On the following evening, as we have said, Rosa returnedwith the Bible of Cornelius de Witt.
Then began between the master and the pupil one of thosecharming scenes which are the delight of the novelist whohas to describe them.
The grated window, the only opening through which the twolovers were able to communicate, was too high forconveniently reading a book, although it had been quiteconvenient for them to read each other's faces.
Rosa therefore had to press the open book against thegrating edgewise, holding above it in her right hand thelamp, but Cornelius hit upon the lucky idea of fixing it tothe bars, so as to afford her a little rest. Rosa was thenenabled to follow with her finger the letters and syllables,which she was to spell for Cornelius, who with a strawpointed out the letters to his attentive1 pupil through theholes of the grating.
The light of the lamp illuminated2 the rich complexion3 ofRosa, her blue liquid eyes, and her golden hair under herhead-dress of gold brocade, with her fingers held up, andshowing in the blood, as it flowed downwards4 in the veinsthat pale pink hue5 which shines before the light owing tothe living transparency of the flesh tint6.
Rosa's intellect rapidly developed itself under theanimating influence of Cornelius, and when the difficultiesseemed too arduous7, the sympathy of two loving hearts seemedto smooth them away.
And Rosa, after having returned to her room, repeated in hersolitude the reading lessons, and at the same time recalledall the delight which she had felt whilst receiving them.
One evening she came half an hour later than usual. This wastoo extraordinary an instance not to call forth8 at onceCornelius's inquiries9 after its cause.
"Oh! do not be angry with me," she said, "it is not myfault. My father has renewed an acquaintance with an oldcrony who used to visit him at the Hague, and to ask him tolet him see the prison. He is a good sort of fellow, fond ofhis bottle, tells funny stories, and moreover is very freewith his money, so as always to be ready to stand a treat.""You don't know anything further of him?" asked Cornelius,surprised.
"No," she answered; "it's only for about a fortnight that myfather has taken such a fancy to this friend who is soassiduous in visiting him.""Ah, so," said Cornelius, shaking his head uneasily as everynew incident seemed to him to forebode some catastrophe;"very likely some spy, one of those who are sent into jailsto watch both prisoners and their keepers.""I don't believe that," said Rosa, smiling; "if that worthyperson is spying after any one, it is certainly not after myfather.""After whom, then?""Me, for instance.""You?""Why not?" said Rosa, smiling.
"Ah, that's true," Cornelius observed, with a sigh. "Youwill not always have suitors in vain; this man may becomeyour husband.""I don't say anything to the contrary.""What cause have you to entertain such a happy prospect10?""Rather say, this fear, Mynheer Cornelius.""Thank you, Rosa, you are right; well, I will say then, thisfear?""I have only this reason ---- ""Tell me, I am anxious to hear.""This man came several times before to the Buytenhof, at theHague. I remember now, it was just about the time when youwere confined there. When I left, he left too; when I camehere, he came after me. At the Hague his pretext11 was that hewanted to see you.""See me?""Yes, it must have undoubtedly12 been only a pretext for now,when he could plead the same reason, as you are my father'sprisoner again, he does not care any longer for you; quitethe contrary, -- I heard him say to my father only yesterdaythat he did not know you.""Go on, Rosa, pray do, that I may guess who that man is, andwhat he wants.""Are you quite sure, Mynheer Cornelius, that none of yourfriends can interest himself for you?""I have no friends, Rosa; I have only my old nurse, whom youknow, and who knows you. Alas13, poor Sue! she would comeherself, and use no roundabout ways. She would at once sayto your father, or to you, 'My good sir, or my good miss, mychild is here; see how grieved I am; let me see him only forone hour, and I'll pray for you as long as I live.' No, no,"continued Cornelius; "with the exception of my poor old Sue,I have no friends in this world.""Then I come back to what I thought before; and the more soas last evening at sunset, whilst I was arranging the borderwhere I am to plant your bulb, I saw a shadow glidingbetween the alder14 trees and the aspens. I did not appear tosee him, but it was this man. He concealed15 himself and sawme digging the ground, and certainly it was me whom hefollowed, and me whom he was spying after. I could not movemy rake, or touch one atom of soil, without his noticingit.""Oh, yes, yes, he is in love with you," said Cornelius. "Ishe young? Is he handsome?"Saying this he looked anxiously at Rosa, eagerly waiting forher answer.
