Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/417

 those poor people, I must speak to the present Governor before his departure, and if I went now to Ngawie, that would be impossible Tine!”

“Dear Max!”

“You have courage, have you not?”

“Max! you know I have courage when I am with you.”

“Good!”

He went and wrote the following, in his own opinion an example of eloquence:—

4em

“To the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies.

“I have had the honour to receive the official letter of your Excellency of the 23d inst., No, 54. In reply to that document, I feel constrained to beg your Excellency to grant me an honourable discharge from the service of the Government.

(Signed) “”

It needed not so long a time at Buitenzorg to grant the asked-for discharge, as was needed to decide how Havelaar’s accusation could be turned away. For the latter a month was required, and the news of the discharge arrived in a few days at Lebak.