The worthy Master Gryphus, as the reader may have seen, wasfar from sharing the kindly feeling of his daughter for thegodson of Cornelius de Witt.
There being only five prisoners at Loewestein, the post ofturnkey was not a very onerous one, but rather a sort ofsinecure, given after a long period of service.
But the worthy jailer, in his zeal, had magnified with allthe power of his imagination the importance of his office.
To him Cornelius had swelled to the gigantic proportions ofa criminal of the first order. He looked upon him,therefore, as the most dangerous of all his prisoners. Hewatched all his steps, and always spoke to him with an angrycountenance; punishing him for what he called his dreadfulrebellion against such a clement prince as the Stadtholder.
Three times a day he entered Van Baerle's cell, expecting tofind him trespassing; but Cornelius had ceased tocorrespond, since his correspondent was at hand. It is evenprobable that, if Cornelius had obtained his full liberty,with permission to go wherever he liked, the prison, withRosa and his bulbs, would have appeared to him preferable toany other habitation in the world without Rosa and hisbulbs.
Rosa, in fact, had promised to come and see him everyevening, and from the first evening she had kept her word.
On the following evening she went up as before, with thesame mysteriousness and the same precaution. Only she hadthis time resolved within herself not to approach too nearthe grating. In order, however, to engage Van Baerle in aconversation from the very first which would seriouslyoccupy his attention, she tendered to him through thegrating the three bulbs, which were still wrapped up in thesame paper.
But to the great astonishment of Rosa, Van Baerle pushedback her white hand with the tips of his fingers.
The young man had been considering about the matter.
"Listen to me," he said. "I think we should risk too much byembarking our whole fortune in one ship. Only think, my dearRosa, that the question is to carry out an enterprise whichuntil now has been considered impossible, namely, that ofmaking the great black tulip flower. Let us, therefore, takeevery possible precaution, so that in case of a failure wemay not have anything to reproach ourselves with. I will nowtell you the way I have traced out for us."Rosa was all attention to what he would say, much more onaccount of the importance which the unfortunatetulip-fancier attached to it, than that she felt interestedin the matter herself.
"I will explain to you, Rosa," he said. "I dare say you havein this fortress a small garden, or some courtyard, or, ifnot that, at least some terrace.""We have a very fine garden," said Rosa, "it runs along theedge of the Waal, and is full of fine old trees.""Could you bring me some soil from the garden, that I mayjudge?""I will do so to-morrow.""Take some from a sunny spot, and some from a shady, so thatI may judge of its properties in a dry and in a moiststate.""Be assured I shall.""After having chosen the soil, and, if it be necessary,modified it, we will divide our three bulbs; you will takeone and plant it, on the day that I will tell you, in thesoil chosen by me. It is sure to flower, if you tend itaccording to my directions.""I will not lose sight of it for a minute.""You will give me another, which I will try to grow here inmy cell, and which will help me to beguile those long wearyhours when I cannot see you. I confess to you I have verylittle hope for the latter one, and I look beforehand onthis unfortunate bulb as sacrificed to my selfishness.
However, the sun sometimes visits me. I will, besides, tryto convert everything into an artificial help, even the heatand the ashes of my pipe, and lastly, we, or rather you,will keep in reserve the third sucker as our last resource,in case our first two experiments should prove a failure. Inthis manner, my dear Rosa, it is impossible that we shouldnot succeed in gaining the hundred thousand guilders foryour marriage portion; and how dearly shall we enjoy thatsupreme happiness of seeing our work brought to a successfulissue!""I know it all now," said Rosa. "I will bring you the soilto-morrow, and you will choose it for your bulb and formine. As to that in which yours is to grow, I shall haveseveral journeys to convey it to you, as I cannot bring muchat a time.""There is no hurry for it, dear Rosa; our tulips need not beput into the ground for a month at least. So you see we haveplenty of time before us. Only I hope that, in planting yourbulb, you will strictly follow all my instructions.""I promise you I will.""And when you have once planted it, you will communicate tome all the circumstances which may interest our nursling;such as change of weather, footprints on the walks, orfootprints in the borders. You will listen at night whetherour garden is not resorted to by cats. A couple of thoseuntoward animals laid waste two of my borders at Dort.""I will listen.""On moonlight nights have you ever looked at your garden, mydear child?""The window of my sleeping-room overlooks it.""Well, on moonlight nights you will observe whether any ratscome out from the holes in the wall. The rats are mostmischievous by their gnawing everything; and I have heardunfortunate tulip-growers complain most bitterly of Noah forhaving put a couple of rats in the ark.""I will observe, and if there are cats or rats ---- ""You will apprise me of it, -- that's right. And, moreover,"Van Baerle, having become mistrustful in his captivity,continued, "there is an animal much more to be feared thaneven the cat or the rat.""What animal?""Man. You comprehend, my dear Rosa, a man may steal aguilder, and risk the prison for such a trifle, and,consequently, it is much more likely that some one mightsteal a hundred thousand guilders.""No one ever enters the garden but ............