"Young? handsome?" cried Rosa, bursting into a laugh. "He ishideous to look at; crooked16, nearly fifty years of age, andnever dares to look me in the face, or to speak, except inan undertone.""And his name?""Jacob Gisels.""I don't know him.""Then you see that, at all events, he does not come afteryou.""At any rate, if he loves you, Rosa, which is very likely,as to see you is to love you, at least you don't love him.""To be sure I don't.""Then you wish me to keep my mind easy?""I should certainly ask you to do so.""Well, then, now as you begin to know how to read you willread all that I write to you of the pangs17 of jealousy18 and ofabsence, won't you, Rosa?""I shall read it, if you write with good big letters."Then, as the turn which the conversation took began to makeRosa uneasy, she asked, --"By the bye, how is your tulip going on?""Oh, Rosa, only imagine my joy, this morning I looked at itin the sun, and after having moved the soil aside whichcovers the bulb, I saw the first sprouting19 of the leaves.
This small germ has caused me a much greater emotion thanthe order of his Highness which turned aside the swordalready raised at the Buytenhof.""You hope, then?" said Rosa, smiling.
"Yes, yes, I hope.""And I, in my turn, when shall I plant my bulb?""Oh, the first favourable20 day I will tell you; but, whateveryou do, let nobody help you, and don't confide21 your secretto any one in the world; do you see, a connoisseur22 by merelylooking at the bulb would be able to distinguish its value;and so, my dearest Rosa, be careful in locking up the thirdsucker which remains23 to you.""It is still wrapped up in the same paper in which you putit, and just as you gave it me. I have laid it at the bottomof my chest under my point lace, which keeps it dry, withoutpressing upon it. But good night, my poor captivegentleman.""How? already?""It must be, it must be.""Coming so late and going so soon.""My father might grow impatient not seeing me return, andthat precious lover might suspect a rival."Here she listened uneasily.
"What is it?" asked Van Baerle. "I thought I heardsomething.""What, then?""Something like a step, creaking on the staircase.""Surely," said the prisoner, "that cannot be Master Gryphus,he is always heard at a distance""No, it is not my father, I am quite sure, but ---- ""But?""But it might be Mynheer Jacob."Rosa rushed toward the staircase, and a door was reallyheard rapidly to close before the young damsel had got downthe first ten steps.
Cornelius was very uneasy about it, but it was after allonly a prelude24 to greater anxieties.
The flowing day passed without any remarkable25 incident.
Gryphus made his three visits, and discovered nothing. Henever came at the same hours as he hoped thus to discoverthe secrets of the prisoner. Van Baerle, therefore, haddevised a contrivance, a sort of pulley, by means of whichhe was able to lower or to raise his jug26 below the ledge27 oftiles and stone before his window. The strings28 by which thiswas effected he had found means to cover with that mosswhich generally grows on tiles, or in the crannies of thewalls.
Gryphus suspected nothing, and the device succeeded foreight days. One morning, however, when Cornelius, absorbedin the contemplation of his bulb, from which a germ ofvegetation was already peeping forth, had not heard oldGryphus coming upstairs as a gale29 of wind was blowing whichshook the whole tower, the door suddenly opened.
Gryphus, perceiving an unknown and consequently a forbiddenobject in the hands of his prisoner, pounced30 upon it withthe same rapidity as the hawk31 on its prey32.
As ill luck would have it, his coarse, hard hand, the samewhich he had broken, and which Cornelius van Baerle had setso well, grasped at once in the midst of the jug, on thespot where the bulb was lying in the soil.
"What have you got here?" he roared. "Ah! have I caughtyou?" and with this he grabbed in the soil.
"I? nothing, nothing," cried Cornelius, trembling.
"Ah! have I caught you? a jug and earth in it There is somecriminal secret at the bottom of all this.""Oh, my good Master Gryphus," said Van Baerle, imploringly,and anxious as the partridge robbed of her young by thereaper.
In fact, Gryphus was beginning to dig the soil with hiscrooked fingers.
"Take care, sir, take care," said Cornelius, growing quitepale.
