say something against me, which seems to show that he will try to remove the question, for instance, by accusing me of. . . . I know not what; I have covered myself against that by sending copies of my letters direct to the Government. In one of these letters, I beg to be called to account, if perhaps it should be pretended that I had done something wrong. If, now, the Resident of Bantam attacks me, no decision can be made, according to justice, before I have been heard—that is allowed even to a criminal—and I have done nothing wrong. . . .”
“There is the post!” said Verbrugge.
Yes, it was the post!—the post that brought the following letter from the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies to Havelaar, late Assistant Resident of Lebak:—
“Official.—No. 54.
“The manner in which you have acted on the discovery or supposition of wrong-doing on the part of the chiefs in the district of Lebak, and your attitude towards your superior, the Resident of Bantam, have excited, in a high degree, my displeasure. In your acts there is not only a want of the deliberate judgment, caution, and prudence so indispensable to a functionary intrusted with power in the interior of Java (sic), but also notions of insubordination to your immediate superior. Only a few days after your appointment to your present office, you made the head of the native Government of Lebak the subject
