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Page 66
"Oh, indeed! explain that a little to me, my good Master
Gryphus. I do not quite understand it."
"Well, then, if you had remained on the block of Master
Harbruck ---- "
"What?"
"You would not suffer any longer; whereas, I will not
disguise it from you, I shall lead you a sad life of it."
"Thank you for the promise, Master Gryphus."
And whilst the prisoner smiled ironically at the old jailer,
Rosa, from the outside, answered by a bright smile, which
carried sweet consolation to the heart of Van Baerle.
Gryphus stepped towards the window.
It was still light enough to see, although indistinctly,
through the gray haze of the evening, the vast expanse of
the horizon.
"What view has one from here?" asked Gryphus.
"Why, a very fine and pleasant one," said Cornelius, looking
at Rosa.
"Yes, yes, too much of a view, too much."
And at this moment the two pigeons, scared by the sight and
especially by the voice of the stranger, left their nest,
and disappeared, quite frightened in the evening mist.
"Halloa! what's this?" cried Gryphus.
"My pigeons," answered Cornelius.
"Your pigeons," cried the jailer, "your pigeons! has a
prisoner anything of his own?"
"Why, then," said Cornelius, "the pigeons which a merciful
Father in Heaven has lent to me."
"So, here we have a breach of the rules already," replied
Gryphus. "Pigeons! ah, young man, young man! I'll tell you
one thing, that before to-morrow is over, your pigeons will
boil in my pot."
"First of all you should catch them, Master Gryphus. You
won't allow these pigeons to be mine! Well, I vow they are
even less yours than mine."
"Omittance is no acquittance," growled the jailer, "and I
shall certainly wring their necks before twenty-four hours
are over: you may be sure of that."
Whilst giving utterance to this ill-natured promise, Gryphus
put his head out of the window to examine the nest. This
gave Van Baerle time to run to the door, and squeeze the
hand of Rosa, who whispered to him, --
"At nine o'clock this evening."
Gryphus, quite taken up with the desire of catching the
pigeons next day, as he had promised he would do, saw and
heard nothing of this short interlude; and, after having
closed the window, he took the arm of his daughter, left the
cell, turned the key twice, drew the bolts, and went off to
make the same kind promise to the other prisoners.
He had scarcely withdrawn, when Cornelius went to the door
to listen to the sound of his footsteps, and, as soon as
they had died away, he ran to the window, and completely
demolished the nest of the pigeons.
Rather than expose them to the tender mercies of his
bullying jailer, he drove away for ever those gentle
messengers to whom he owed the happiness of having seen Rosa
again.
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