Page:The silent prince - a story of the Netherlands (IA cu31924008716957).pdf/19

 The priest started visibly. “Do I understand you that Duke Oswald's son is alive?”

“He is, your reverence, but terrible to relate he is a Protestant.”

“A prince of Aremburg a heretic! What a disgrace!” said the priest. “How did it happen?”

“Francis had a tutor who unbeknown to us was a French Huguenot. He desired to travel with our son, assuring us that a polish and elegance of manner befitting our son’s rank could be obtained in no other way. Accordingly our son, in company with this treacherous tutor, travelled for a year on the continent, finally returning as far as Switzerland. From Geneva, Francis wrote that he had become a Huguenot. The blow fell upon us like lightning from a clear sky. Duke Oswald, in a towering rage, wrote immediately to his son, that unless he renounced these odious doctrines and returned to the Romish faith he would disinherit him. A prompt reply came from Francis, saying that while he regretted angering his father, he could not give up the Huguenot doctrines, for he believed them to be God’s truth. He furthermore announced that he would not bring disgrace upon our noble house by longer bearing its honored name: but that henceforth Francis Stuyvesant was dead. ‘Be it so!’ said the Duke in a voice like thunder. ‘My son is dead!’ The Duke then informed his household and his friends that