Chapter 15. The Little Grated Window
Gryphus was followed by the mastiff.
The turnkey took the animal round the jail, so that, if needs be, hemight recognize the prisoners.
"Father," said Rosa, "here is the famous prison from which MynheerGrotius escaped. You know Mynheer Grotius?"
"Oh, yes, that rogue Grotius, a friend of that villain Barneveldt,whom I saw executed when I was a child. Ah! so Grotius; and that's thechamber from which he escaped. Well, I'll answer for it that no oneshall escape after him in my time."
And thus opening the door, he began in the dark to talk to the prisoner.
The dog, on his part, went up to the prisoner, and, growling, smelledabout his legs just as though to ask him what right he had still to bealive, after having left the prison in the company of the Recorder andthe executioner.
But the fair Rosa called him to her side.
"Well, my master," said Gryphus, holding up his lantern to throw alittle light around, "you see in me your new jailer. I am head turnkey,and have all the cells under my care. I am not vicious, but I'm not tobe trifled with, as far as discipline goes."
"My good Master Gryphus, I know you perfectly well," said the prisoner,approaching within the circle of light cast around by the lantern.
"Halloa! that's you, Mynheer van Baerle," said Gryphus. "That's you;well, I declare, it's astonishing how people do meet."
"Oh, yes; and it's really a great pleasure to me, good Master Gryphus,to see that your arm is doing well, as you are able to hold your lanternwith it."
Gryphus knitted his brow. "Now, that's just it," he said, "people alwaysmake blunders in politics. His Highness has granted you your life; I'msure I should never have done so."
"Don't say so," replied Cornelius; "why not?"
"Because you are the very man to conspire again. You learned people havedealings with the devil."
"Nonsense, Master Gryphus. Are you dissatisfied with the manner inwhich I have set your arm, or with the price that I asked you?" saidCornelius, laughing.
"On the contrary," growled the jailer, "you have set it only too well.There is some witchcraft in this. After six weeks, I was able to useit as if nothing had happened, so much so, that the doctor of theBuytenhof, who knows his trade well, wanted to break it again, to set itin the regular way, and promised me that I should have my blessed threemonths for my money before I should be able to move it."
"And you did not want that?"
"I said, 'Nay, as long as I can make the sign of the cross with thatarm' (Gryphus was a Roman Catholic), 'I laugh at the devil.'"
"But if you laugh at the devil, Master Gryphus, you ought with so muchmore reason to laugh at learned people."
"Ah, learned people, learned people! Why, I would rather have to guardten soldiers than one scholar. The soldiers smoke, guzzle, and getdrunk; they are gentle as lambs if you only give them brandy or Moselle,but scholars, and drink, smoke, and fuddle--ah, yes, that's altogetherdifferent. They keep sober, spend nothing, and have their heads alwaysclear to make conspiracies. But I tell you, at the very outset, it won'tbe such an easy matter for you to conspire. First of all, you willhave no books, no paper, and no conjuring book. It's books that helpedMynheer Grotius to get off."
"I assure you, Master Gryphus," replied Van Baerle, "that if I haveentertained the idea of escaping, I most decidedly have it no longer."
"Well, well," said Gryphus, "just look sharp: that's what I shall doalso. But, for all that, I say his Highness has made a great mistake."
"Not to have cut off my head? thank you, Master Gryphus."
"Just so, look whether the Mynheer de Witt don't keep very quiet now."
"That's very shocking what you say now, Master Gryphus," cried VanBaerle, turning away his head to conceal his disgust. "You forget thatone of those unfortunate gentlemen was my friend, and the other mysecond father."
"Yes, but I also remember that the one, as well as the other, was aconspirator. And, moreover, I am speaking from Christian charity."
"Oh, indeed! explain that a little to me, my good Master Gryphus. I donot quite understand it."
"Well, then, if you had remained on the block of Master Harbruck----"
"What?"
"You would not suffer any longer; whereas, I will not disguise it fromyou, I shall lead you a sad life of it."
"Thank you for the promise, Master Gryphus."
And whilst the prisoner smiled ironically at the old jailer, Rosa, fromthe outside, answered by a bright smile, which carried sweet consolationto the heart of Van Baerle.
Gryphus stepped towards the window.
It was still light enough to see, although indistinctly, through thegray haze of the evening, the vast expanse of the horizon.
"What view has one from here?" asked Gryphus.
"Why, a very fine and pleasant one," said Cornelius, looking at Rosa.
"Yes, yes, too much of a view, too much."
And at this moment the two pigeons, scared by the sight and especiallyby the voice of the stranger, left their nest, and disappeared, quitefrightened in the evening mist.
"Halloa! what's this?" cried Gryphus.
"My pigeons," answered Cornelius.
"Your pigeons," cried the jailer, "your pigeons! has a prisoner anythingof his own?"
"Why, then," said Cornelius, "the pigeons which a merciful Father inHeaven has lent to me."
"So, here we have a breach of the rules already," replied Gryphus."Pigeons! ah, young man, young man! I'll tell you one thing, that beforeto-morrow is over, your pigeons will boil in my pot."
"First of all you should catch them, Master Gryphus. You won't allowthese pigeons to be mine! Well, I vow they are even less yours thanmine."
