Chapter 16. Master and Pupil
The worthy Master Gryphus, as the reader may have seen, was far fromsharing the kindly feeling of his daughter for the godson of Corneliusde Witt.
There being only five prisoners at Loewestein, the post of turnkey wasnot a very onerous one, but rather a sort of sinecure, given after along period of service.
But the worthy jailer, in his zeal, had magnified with all the powerof his imagination the importance of his office. To him Cornelius hadswelled to the gigantic proportions of a criminal of the first order. Helooked upon him, therefore, as the most dangerous of all his prisoners.He watched all his steps, and always spoke to him with an angrycountenance; punishing him for what he called his dreadful rebellionagainst such a clement prince as the Stadtholder.
Three times a day he entered Van Baerle's cell, expecting to findhim trespassing; but Cornelius had ceased to correspond, since hiscorrespondent was at hand. It is even probable that, if Cornelius hadobtained his full liberty, with permission to go wherever he liked, theprison, with Rosa and his bulbs, would have appeared to him preferableto any other habitation in the world without Rosa and his bulbs.
Rosa, in fact, had promised to come and see him every evening, and fromthe first evening she had kept her word.
On the following evening she went up as before, with the samemysteriousness and the same precaution. Only she had this time resolvedwithin herself not to approach too near the grating. In order, however,to engage Van Baerle in a conversation from the very first which wouldseriously occupy his attention, she tendered to him through the gratingthe three bulbs, which were still wrapped up in the same paper.
But to the great astonishment of Rosa, Van Baerle pushed back her whitehand 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 by embarkingour whole fortune in one ship. Only think, my dear Rosa, that thequestion is to carry out an enterprise which until now has beenconsidered impossible, namely, that of making the great black tulipflower. Let us, therefore, take every possible precaution, so that incase of a failure we may not have anything to reproach ourselves with. Iwill now tell you the way I have traced out for us."
Rosa was all attention to what he would say, much more on account of theimportance which the unfortunate tulip-fancier attached to it, than thatshe felt interested in the matter herself.
"I will explain to you, Rosa," he said. "I dare say you have in thisfortress a small garden, or some courtyard, or, if not that, at leastsome terrace."
"We have a very fine garden," said Rosa, "it runs along the edge of theWaal, and is full of fine old trees."
"Could you bring me some soil from the garden, that I may judge?"
"I will do so to-morrow."
"Take some from a sunny spot, and some from a shady, so that I may judgeof its properties in a dry and in a moist state."
"Be assured I shall."
"After having chosen the soil, and, if it be necessary, modified it, wewill divide our three bulbs; you will take one and plant it, on the daythat I will tell you, in the soil chosen by me. It is sure to flower, ifyou tend it according 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 in my cell, andwhich will help me to beguile those long weary hours when I cannot seeyou. I confess to you I have very little hope for the latter one, andI look beforehand on this unfortunate bulb as sacrificed to myselfishness. However, the sun sometimes visits me. I will, besides, tryto convert everything into an artificial help, even the heat and theashes of my pipe, and lastly, we, or rather you, will keep in reservethe third sucker as our last resource, in case our first two experimentsshould prove a failure. In this manner, my dear Rosa, it is impossiblethat we should not succeed in gaining the hundred thousand guildersfor your marriage portion; and how dearly shall we enjoy that supremehappiness of seeing our work brought to a successful issue!"
"I know it all now," said Rosa. "I will bring you the soil to-morrow,and you will choose it for your bulb and for mine. As to that in whichyours is to grow, I shall have several journeys to convey it to you, asI cannot bring much at a time."
"There is no hurry for it, dear Rosa; our tulips need not be put intothe ground for a month at least. So you see we have plenty of timebefore us. Only I hope that, in planting your bulb, you will strictlyfollow all my instructions."
"I promise you I will."
"And when you have once planted it, you will communicate to me allthe circumstances which may interest our nursling; such as change ofweather, footprints on the walks, or footprints in the borders. You willlisten at night whether our garden is not resorted to by cats. A coupleof those untoward animals laid waste two of my borders at Dort."
"I will listen."
"On moonlight nights have you ever looked at your garden, my dearchild?"
"The window of my sleeping-room overlooks it."
"Well, on moonlight nights you will observe whether any rats come outfrom the holes in the wall. The rats are most mischievous by theirgnawing everything; and I have heard unfortunate tulip-growers complainmost bitterly of Noah for having 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 ananimal much more to be feared than even the cat or the rat."
"What animal?"
"Man. You comprehend, my dear Rosa, a man may steal a guilder, and riskthe prison for such a trifle, and, consequently, it is much more likelythat some one might steal a hundred thousand guilders."
"No one ever enters the garden but myself."
"Thank you, thank you, my dear Rosa. All the joy of my life has still tocome from you."
And as the lips of Van Baerle approached the grating with the same ardoras the day before, and as, moreover, the hour for retiring had struck,Rosa drew back her head, and stretched out her hand.
