Maria had hitherto listened to her husband quietly; she knew what he desired.  Now she advanced nearer and interrupted him by exclaiming firmly, nay imperiously: 

“No more, no more, do you hear!  I will not endure another word!”

“Maria!”

“Silence it is my turn now.  To escape fear, you will thrust your wife from the house; fear, you say, would undermine your strength.  But will longing strengthen it?  If you love me, it will not fail to come—­”

“If I love you, Maria!”

“Well, well!  But you have forgotten to consider how I shall feel in exile, if I also love you.  I am your wife.  We vowed at the altar, that nothing save death should part us.  Have you forgotten it?  Have your children become mine?  Have I taught them, rejoiced to call myself their mother?  Yes, or no?”

“Yes, Maria, yes, yes, a hundred times yes!”

“And you have the heart to throw me into the arms of this wasting longing!  You wish to prevent me from keeping the most sacred of vows?  You can bring yourself to tear me from the children?  You think me too shallow and feeble, to endure suffering and death for the sacred cause, which is mine as well as yours!  You are fond of calling me your child, but I can be strong, and whatever may come, will not weep.  You are the husband and have the right to command, I am only the wife and shall obey.  Shall I go?  Shall I stay?  I await your answer.”

She had uttered the last words in a trembling voice, but the burgomaster exclaimed with deep emotion: 

“Stay, stay, Maria!  Come, come, and forgive me!” Peter seized her hand, exclaiming again: 

“Come, come!”

But the young wife released herself, retreated a step and said beseechingly: 

“Let me go, Peter, I cannot; I need time to overcome this.”

He let his arms fall and gazed mournfully into her face, but she turned away and silently left the room.  Peter Van der Werff did not follow her, but went quietly into his study and strove to reflect upon many things, that concerned his office, but his thoughts constantly reverted to Maria.  His love oppressed him as if it were a crime, and he seemed to himself like a courier, who gathers flowers by the way-side and in this idling squanders time and forgets the object of his mission.  His heart felt unspeakably heavy and sad, and it seemed almost like a deliverance when, just before midnight, the bell in the Tower of Pancratius raised its evilboding voice.  In danger, he knew, he would feel and think of nothing except what duty required of him, so with renewed strength he took his hat from the hook and left the house with a steady step.