"Omittance is no acquittance," growled the jailer, "and I shallcertainly wring their necks before twenty-four hours are over: you maybe sure of that."
Whilst giving utterance to this ill-natured promise, Gryphus put hishead out of the window to examine the nest. This gave Van Baerle time torun to the door, and squeeze the hand of Rosa, who whispered to him,--
"At nine o'clock this evening."
Gryphus, quite taken up with the desire of catching the pigeons nextday, as he had promised he would do, saw and heard nothing of this shortinterlude; and, after having closed the window, he took the arm of hisdaughter, left the cell, turned the key twice, drew the bolts, and wentoff to make the same kind promise to the other prisoners.
He had scarcely withdrawn, when Cornelius went to the door to listen tothe sound of his footsteps, and, as soon as they had died away, he ranto the window, and completely demolished the nest of the pigeons.
Rather than expose them to the tender mercies of his bullying jailer,he drove away for ever those gentle messengers to whom he owed thehappiness of having seen Rosa again.
This visit of the jailer, his brutal threats, and the gloomy prospect ofthe harshness with which, as he had before experienced, Gryphus watchedhis prisoners,--all this was unable to extinguish in Cornelius the sweetthoughts, and especially the sweet hope, which the presence of Rosa hadreawakened in his heart.
He waited eagerly to hear the clock of the tower of Loewestein strikenine.
The last chime was still vibrating through the air, when Cornelius heardon the staircase the light step and the rustle of the flowing dress ofthe fair Frisian maid, and soon after a light appeared at the littlegrated window in the door, on which the prisoner fixed his earnest gaze.
The shutter opened on the outside.
"Here I am," said Rosa, out of breath from running up the stairs, "hereI am."
"Oh, my good Rosa."
"You are then glad to see me?"
"Can you ask? But how did you contrive to get here? tell me."
"Now listen to me. My father falls asleep every evening almostimmediately after his supper; I then make him lie down, a littlestupefied with his gin. Don't say anything about it, because, thanksto this nap, I shall be able to come every evening and chat fo
r an hourwith you."
"Oh, I thank you, Rosa, dear Rosa."
Saying these words, Cornelius put his face so near the little windowthat Rosa withdrew hers.
"I have brought back to you your bulbs."
Cornelius's heart leaped with joy. He had not yet dared to ask Rosa whatshe had done with the precious treasure which he had intrusted to her.
"Oh, you have preserved them, then?"
"Did you not give them to me as a thing which was dear to you?"
"Yes, but as I have given them to you, it seems to me that they belongto you."
"They would have belonged to me after your death, but, fortunately, youare alive now. Oh how I blessed his Highness in my heart! If God grantsto him all the happiness that I have wished him, certainly PrinceWilliam will be the happiest man on earth. When I looked at the Bibleof your godfather Cornelius, I was resolved to bring back to you yourbulbs, only I did not know how to accomplish it. I had, however, alreadyformed the plan of going to the Stadtholder, to ask from him for myfather the appointment of jailer of Loewestein, when your housekeeperbrought me your letter. Oh, how we wept together! But your letter onlyconfirmed me the more in my resolution. I then left for Leyden, and therest you know."
"What, my dear Rosa, you thought, even before receiving my letter, ofcoming to meet me again?"
"If I thought of it," said Rosa, allowing her love to get the better ofher bashfulness, "I thought of nothing else."
And, saying these words, Rosa looked so exceedingly pretty, that forthe second time Cornelius placed his forehead and lips against the wiregrating; of course, we must presume with the laudable desire to thankthe young lady.
Rosa, however, drew back as before.
"In truth," she said, with that coquetry which somehow or other is inthe heart of every young girl, "I have often been sorry that I am notable to read, but never so much so as when your housekeeper brought meyour letter. I kept the paper in my hands, which spoke to other people,and which was dumb to poor stupid me."
"So you have often regretted not being able to read," said Cornelius. "Ishould just like to know on what occasions."
"Troth," she said, laughing, "to read all the letters which were writtento me."
"Oh, you received letters, Rosa?"
"By hundreds."
"But who wrote to you?"
"Who! why, in the first place, all the students who passed over theBuytenhof, all the officers who went to parade, all the clerks, and eventhe merchants who saw me at my little window."
"And what did you do with all these notes, my dear Rosa?"
"Formerly," she answered, "I got some friend to read them to me, whichwas capital fun, but since a certain time--well, what use is it toattend to all this nonsense?--since a certain time I have burnt them."
"Since a certain time!" exclaimed Cornelius, with a look beaming withlove and joy.
Rosa cast down her eyes, blushing. In her sweet confusion, she didnot observe the lips of Cornelius, which, alas! only met the coldwire-grating. Yet, in spite of this obstacle, they communicated to thelips of the young girl the glowing breath of the most tender kiss.
At this sudden outburst of tenderness, Rosa grew very pale,--perhapspaler than she had been on the day of the execution. She uttered aplaintive sob, closed her fine eyes, and fled, trying in vain to stillthe beating of her heart.
And thus Cornelius was again alone.
Rosa had fled so precipitately, that she completely forgot to return toCornelius the three bulbs of the Black Tulip.