In this pretty little hand, of which the coquettish damsel wasparticularly proud, was the bulb.
Cornelius kissed most tenderly the tips of her fingers. Did he do sobecause the hand kept one of the bulbs of the great black tulip, orbecause this hand was Rosa's? We shall leave this point to the decisionof wiser heads than ours.
Rosa withdrew with the other two suckers, pressing them to her heart.
Did she press them to her heart because they were the bulbs of the greatblack tulip, or because she had them from Cornelius?
This point, we believe, might be more readily decided than the other.
However that may have been, from that moment life became sweet, andagain full of interest to the prisoner.
Rosa, as we have seen, had returned to him one of the suckers.
Every evening she brought to him, handful by handful, a quantity ofsoil from that part of the garden which he had found to be the best, andwhich, indeed, was excellent.
A large jug, which Cornelius had skilfully broken, did service as aflower-pot. He half filled it, and mixed the earth of the garden witha small portion of dried river mud, a mixture which formed an excellentsoil.
Then, at the beginning of April, he planted his first sucker in thatjug.
Not a day passed on which Rosa did not come to have her chat withCornelius.
The tulips, concerning whose cultivation Rosa was taught all themysteries of the art, formed the principal topic of the conversation;but, interesting as the subject was, people cannot always talk abouttulips.
They therefore began to chat also about other things, and thetulip-fancier found out to his great astonishment what a vast range ofsubjects a conversation may comprise.
Only Rosa had made it a habit to keep her pretty face invariably sixinches distant from the grating, having perhaps become distrustful ofherself.
There was one thing especially which gave Co
rnelius almost as muchanxiety as his bulbs--a subject to which he always returned--thedependence of Rosa on her father.
Indeed, Van Baerle's happiness depended on the whim of this man. Hemight one day find Loewestein dull, or the air of the place unhealthy,or the gin bad, and leave the fortress, and take his daughter with him,when Cornelius and Rosa would again be separated.
"Of what use would the carrier pigeons then be?" said Cornelius to Rosa,"as you, my dear girl, would not be able to read what I should write toyou, nor to write to me your thoughts in return."
"Well," answered Rosa, who in her heart was as much afraid of aseparation as Cornelius himself, "we have one hour every evening, let usmake good use of it."
"I don't think we make such a bad use of it as it is."
"Let us employ it even better," said Rosa, smiling. "Teach me to readand write. I shall make the best of your lessons, believe me; and, inthis way, we shall never be separated any more, except by our own will."
"Oh, then, we have an eternity before us," said Cornelius.
Rosa smiled, and quietly shrugged her shoulders.
"Will you remain for ever in prison?" she said, "and after havinggranted you your life, will not his Highness also grant you yourliberty? And will you not then recover your fortune, and be a rich man,and then, when you are driving in your own coach, riding your own horse,will you still look at poor Rosa, the daughter of a jailer, scarcelybetter than a hangman?"
Cornelius tried to contradict her, and certainly he would have done sowith all his heart, and with all the sincerity of a soul full of love.
She, however, smilingly interrupted him, saying, "How is your tulipgoing on?"
To speak to Cornelius of his tulip was an expedient resorted to by herto make him forget everything, even Rosa herself.
"Very well, indeed," he said, "the coat is growing black, the sproutinghas commenced, the veins of the bulb are swelling, in eight days hence,and perhaps sooner, we may distinguish the first buds of the leavesprotruding. And yours Rosa?"
"Oh, I have done things on a large scale, and according to yourdirections."
"Now, let me hear, Rosa, what you have done," said Cornelius, with astender an anxiety as he had lately shown to herself.
"Well," she said, smiling, for in her own heart she could not helpstudying this double love of the prisoner for herself and for the blacktulip, "I have done things on a large scale; I have prepared a bed asyou described it to me, on a clear spot, far from trees and walls, in asoil slightly mixed with sand, rather moist than dry without a fragmentof stone or pebble."
"Well done, Rosa, well done."
"I am now only waiting for your further orders to put in the bulb, youknow that I must be behindhand with you, as I have in my favour all thechances of good air, of the sun, and abundance of moisture."
"All true, all true," exclaimed Cornelius, clapping his hands withjoy, "you are a good pupil, Rosa, and you are sure to gain your hundredthousand guilders."
"Don't forget," said Rosa, smiling, "that your pupil, as you call me,has still other things to learn besides the cultivation of tulips."
"Yes, yes, and I am as anxious as you are, Rosa, that you should learnto read."
"When shall we begin?"
"At once."
"No, to-morrow."
"Why to-morrow?"
"Because to-day our hour is expired, and I must leave you."
"Already? But what shall we read?"
"Oh," said Rosa, "I have a book,--a book which I hope will bring usluck."
"To-morrow, then."
"Yes, to-morrow."
On the following evening Rosa returned with the Bible of Cornelius deWitt.