The Laughing Cavalier · Chapter
XLIII: Leyden Once More explained
Gilda returns to Leyden with Nicolaes and stays at the White Goat inn, where she relives memories of Diogenes.
What happens
Gilda returns to Leyden with Nicolaes and stays at the White Goat inn, where she relives memories of Diogenes. She reflects on her changing feelings from hatred to love, and overhears a conversation between Diogenes and her father, in which Diogenes refuses a fortune and declares his intention to remain a free soldier. Later, she summons Maria and asks to speak with her father.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Sacrifice
Gilda's love for Diogenes grows as she recalls his self-sacrifice in warning the Stadtholder and accepting humiliation to protect her from despising her brother.
Fate and Chance
Diogenes embraces a life of chance and freedom, refusing a fortune to remain a shiftless soldier of fortune, and speaks of ending his days 'by a kindly bullet' or in a ditch.
Social Class and Identity
Diogenes rejects the social obligations of wealth and status, choosing instead to remain a 'nameless soldier of fortune' and 'the sole arbiter of my will,' highlighting class tensions.
Characters to notice
- Gilda Beresteyn
Gilda is the focal point of the chapter, reflecting on her past encounters with Diogenes and her evolving feelings from hatred to love. She deliberately chooses to stay at the White Goat inn to be near memories of him.
- Diogenes
Diogenes is overheard in conversation with Cornelius Beresteyn, refusing a fortune and asserting his desire to remain a free, penniless soldier of fortune. He plans to leave at daybreak.
- Nicolaes Beresteyn
Nicolaes accompanies Gilda back to Leyden, showing gentleness and remorse. He sends a messenger to their father and dreads the meeting with him.
- Cornelius Beresteyn
Cornelius is present in the taproom below, speaking with Diogenes. He offers Diogenes money, which is refused, and asks to shake his hand before they part.
- Maria
Maria is Gilda's servant, who is woken by Gilda and ordered to dress and summon Cornelius Beresteyn. She is described as snoring lustily and being bewildered.
- Stoutenburg
Stoutenburg is recalled in Gilda's memories: his visit to the hut, his deception, his fury, and his threats of vengeance against Diogenes.
Key passages
“I could not take your money. If I did I should never know a happy hour again.”
Diogenes refuses Cornelius Beresteyn's offer of money, stating that accepting it would bring him unhappiness.
Diogenes values his freedom and shiftlessness over wealth, which he associates with responsibility and misery.
“Let me go back to my shiftlessness, my penury, my freedom, eat my fill today, starve tomorrow, and one day look up at the stars from the lowly earth, with a kindly bullet in my chest that does not mean to blunder.”
Diogenes expresses his desire to return to a life of poverty and freedom, accepting an eventual death in battle as a natural end.
This speech encapsulates Diogenes' philosophy of living without attachments or obligations.
“She knew then that it was the adventurer, the penniless soldier of fortune whom she had tried to hate and to despise, who had quietly gone to warn the Stadtholder, and that his action had been the direct working of God’s will in a brave and loyal soul.”
Gilda realizes that Diogenes, whom she had tried to hate, was the one who bravely warned the Stadtholder, and she sees his act as divinely inspired.
This marks a turning point in Gilda's feelings, from hatred to love and admiration for Diogenes.
