me oppose falsehood, yet for that reason I did not become so indignant as I should have been if I had known that all this was not to save an innocent man, but that this falsehood was designed to annul the proofs that stood in the General’s way, at the expense of the honour and the welfare of my predecessor.”
“And what became of your predecessor?” asked Verbrugge.
“Happily for him, he had already gone to Java before the General returned to Padang. It seems that he has been able to account for his conduct to the Government at Batavia; at least he has remained in the service. The Resident of Ayer-Bangie, who had issued the ‘fiat execution’ was. . .”
“Suspended?”
“Of course. You see that I was not so very wrong, when I said in my epigram that the Governor ‘reigned over us as a suspender.’ ”
“And what became of all these suspended functionaries?”
“Oh, there were still many more. All of them have been, one after another, re-established in their functions. Some of them have afterwards been invested with very considerable employments.”
“And Soetan Salim?”
“The General took him as a prisoner to Padang, and from thence he was exiled to Java. He is now at Tji-andjoor, in the Preangan Regencies. In 1846 I was
