Page 133
Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip
“Yes,” said Rosa, leaning against the door to support
herself; “yes, taken, stolen!”
And saying this, she felt her limbs failing her, and she
fell on her knees.
“But how? Tell me, explain to me.”
“Oh, it is not my fault, my friend.”
Poor Rosa! she no longer dared to call him “My beloved one.”
“You have then left it alone,” said Cornelius, ruefully.
“One minute only, to instruct our messenger, who lives
scarcely fifty yards off, on the banks of the Waal.”
“And during that time, notwithstanding all my injunctions,
you left the key behind, unfortunate child!”
“No, no, no! this is what I cannot understand. The key was
never out of my hands; I clinched it as if I were afraid it
would take wings.”
“But how did it happen, then?”
“That’s what I cannot make out. I had given the letter to my
messenger; he started before I left his house; I came home,
and my door was locked, everything in my room was as I had
left it, except the tulip, — that was gone. Some one must
have had a key for my room, or have got a false one made on
purpose.”
She was nearly choking with sobs, and was unable to
continue.
Cornelius, immovable and full of consternation, heard almost
without understanding, and only muttered, —
“Stolen, stolen, and I am lost!”
“O Cornelius, forgive me, forgive me, it will kill me!”
Seeing Rosa’s distress, Cornelius seized the iron bars of
the grating, and furiously shaking them, called out, —
“Rosa, Rosa, we have been robbed, it is true, but shall we
allow ourselves to be dejected for all that? No, no; the
misfortune is great, but it may perhaps be remedied. Rosa,
we know the thief!”
“Alas! what can I say about it?”
“But I say that it is no one else but that infamous Jacob.
Shall we allow him to carry to Haarlem the fruit of our
labour, the fruit of our sleepless nights, the child of our
love? Rosa, we must pursue, we must overtake him!”
“But how can we do all this, my friend, without letting my
father know we were in communication with each other? How
should I, a poor girl, with so little knowledge of the world
and its ways, be able to attain this end, which perhaps you
could not attain yourself?”
Page 134
Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip
“Rosa, Rosa, open this door to me, and you will see whether
I will not find the thief, — whether I will not make him
confess his crime and beg for mercy.”
“Alas!” cried Rosa, sobbing, “can I open the door for you?
have I the keys? If I had had them, would not you have been
free long ago?”
“Your father has them, — your wicked father, who has
already crushed the first bulb of my tulip. Oh, the wretch!
he is an accomplice of Jacob!”
“Don’t speak so loud, for Heaven’s sake!”
“Oh, Rosa, if you don’t open the door to me,” Cornelius
cried in his rage, “I shall force these bars, and kill
everything I find in the prison.”
“Be merciful, be merciful, my friend!”
“I tell you, Rosa, that I shall demolish this prison, stone
for stone!” and the unfortunate man, whose strength was
increased tenfold by his rage, began to shake the door with
a great noise, little heeding that the thunder of his voice
was re-echoing through the spiral staircase.
Rosa, in her fright, made vain attempts to check this
furious outbreak.
“I tell you that I shall kill that infamous Gryphus?” roared
Cornelius. “I tell you I shall shed his blood as he did that
of my black tulip.”
The wretched prisoner began really to rave.
“Well, then, yes,” said Rosa, all in a tremble. “Yes, yes,
only be quiet. Yes, yes, I will take his keys, I will open
the door for you! Yes, only be quiet, my own dear
Cornelius.”
She did not finish her speech, as a growl by her side
interrupted her.
“My father!” cried Rosa.
“Gryphus!” roared Van Baerle. “Oh, you villain!”
Old Gryphus, in the midst of all the noise, had ascended the