no more, do you still be the abiding witness that all which I have done has been done for the freedom of the Church of Christ, and even for that of those who are not of His true Church." " I know," she answered, — " dear to you, as to me, is the Protestant religion, and the liberty with which Christ has made us free. But why," she asked after a pause, — " why do you say all this to me now ? Do you fear that you will not see me again ? William, I have never loved anyone but you, and I shall never love another. And further, since I have been married so many years, and it has not pleased God to bless me with a child, that is quite sufficient reason for my never marrying again.

I hope and pray to God that I may not outlive you ; but, if it were so, then to no one — if he were an angel — would I bear children, as I have borne none to you ! " Again hiding her face in her hands, she sank into her husband's arms. They drove away to Honselaarsdijk, and passed the early hours of the evening together in that stately but not luxurious country house, diverting each other's thoughts from distressing topics of private or public concern. Like an ordinary married couple, mutually affectionate and enjoying rural ease, they strolled about the mansion and its gardens, and dined, with no company, with no servant waiting at their table, and in such plain dress as would have made them contemptible in the sight of the courtiers of Versailles. Mary exerted all her powers of lively conversation to amuse William, who was soberly merry, and talked no more of business of State ; he showed, by the manly tenderness of his manner towards her, that he felt conscious of the approaching moment of their separation.

That moment drew near when the page, who opened the door of the room, announced that the barge was prepared to carry his Highness to the Brill. The Prince and Princess of Orange entered their carriage to drive to the shore, where he would be met by deputies of the States-General and his military staff. As they drove along, " Mary," he said, " you will be at church to-morrow ? " " I will surely ; for myself and for all others it is an appointed day of public prayer for your safety." " Yes," said the Stadtholder, " and so it should be. Even the Spanish ambassador " — here William almost smiled — " has been persuaded to order prayers for us in his chapel. Now, Mary ! " he continued more urgently, " above all, you must not lose heart, you must give no sign of doubt; trust in God that all will go well."

The carriage stopped, and William had to alight. Before he stepped out, Mary, at the last moment, laid her hand upon his arm, and gently whispered one thought which had long lain at the bottom of her heart, but which she dreaded to utter. " You will not forget that he is my father ? " "No, though he will not spare me if I am defeated, as he did not spare Monmouth ; but I will spare him. Farewell now, Mary, — farewell ! " He sprang out, and walked firmly over the plank to the barge. The musicians, with a hundred accom panying voices, raised the inspiring strain of the " Wilhelmuslied," the Dutch national song. A great crowd of people, with the soldiers and sailors, joined in hearty cheering, and in waving of hats and caps. William descended to the cabin of the vessel : he wanted to be alone. "Thank God," he murmured, " all that is over now."