The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell Read Free Book Online Page B

loose the fox in the chicken coop, should it not?”
    “A half dozen large ones, sir. But did the governor-general make this threat?”
    “Asiatic minds respect
force majeure;
best they are prodded into compliancy.”
    The answer, then
, sees Jacob,
is no
. “Suppose the Japanese call this bluff?”
    “One calls a bluff only if one scents a bluff. Thus you are party to this stratagem, as are Van Cleef, Captain Lacy, and myself, and nobody else. Now conclude: ‘For a copper quota of twenty thousand piculs, I shall send another ship next year. Should the shogun’s council offer’—underline
—‘one picul less
than twenty thousand, they shall, in effect, take an ax to the tree of commerce, consign Japan’s single major port to rot, and brick over your empire’s sole window to the world’—yes?”
    “Bricks are not in wide usage here, sir. ‘Board up’?”
    “Make good. ‘This loss shall blind the shogun to new European progress, to the delight of the Russians and other foes who survey your empire with acquisitive eyes. Your own descendants yet unborn beg you to make the correct choice at this hour, as does,’ new line, ‘Your sincere ally, et cetera, et cetera, P. G. van Overstraten, Governor-General of the East Indies, Chevalier of the Order of the Orange Lion,’ and any other titular lilies that occur to you, De Zoet. Two fair copies by noon, in time for Kobayashi; end both with van Overstraten’s signature—as lifelike as you may—one to be sealed with this.” Vorstenbosch passes him the signet ring embossed with the VOC of the Dutch
Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
.
    Jacob is startled by the last two commands.
“I
am to sign and seal the letters, sir?”
    “Here is”—Vorstenbosch finds a sample—“Van Overstraten’s signature.”
    “To forge the governor-general’s signature would be …” Jacob suspects the true answer would be “a capital crime.”
    “Don’t look so privy-faced, De Zoet! I’d sign it myself, but our stratagem requires Van Overstraten’s masterly flourish and not my crabby left-handed smudge. Consider the governor-general’s gratitude when we return to Batavia with a threefold increase in copper exports: my claim to a seat on the council shall be irrefutable. Why would
I
then forsake my loyal secretary? Of course, if … qualms or a loss of nerve prevents you from doing as I ask, I could just as easily summon Mr. Fischer.”
    Do it now
, thinks Jacob,
worry later
. “I shall sign, sir.”
    “There is no time to waste, then: Kobayashi shall be here in”—the chief resident consults the clock—“forty minutes. We’ll want the sealing wax on the finished letter cool by then, won’t we?”
    THE FRISKER AT THE land gate finishes his task; Jacob climbs into his two-bearer palanquin. Peter Fischer squints in the merciless afternoon sunlight. “Dejima is yours for an hour or two, Mr. Fischer,” Vorstenbosch tells him from the chief’s palanquin. “Return her to me in her current condition.”
    “Of course.” The Prussian achieves a flatulent grimace. “Of course.”
    Fischer’s grimace turns to a glower as Jacob’s palanquin passes.
    The retinue leaves the land gate and passes over Holland Bridge.
    The tide is out: Jacob sees a dead dog in the silt and now …
    … he is hovering three feet over the forbidden ground of Japan.
    There is a wide square of sand and grit, deserted but for a few soldiers. This plaza is named, Van Cleef told him, Edo Square, to remind the independent-minded Nagasaki populace where the true power lies. On one side is the shogunal keep: ramped stones, high walls and steps. Through another set of gates, the retinue is submersed in a shaded thoroughfare. Hawkers cry, beggars implore, tinkers clang pans, ten thousand wooden clogs knock against flagstones. The Dutchmen’s guards yell, ordering the townspeople aside. Jacob tries to capture every fleetingimpression for letters to Anna, and to his sister, Geertje, and his uncle.