Grotius to get off.”
“I assure you, Master Gryphus,” replied Van Baerle, “that if
I have entertained the idea of escaping, I most decidedly
have it no longer.”
“Well, well,” said Gryphus, “just look sharp: that’s what I
shall do also. But, for all that, I say his Highness has
made a great mistake.”
“Not to have cut off my head? thank you, Master Gryphus.”
“Just so, look whether the Mynheer de Witt don’t keep very
quiet now.”
“That’s very shocking what you say now, Master Gryphus,”
cried Van Baerle, turning away his head to conceal his
disgust. “You forget that one of those unfortunate gentlemen
was my friend, and the other my second father.”
“Yes, but I also remember that the one, as well as the
other, was a conspirator. And, moreover, I am speaking from
Christian charity.”
“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
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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
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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.
This visit of the jailer, his brutal threats, and the gloomy
prospect of the harshness with which, as he had before
experienced, Gryphus watched his prisoners, — all this was
unable to extinguish in Cornelius the sweet thoughts, and
especially the sweet hope, which the presence of Rosa had
reawakened in his heart.
He waited eagerly to hear the clock of the tower of