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Page 104
"Alas! what can I say about it?"
"But I say that it is no one else but that infamous Jacob.
Shall we allow him to carry to Haarlem the fruit of our
labour, the fruit of our sleepless nights, the child of our
love? Rosa, we must pursue, we must overtake him!"
"But how can we do all this, my friend, without letting my
father know we were in communication with each other? How
should I, a poor girl, with so little knowledge of the world
and its ways, be able to attain this end, which perhaps you
could not attain yourself?"
"Rosa, Rosa, open this door to me, and you will see whether
I will not find the thief, -- whether I will not make him
confess his crime and beg for mercy."
"Alas!" cried Rosa, sobbing, "can I open the door for you?
have I the keys? If I had had them, would not you have been
free long ago?"
"Your father has them, -- your wicked father, who has
already crushed the first bulb of my tulip. Oh, the wretch!
he is an accomplice of Jacob!"
"Don't speak so loud, for Heaven's sake!"
"Oh, Rosa, if you don't open the door to me," Cornelius
cried in his rage, "I shall force these bars, and kill
everything I find in the prison."
"Be merciful, be merciful, my friend!"
"I tell you, Rosa, that I shall demolish this prison, stone
for stone!" and the unfortunate man, whose strength was
increased tenfold by his rage, began to shake the door with
a great noise, little heeding that the thunder of his voice
was re-echoing through the spiral staircase.
Rosa, in her fright, made vain attempts to check this
furious outbreak.
"I tell you that I shall kill that infamous Gryphus?" roared
Cornelius. "I tell you I shall shed his blood as he did that
of my black tulip."
The wretched prisoner began really to rave.
"Well, then, yes," said Rosa, all in a tremble. "Yes, yes,
only be quiet. Yes, yes, I will take his keys, I will open
the door for you! Yes, only be quiet, my own dear
Cornelius."
She did not finish her speech, as a growl by her side
interrupted her.
"My father!" cried Rosa.
"Gryphus!" roared Van Baerle. "Oh, you villain!"
Old Gryphus, in the midst of all the noise, had ascended the
staircase without being heard.
He rudely seized his daughter by the wrist.
"So you will take my keys?" he said, in a voice choked with
rage. "Ah! this dastardly fellow, this monster, this
gallows-bird of a conspirator, is your own dear Cornelius,
is he? Ah! Missy has communications with prisoners of state.
Ah! won't I teach you -- won't I?"
Rosa clasped her hands in despair.
"Ah!" Gryphus continued, passing from the madness of anger
to the cool irony of a man who has got the better of his
enemy, -- "Ah, you innocent tulip-fancier, you gentle
scholar; you will kill me, and drink my blood! Very well!
very well! And you have my daughter for an accomplice. Am I,
forsooth, in a den of thieves, -- in a cave of brigands?
Yes, but the Governor shall know all to-morrow, and his
Highness the Stadtholder the day after. We know the law, --
we shall give a second edition of the Buytenhof, Master
Scholar, and a good one this time. Yes, yes, just gnaw your
paws like a bear in his cage, and you, my fine little lady,
devour your dear Cornelius with your eyes. I tell you, my
lambkins, you shall not much longer have the felicity of
conspiring together. Away with you, unnatural daughter! And
as to you, Master Scholar, we shall see each other again.
Just be quiet, -- we shall."
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