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Page 103
Cornelius remained standing on the spot where Rosa had left him.
He was quite overpowered with the weight of his twofold happiness.
Half an hour passed away. Already did the first rays of the
sun enter through the iron grating of the prison, when
Cornelius was suddenly startled at the noise of steps which
came up the staircase, and of cries which approached nearer
and nearer.
Almost at the same instant he saw before him the pale and
distracted face of Rosa.
He started, and turned pale with fright.
"Cornelius, Cornelius!" she screamed, gasping for breath.
"Good Heaven! what is it?" asked the prisoner.
"Cornelius! the tulip ---- "
"Well?"
"How shall I tell you?"
"Speak, speak, Rosa!"
"Some one has taken -- stolen it from us."
"Stolen -- taken?" said Cornelius.
"Yes," said Rosa, leaning against the door to support
herself; "yes, taken, stolen!"
And saying this, she felt her limbs failing her, and she
fell on her knees.
"But how? Tell me, explain to me."
"Oh, it is not my fault, my friend."
Poor Rosa! she no longer dared to call him "My beloved one."
"You have then left it alone," said Cornelius, ruefully.
"One minute only, to instruct our messenger, who lives
scarcely fifty yards off, on the banks of the Waal."
"And during that time, notwithstanding all my injunctions,
you left the key behind, unfortunate child!"
"No, no, no! this is what I cannot understand. The key was
never out of my hands; I clinched it as if I were afraid it
would take wings."
"But how did it happen, then?"
"That's what I cannot make out. I had given the letter to my
messenger; he started before I left his house; I came home,
and my door was locked, everything in my room was as I had
left it, except the tulip, -- that was gone. Some one must
have had a key for my room, or have got a false one made on
purpose."
She was nearly choking with sobs, and was unable to
continue.
Cornelius, immovable and full of consternation, heard almost
without understanding, and only muttered, --
"Stolen, stolen, and I am lost!"
"O Cornelius, forgive me, forgive me, it will kill me!"
Seeing Rosa's distress, Cornelius seized the iron bars of
the grating, and furiously shaking them, called out, --
"Rosa, Rosa, we have been robbed, it is true, but shall we
allow ourselves to be dejected for all that? No, no; the
misfortune is great, but it may perhaps be remedied. Rosa,
we know the thief!"
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