SUSANNA

38 | THE SENTENCE

'On this day of 12 December 1669, we the Council are gathered here to administer justice, once again. Appearing before us, on a charge of murder, is Susanna van Bengal, Company slave here at the Cape in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. On the evening of 8 December she arrived at the slave lodge where she and her two half-castes resided. The prisoner, of her own free will, confessed that when the slaves retired for the night, and the lights snuffed, she, intentionally, strangled her infant with three strands of cloth. Had the other slaves not jumped up to come to the assistance of the screaming infant; had they not discovered her in the throng of her dastardly act and had they not wrenched the child from her, it would surely have died immediately. On 8 October 1669, eight days later the infant died. We have considered everything necessary to this case, and must administer justice based on the facts, which in this case are undisputable. Furthermore, the findings of the autopsy confirm that the child's injuries had been caused by strangulation. In fact, the accused, herself, admits strangling her child as she had no milk to feed the screaming infant, and her confession was signed in the presence of commissioned officers. This court, authorized in the name of the States-General of the Free United Netherlands, finds her guilty of infanticide. The law will be applied, and this repulsive act will be punished most severely.

His attention shifted to the young woman in the blood-stained rags. Her hair had been chopped off, revealing the scar of her missing ear. Her head was limp and rested on her chest. He motioned with his head to the two slaves next to her. One of them turned to her and held her head up with his hand, but her eyes remained closed.

'After much deliberation and, to temper justice with mercy, we have decided on your sentence. You have lost your instincts as a mother and had become a murderous, defiled person who decided to play God, and extinguished a life prematurely. The gravity of your crime violates all divine and man-made laws.

He addressed the listeners dotted around the room.

'Our honourable fiscal has argued, most arduously, impressing upon our hearts here at the foot of Africa that justice starts and ends with us, the civilised voice of decency in this primitive land of wild beasts. In his eloquent plea he roused attention, calling on us to rip out both her breasts with glowing pincers and burn her to ashes. But there were other voices that called for mercy and clemency. I have listened to the arguments of both sides and this is my decision.'

He fixed his gaze upon the non-responsive body of the slave. 'Susanna van Bengal, at 11am tomorrow morning you will be taken to the square in front of the Fort where your sentence will be read out, aloud, in front of all the slaves of the Company.' He waited for the clapping to die down. 'After your sentence had been read for all to hear, the executioner will escort you to the bay. There, in the presence of all the assembled slaves of the Company, you will be sown into a bag with rocks and tossed into the sea until death ensue. Your body will reside there beneath the ocean until it is one like the fish.

He turned to the resident minister whose face was hidden from sight behind his hand. When his name was mentioned, he removed his hand and rose to his feet.

'Minister de Voogd, you and the sick comforter, Bolten, will admonish her to repentance for her sin, so that she might, in a Christian manner, prepare herself for death tomorrow afternoon.'

***

De Voogd stood at distance from the pox-infested Susanna. Bolten was outside. "I brought someone to see you." His announcement was met with no reply.

The dungeon was so dark that the light from his lantern at the entrance provided no light to guide Catrijn's feet. The sharp stones pierced the soles of her feet as she threaded one step at a time to the bundle in the furthest corner of the pitch dark. She hunched over the quiet figure.