Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

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