Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

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