Once poor, and kind of heart, thou’rt rich and greedy, Jan! The touchstone proves the gold, the gold doth prove the man.
I met a kinsman of mine but now, And asked him where he lived, and how? “Like any prince,” so said my friend, “I have enough to eat and drink, and debts without an end.”
Said Jan, twice wedded to a scolding wife, “Church-going’s the great pleasure of my life; ’Tis strange and sweet to see a man, O rare! Keep full five hundred women quiet there!”
MARIA (_Maid_). MICHIEL (_Man-servant_). NICOLAAS (_Landlord and Burgomaster_). LIEUTENANT EDELING. VAN WERVE, } (_Refugees_). CLARA (_his daughter_) } CAPTAIN D’EGLANTIERS. LIEUTENANT TAELINCK. SERGEANT PLUCKX. CORPORAL NESTEIRS. PRIVATE PESSEREAU.
_A Village Inn. Evening._ MICHIEL _asleep in a chair_.
_Maria_ (_the maid—behind the scenes_). Michiel, where are you? [_Entering._] He is lazy enough for a member of the Brussels Committee. Michiel, get up!
_Michiel_ (_awaking_). Well, what’s up now?
_Maria._ Wake up, at any rate! Isn’t it perfectly scandalous to lie there, at seven o’clock in the evening, snoring like an ox?
_Michiel._ That won’t amount to much. Travellers won’t give us any trouble, it’s not worth their while to cross the frontier just now; and the farmers have their money under lock and key, and not a cent about them to take a dram with.
_Maria._ Is there nothing else for you to do? Couldn’t you take your rifle, in your spare time, and drill a little? Everybody is drilling just now; there isn’t a child but can load at twelve different rates. And you, of all others, ought to be ready to give an account of yourself when the rebels come to pay us a visit. People on the frontier, if no others, ought to be always in readiness.
(_Sings_) “Only with vigilance, powder, and ball, In time of need, one can live at all Upon the Belgian border.”
_Michiel._ Well! you’ve got hold of that sentiment by the wrong end. Let me tell you the right way of it.
“He who would live in a border place Must always exhibit a double face. Let the Dutch army come—we’ll fly Old Holland’s colours right merrily; Let the Brabanters march this way, And the Belgian flag goes up to-day, And so in varying order. Not by courage or powder and ball, By cunning alone we can live at all Upon the Belgian border!”