The covenant - James A. Michener [89]
'So your wife is on her way,' the commander said, adding lamely, 'I would suppose.'
'I'd rather marry Deborah,' Willem said with that stolid frankness that characterized all he did. A more subtle man would have known that rejecting a woman the commander had taken pains to import, and for a slave, was bound to provoke him; it never occurred to Willem, and when Van Riebeeck pointed out that it would be highly offensive to any Dutch Christian woman to be sent so far and then discarded in favor of a Muslim slave, Willem said, 'But I'm practically married to Deborah.'
Van Riebeeck rose stiffly, went to his window, and pointed down into the fortress yard. Willem, following his finger, saw nothing. 'The horse,' Van Riebeeck said.
'I see no horse,' Willem said in a tone calculated to irritate.
'The wooden horse!' Van Riebeeck shouted.
There it was, a wooden horse of a kind that carpenters use for sawing, except that its legs were so long that it stood much too high to be useful for woodworking. Willem had often heard of this cruel instrument, but it had not seemed a reality until this moment.
Clapping his hands, the commander instructed a servant: 'Tell the captain to proceed.' And from below a prisoner who had transgressed some trivial edict of the Compagnie was led toward the horse, where a bag of lead shot was attached to each ankle. He was then hoisted into the air, poised spread-legged above the horse, and dropped upon it. The fall of the man's body, plus the weight of the lead shot dangling from his ankles, was so powerful that the body was almost broken in half, and he screamed terribly.
'Let him stay there two days,' Van Riebeeck told his orderly, and when the man was gone, he said to Willem, 'That's how we discipline workmen who disobey Compagnie orders. Willem, I'm ordering you to marry the girl I've sent for.'
Van Doorn was transfixed by the hideousness of the event, and that night when guards were asleep and he was supposed to be in his hut at the vineyard, he crept into the punishment area, gave the prisoner a drink of water, and lifted him slightly from the cruel wood, holding him in his arms through the hours. When the sun struck the man he fainted, and remained unconscious till nightfall. This night Van Doorn was kept from administering aid by a guard posted to watch the victim; as Willem stood in the shadows staring at the ugly horse, he understood why its legs were so high: they prevented the two bags of lead from resting on the ground.
Van Riebeeck spent some days pondering the problem of Willem and Deborah, and finally arrived at a solution that left Van Doorn aghast. The commander assigned Jango to the bed next to Deborah: 'Day after day they'll see each other, and I'll have no further problems with Van Doorn.'
But he did. When guards were not looking, Willem slipped into the slave quarters below the grain store to sit with Deborah and Jango, and in broken Portuguese the three discussed their situation. Jango listened briefly, then said, 'I understand. Your baby, when it comes. I care.'
Willem clasped his hand, then added, 'Jango, do nothing to enrage the officers.' He intended that such warning apply only to Jango, for he could not suppose that Deborah would in any way incur Compagnie displeasure. While Willem warned Jango of the horse and other punishments visited upon fractious men, she whispered a song, singing a lullaby as if her baby was already born.
Finally Willem said with a faith that impressed Jango, 'When the predikant arrives with the fleet, I'm sure Van Valck will be allowed to marry his Malaccan girl, and I know I'll get permission, too. Jango, protect her till I do.' The huge black man shifted his chains and nodded.
It was not only slaves that caused Van Riebeeck trouble. The Hottentots gave him no rest, this day smiling and gregarious, the next sullen and contentious, and when one enterprising brown fellow, hungry at the end of a long workday, slipped into the Compagnie kraal and stole a