As for Cornelis and Sybrandt, they were bitterer than their father.

Gerard was dismayed at finding so many enemies, and looked wistfully into his little sister's face: her eyes were brimming at the harsh words showered on one who but yesterday was the universal pet.

But she gave him no encouragement: she turned her head away from him and said: "Dear, dear Gerard, pray to Heaven to cure you of this folly!" "What, are you against me too ?" said Gerard, sadly; and he rose with a deep sigh, and left the house and went to Sevenbergen.
The beginning of a quarrel, where the parties are bound by affection though opposed in interest and sentiment, is comparatively innocent: both are perhaps in the right at first starting, and then it is that a calm, judicious friend, capable of seeing both sides, is a gift from Heaven.

For the longer the dissension endures, the wider and deeper it grows by the fallibility and irascibility of human nature: these are not confined to either side, and finally the invariable end is reached--both in the wrong.
The combatants were unequally matched: Elias was angry, Cornelis and Sybrandt spiteful; but Gerard, having a larger and more cultivated mind, saw both sides where they saw but one, and had fits of irresolution, and was not wroth, but unhappy.

He was lonely, too, in this struggle.
He could open his heart to no one.