De verlatene pleegt verraad

Summary

During the occupation of the Netherlands by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, a poor young woman, Kaatje Spaander, who has been turned out of her house by the foreign soldiers, appeals to her neighbours, Piet Schoonejans and his wife, to obtain shelter and food. They consent to receive her. Schoonejans smuggles into Holland gunpowder and other goods brought to him by his companions at sea, to be used against the hated enemies. His life is at stake every day. The arrival of Kaatje at first leaves him indifferent, but the girl is pretty, and he is weak enough to fall in love with her and tell her so. Piet's wife discovers the truth, and, maddened with jealousy, she denounces her husband to the Spanish authorities, and he is at once arrested and thrown into a dark cell. Piet now hates his wife, and, on escaping from prison, he rushes home, intending to kill her, but there he finds the miserable woman nursing her baby - their child. His anger falls before the cradle, and he begs to be forgiven.