Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/58

40 Elberfeld's house was situated a short distance from the gate, which opened on the road, and here it was determined to hold the nightly meetings of the disaffected chiefs and people, amongst whom were several women.

Here members were sworn and enrolled, and all the proceedings connected with this terrible plot discussed, such caution being used to avoid detection that the conspirators never raised their voices above a whisper; and, were it not for the fortunate circumstance before alluded to, there is not the slightest doubt that some, if not all of the Dutch inhabitants, and the adherents to the reigning native Emperor, would have fallen by the hands of their midnight foes.

Elberfeld had living with him a niece, a brother's child, whom, at her father's death, he had adopted and brought up as his own, separating her from her brothers and sisters, and educating her as a native. Meeda, for such was her name, whose