Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/424



—one who has served his country in these regions for seventeen years,—one who not only never neglected his duty, but who conceived what was good with unexampled self-sacrifice, and who chose to sacrifice all for honour and duty,—such a one your Excellency has placed beneath the criminal, for the criminal is at least.

“That they have deceived your Excellency with regard to me, I understand, but that your Excellency did not catch the opportunity to escape from this deceit, I do not understand. To-morrow your Excellency goes from here, and I may not let you depart without having said once more that I did my duty,—only my duty,—with judgment, with calmness, with humanity, with moderation, and with courage.

“The grounds on which is based the censure contained in your Excellency’s missive of 23d March are. I can prove this, and it would have been proved already, if your Excellency had granted me half-an-hour’s interview, if your Excellency could have found half-an-hour.

“This you could not; and an honest family has been ruined.

“Yet I do not complain of this.

“But your Excellency and I complain of that.

“That is what I complain of!