Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip
she did not observe the lips of Cornelius, which, alas! only
met the cold wire-grating. Yet, in spite of this obstacle,
they communicated to the lips of the young girl the glowing
breath of the most tender kiss.
At this sudden outburst of tenderness, Rosa grew very pale,
— perhaps paler than she had been on the day of the
execution. She uttered a plaintive sob, closed her fine
eyes, and fled, trying in vain to still the beating of her
heart.
And thus Cornelius was again alone.
Rosa had fled so precipitately, that she completely forgot
to return to Cornelius the three bulbs of the Black Tulip.
Chapter 16
Master and Pupil
The worthy Master Gryphus, as the reader may have seen, was
far from sharing the kindly feeling of his daughter for the
godson of Cornelius de Witt.
There being only five prisoners at Loewestein, the post of
turnkey was not a very onerous one, but rather a sort of
sinecure, given after a long period of service.
But the worthy jailer, in his zeal, had magnified with all
the power of his imagination the importance of his office.
To him Cornelius had swelled to the gigantic proportions of
a criminal of the first order. He looked upon him,
therefore, as the most dangerous of all his prisoners. He
watched all his steps, and always spoke to him with an angry
countenance; punishing him for what he called his dreadful
rebellion against such a clement prince as the Stadtholder.
Three times a day he entered Van Baerle’s cell, expecting to
find him trespassing; but Cornelius had ceased to
correspond, since his correspondent was at hand. It is even
probable that, if Cornelius had obtained his full liberty,
with permission to go wherever he liked, the prison, with
Rosa and his bulbs, would have appeared to him preferable to
any other habitation in the world without Rosa and his
bulbs.
Rosa, in fact, had promised to come and see him every
evening, and from the first evening she had kept her word.
On the following evening she went up as before, with the
same mysteriousness and the same precaution. Only she had
this time resolved within herself not to approach too near
the grating. In order, however, to engage Van Baerle in a
conversation from the very first which would seriously
occupy his attention, she tendered to him through the
grating the three bulbs, which were still wrapped up in the
same paper.
But to the great astonishment of Rosa, Van Baerle pushed
back her white hand with the tips of his fingers.
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Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip
The young man had been considering about the matter.
“Listen to me,” he said. “I think we should risk too much by
embarking our whole fortune in one ship. Only think, my dear
Rosa, that the question is to carry out an enterprise which
until now has been considered impossible, namely, that of
making the great black tulip flower. Let us, therefore, take
every possible precaution, so that in case of a failure we
may not have anything to reproach ourselves with. I will now
tell you the way I have traced out for us.”
Rosa was all attention to what he would say, much more on
account of the importance which the unfortunate
tulip-fancier attached to it, than that she felt interested
in the matter herself.
“I will explain to you, Rosa,” he said. “I dare say you have
in this fortress a small garden, or some courtyard, or, if
not that, at least some terrace.”
“We have a very fine garden,” said Rosa, “it runs along the
edge of the Waal, and is full of fine old trees.”
“Could you bring me some soil from the garden, that I may
judge?”
“I will do so to-morrow.”
“Take some from a sunny spot, and some from a shady, so that
I may judge of its properties in a dry and in a moist
state.”
“Be assured I shall.”
“After having chosen the soil, and, if it be necessary,
modified it, we will divide our three bulbs; you will take
one and plant it, on the day that I will tell you, in the