looking at her as if he did not hear her.
“Don’t you understand me?” said the young girl, with some
impatience.
“Yes, I do,” said Cornelius, “but —- ”
“But?”
“I will not, they would accuse you.”
“Never mind,” said Rosa, blushing, “never mind that.”
“You are very good, my dear child,” replied Cornelius, “but
I stay.”
“You stay, oh, sir! oh, sir! don’t you understand that you
will be condemned to death, executed on the scaffold,
perhaps assassinated and torn to pieces, just like Mynheer
John and Mynheer Cornelius. For heaven’s sake, don’t think
of me, but fly from this place, Take care, it bears ill luck
to the De Witts!”
“Halloa!” cried the jailer, recovering his senses, “who is
talking of those rogues, those wretches, those villains, the
De Witts?”
“Don’t be angry, my good man,” said Cornelius, with his
good-tempered smile, “the worst thing for a fracture is
excitement, by which the blood is heated.”
Thereupon, he said in an undertone to Rosa —
“My child, I am innocent, and I shall await my trial with
tranquillity and an easy mind.”
“Hush,” said Rosa.
“Why hush?”
“My father must not suppose that we have been talking to
each other.”
“What harm would that do?”
“What harm? He would never allow me to come here any more,”
said Rosa.
Cornelius received this innocent confidence with a smile; he
felt as if a ray of good fortune were shining on his path.
“Now, then, what are you chattering there together about?”
said Gryphus, rising and supporting his right arm with his
left.
“Nothing,” said Rosa; “the doctor is explaining to me what
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diet you are to keep.”
“Diet, diet for me? Well, my fine girl, I shall put you on
diet too.”
“On what diet, my father?”
“Never to go to the cells of the prisoners, and, if ever you
should happen to go, to leave them as soon as possible.
Come, off with me, lead the way, and be quick.”
Rosa and Cornelius exchanged glances.
That of Rosa tried to express, —
“There, you see?”
That of Cornelius said, —
“Let it be as the Lord wills.”
Chapter 11
Cornelius van Baerle’s Will
Rosa had not been mistaken; the judges came on the following
day to the Buytenhof, and proceeded with the trial of
Cornelius van Baerle. The examination, however, did not last
long, it having appeared on evidence that Cornelius had kept
at his house that fatal correspondence of the brothers De
Witt with France.
He did not deny it.
The only point about which there seemed any difficulty was
whether this correspondence had been intrusted to him by his
godfather, Cornelius de Witt.
But as, since the death of those two martyrs, Van Baerle had
no longer any reason for withholding the truth, he not only
did not deny that the parcel had been delivered to him by
Cornelius de Witt himself, but he also stated all the
circumstances under which it was done.
This confession involved the godson in the crime of the
godfather; manifest complicity being considered to exist
between Cornelius de Witt and Cornelius van Baerle.
The honest doctor did not confine himself to this avowal,
but told the whole truth with regard to his own tastes,
habits, and daily life. He described his indifference to
politics, his love of study, of the fine arts, of science,
and of flowers. He explained that, since the day when
Cornelius de Witt handed to him the parcel at Dort, he
himself had never touched, nor even noticed it.
To this it was objected, that in this respect he could not
possibly be speaking the truth, since the papers had been
deposited in a press in which both his hands and his eyes
must have been engaged every day.
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Cornelius answered that it was indeed so; that, however, he
never put his hand into the press but to ascertain whether
his bulbs were dry, and that he never looked into it but to
see if they were beginning to sprout.
To this again it was objected, that his pretended
indifference respecting this deposit was not to be