Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/69

Rh with a spear, and planted before the town gate, while the dismembered trunk was drawn and quartered. Not content even with this dire revenge, the Dutch razed the Eastern Rye House to the ground; the gate was walled up, and the inscription I have already given was placed there. The fixing of the ghastly head by a spear to the top of the wall, at the spot where the gate had formerly stood, and where Elberfeld had frequently meditated on his dangerous plot, was the last act of vengeance by which their European masters hoped to transmit to future generations of natives the fearful punishment with which they had visited treason against their authority.

To this day the ignorant natives will tell you, with a very grave face, that on certain nights ominous sounds are heard at this spot, and that apparitions even have been seen by some people, but never, the narrator takes care to add, by himself.

The brothers of Hamangkoe Raht were left to