Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

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