"Care of what? Zounds! of what?" roared the jailer.
"Take care, I say, you will crush it, Master Gryphus."And with a rapid and almost frantic33 movement he snatched thejug from the hands of Gryphus, and hid it like a treasureunder his arms.
But Gryphus, obstinate34, like an old man, and more and moreconvinced that he was discovering here a conspiracy35 againstthe Prince of Orange, rushed up to his prisoner, raising hisstick; seeing, however, the impassible resolution of thecaptive to protect his flower-pot he was convinced thatCornelius trembled much less for his head than for his jug.
He therefore tried to wrest36 it from him by force.
"Halloa!" said the jailer, furious, "here, you see, you arerebelling.""Leave me my tulip," cried Van Baerle.
"Ah, yes, tulip," replied the old man, "we know well theshifts of prisoners.""But I vow37 to you ---- ""Let go," repeated Gryphus, stamping his foot, "let go, or Ishall call the guard.""Call whoever you like, but you shall not have this flowerexcept with my life."Gryphus, exasperated38, plunged39 his finger a second time intothe soil, and now he drew out the bulb, which certainlylooked quite black; and whilst Van Baerle, quite happy tohave saved the vessel40, did not suspect that the adversaryhad possessed41 himself of its precious contents, Gryphushurled the softened42 bulb with all his force on the flags,where almost immediately after it was crushed to atoms underhis heavy shoe.
Van Baerle saw the work of destruction, got a glimpse of thejuicy remains of his darling bulb, and, guessing the causeof the ferocious43 joy of Gryphus, uttered a cry of agony,which would have melted the heart even of that ruthlessjailer who some years before killed Pelisson's spider.
The idea of striking down this spiteful bully44 passed likelightning through the brain of the tulip-fancier. The bloodrushed to his brow, and seemed like fire in his eyes, whichblinded him, and he raised in his two hands the heavy jugwith all the now useless earth which remained in it. Oneinstant more, and he would have flung it on the bald head ofold Gryphus.
But a cry stopped him; a cry of agony, uttered by poor Rosa,who, trembling and pale, with her arms raised to heaven,made her appearance behind the grated window, and thusinterposed between her father and her friend.
Gryphus then understood the danger with which he had beenthreatened, and he broke out in a volley of the mostterrible abuse.
"Indeed," said Cornelius to him, "you must be a very meanand spiteful fellow to rob a poor prisoner of his onlyconsolation, a tulip bulb.""For shame, my father," Rosa chimed in, "it is indeed acrime you have committed here.""Ah, is that you, my little chatter-box?" the old man cried,boiling with rage and turning towards her; "don't you meddlewith what don't concern you, but go down as quickly aspossible.""Unfortunate me," continued Cornelius, overwhelmed withgrief.
"After all, it is but a tulip," Gryphus resumed, as he beganto be a little ashamed of himself. "You may have as manytulips as you like: I have three hundred of them in myloft.""To the devil with your tulips!" cried Cornelius; "you areworthy of each other: had I a hundred thousand millions ofthem, I would gladly give them for the one which you havejust destroyed.""Oh, so!" Gryphus said, in a tone of triumph; "now there wehave it. It was not your tulip you cared for. There was inthat false bulb some witchcraft45, perhaps some means ofcorrespondence with conspirators46 against his Highness whohas granted you your life. I always said they were wrong innot cutting your head off.""Father, father!" cried Rosa.
"Yes, yes! it is better as it is now," repeated Gryphus,growing warm; "I have destroyed it, and I'll do the sameagain, as often as you repeat the trick. Didn't I tell you,my fine fellow, that I would make your life a hard one?""A curse on you!" Cornelius exclaimed, quite beyond himselfwith despair, as he gathered, with his trembling fingers,the remnants of that bulb on which he had rested so manyjoys and so many hopes.
"We shall plant the other to-morrow, my dear MynheerCornelius," said Rosa, in a low voice, who understood theintense grief of the unfortunate tulip-fancier, and who,with the pure sacred love of her innocent heart, pouredthese kind words, like a drop of balm, on the bleedingwounds of Cornelius.
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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sprouting
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| v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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connoisseur
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| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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prelude
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| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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strings
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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