Rosa, on leaving Cornelius, had fixed on her plan, which wasno other than to restore to Cornelius the stolen tulip, ornever to see him again.

　　She had seen the despair of the prisoner, and she knew thatit was derived from a double source, and that it wasincurable.

　　On the one hand, separation became inevitable, -- Gryphushaving at the same time surprised the secret of their loveand of their secret meetings.

　　On the other hand, all the hopes on the fulfilment of whichCornelius van Baerle had rested his ambition for the lastseven years were now crushed.

　　Rosa was one of those women who are dejected by trifles, butwho in great emergencies are supplied by the misfortuneitself with the energy for combating or with the resourcesfor remedying it.

　　She went to her room, and cast a last glance about her tosee whether she had not been mistaken, and whether the tulipwas not stowed away in some corner where it had escaped hernotice. But she sought in vain, the tulip was still missing;the tulip was indeed stolen.

　　Rosa made up a little parcel of things indispensable for ajourney; took her three hundred guilders, -- that is to say,all her fortune, -- fetched the third bulb from among herlace, where she had laid it up, and carefully hid it in herbosom; after which she locked her door twice to disguise herflight as long as possible, and, leaving the prison by thesame door which an hour before had let out Boxtel, she wentto a stable-keeper to hire a carriage.

　　The man had only a two-wheel chaise, and this was thevehicle which Boxtel had hired since last evening, and inwhich he was now driving along the road to Delft; for theroad from Loewestein to Haarlem, owing to the many canals,rivers, and rivulets intersecting the country, isexceedingly circuitous.

　　Not being able to procure a vehicle, Rosa was obliged totake a horse, with which the stable-keeper readily intrustedher, knowing her to be the daughter of the jailer of thefortress.

　　Rosa hoped to overtake her messenger, a kind-hearted andhonest lad, whom she would take with her, and who might atthe same time serve her as a guide and a protector.

　　And in fact she had not proceeded more than a league beforeshe saw him hastening along one of the side paths of a verypretty road by the river. Setting her horse off at a canter,she soon came up with him.

　　The honest lad was not aware of the important character ofhis message; nevertheless, he used as much speed as if hehad known it; and in less than an hour he had already gone aleague and a half.

　　Rosa took from him the note, which had now become useless,and explained to him what she wanted him to do for her. Theboatman placed himself entirely at her disposal, promisingto keep pace with the horse if Rosa would allow him to takehold of either the croup or the bridle of her horse. The twotravellers had been on their way for five hours, and mademore than eight leagues, and yet Gryphus had not the leastsuspicion of his daughter having left the fortress.

　　The jailer, who was of a very spiteful and crueldisposition, chuckled within himself at the idea of havingstruck such terror into his daughter's heart.

　　But whilst he was congratulating himself on having such anice story to tell to his boon companion, Jacob, that worthywas on his road to Delft; and, thanks to the swiftness ofthe horse, had already the start of Rosa and her companionby four leagues.

　　And whilst the affectionate father was rejoicing at thethought of his daughter weeping in her room, Rosa was makingthe best of her way towards Haarlem.

　　Thus the prisoner alone was where Gryphus thought him to be.

　　Rosa was so little with her father since she took care ofthe tulip, that at his dinner hour, that is to say, attwelve o'clock, he was reminded for the first time by hisappetite that his daughter was fretting rather too long.

　　He sent one of the under-turnkeys to call her; and, when theman came back to tell him that he had called and sought herin vain, he resolved to go and call her himself.

　　He first went to her room, but, loud as he knocked, Rosaanswered not.

　　The locksmith of the fortress was sent for; he opened thedoor, but Gryphus no more found Rosa than she had found thetulip.

　　At that very moment she entered Rotterdam.

　　Gryphus therefore had just as little chance of finding herin the kitchen as in her room, and just as little in thegarden as in the kitchen.

　　The reader may imagine the anger of the jailer when, afterhaving made inquiries about the neighbourhood, he heard thathis daughter had hired a horse, and, like an adventuress,set out on a journey without saying where she was going.

　　Gryphus again went up in his fury to Van Baerle, abused him,threatened him, knocked all the miserable furniture of hiscell about, and promised him all sorts of misery, evenstarvation and flogging.

　　Cornelius, without even hearing what his jailer said,allowed himself to be ill-treated, abused, and threatened,remaining all the while sullen, immovable, dead to everyemotion and fear.

　　After having sought for Rosa in every direction, Gryphuslooked out for Jacob, and, as he could not find him either,he began to suspect from that moment that Jacob had run awaywith her.

　　The damsel, meanwhile, after having stopped for two hours atRotterdam, had started again on her journey. On that eveningshe slept at D............