Chapter 23 The Rival

    And in fact the poor young people were in great need of protection.

　　They had never been so near the destruction of their hopesas at this moment, when they thought themselves certain oftheir fulfilment.

　　The reader cannot but have recognized in Jacob our oldfriend, or rather enemy, Isaac Boxtel, and has guessed, nodoubt, that this worthy¹ had followed from the Buytenhof toLoewestein the object of his love and the object of hishatred, -- the black tulip and Cornelius van Baerle.

　　What no one but a tulip-fancier, and an envioustulip-fancier, could have discovered, -- the existence ofthe bulbs and the endeavours of the prisoner, -- jealousyhad enabled Boxtel, if not to discover, at least to guess.

　　We have seen him, more successful under the name of Jacobthan under that of Isaac, gain the friendship of Gryphus,which for several months he cultivated by means of the bestGenievre ever distilled² from the Texel to Antwerp, and helulled the suspicion of the jealous turnkey by holding outto him the flattering prospect³ of his designing to marryRosa.

　　Besides thus offering a bait to the ambition of the father,he managed, at the same time, to interest his zeal⁴ as ajailer, picturing to him in the blackest colours the learnedprisoner whom Gryphus had in his keeping, and who, as thesham Jacob had it, was in league with Satan, to thedetriment of his Highness the Prince of Orange.

　　At first he had also made some way with Rosa; not, indeed,in her affections, but inasmuch as, by talking to her ofmarriage and of love, he had evaded⁵ all the suspicions whichhe might otherwise have excited.

　　We have seen how his imprudence in following Rosa into thegarden had unmasked him in the eyes of the young damsel, andhow the instinctive⁶ fears of Cornelius had put the twolovers on their guard against him.

　　The reader will remember that the first cause of uneasinesswas given to the prisoner by the rage of Jacob when Gryphuscrushed the first bulb. In that moment Boxtel's exasperationwas the more fierce, as, though suspecting that Corneliuspossessed a second bulb, he by no means felt sure of it.

　　From that moment he began to dodge⁸ the steps of Rosa, notonly following her to the garden, but also to the lobbies.

　　Only as this time he followed her in the night, andbare-footed, he was neither seen nor heard except once, whenRosa thought she saw something like a shadow on thestaircase.

　　Her discovery, however, was made too late, as Boxtel hadheard from the mouth of the prisoner himself that a secondbulb existed.

　　Taken in by the stratagem⁹ of Rosa, who had feigned¹⁰ to put itin the ground, and entertaining no doubt that this littlefarce had been played in order to force him to betrayhimself, he redoubled his precaution, and employed everymeans suggested by his crafty¹¹ nature to watch the otherswithout being watched himself.

　　He saw Rosa conveying a large flower-pot of whiteearthenware from her father's kitchen to her bedroom. He sawRosa washing in pails of water her pretty little hands,begrimed as they were with the mould which she had handled,to give her tulip the best soil possible.

　　And at last he hired, just opposite Rosa's window, a littleattic, distant enough not to allow him to be recognized withthe naked eye, but sufficiently¹² near to enable him, with thehelp of his telescope, to watch everything that was going onat the Loewestein in Rosa's room, just as at Dort he hadwatched the dry-room of Cornelius.

　　He had not been installed more than three days in his atticbefore all his doubts were removed.

　　From morning to sunset the flower-pot was in the window,and, like those charming female figures of Mieris andMetzys, Rosa appeared at that window as in a frame, formedby the first budding sprays of the wild vine and thehoneysuckle encircling her window.

　　Rosa watched the flower-pot with an interest which betrayedto Boxtel the real value of the object enclosed in it.

　　This object could not be anything else but the second bulb,that is to say, the quintessence of all the hopes of theprisoner.

　　When the nights threatened to be too cold, Rosa took in theflower-pot.

　　Well, it was then quite evident she was following theinstructions of Cornelius, who was afraid of the bulb beingkilled by frost.

　　When the sun became too hot, Rosa likewise took in the potfrom eleven in the morning until two in the afternoon.

　　Another proof: Cornelius was afraid lest the soil shouldbecome too dry.

　　But when the first leaves peeped out of the earth Boxtel wasfully convinced; and his telescope left him no longer in anyuncertainty before they had grown one inch in height.

　　Cornelius possessed⁷ two bulbs, and the second was intrustedto the love and care of Rosa.

　　For it may well be imagined that the tender secret of thetwo lovers had not escaped the prying¹⁴ curiosity of Boxtel.

　　The question, therefore, was how to wrest¹⁵ the second bulbfrom the care of Rosa.

　　Certainly this was no easy task.

　　Rosa watched over her tulip as a mother over her child, or adove over her eggs.

　　Rosa never left her room during the day, and, more thanthat, strange to say, she never left it in the evening.

　　For seven days Boxtel in vain watched Rosa; she was alwaysat her post.

　　This happened during those seven days which made Corneliusso unhappy, depriving him at the same time of all news ofRosa and of his tulip.

　　Would the coolness between Rosa and Cornelius last for ever?

　　This would have made the theft much more difficult thanMynheer Isaac had at first expected.

　　We say the theft, for Isaac had simply made up his mind tosteal the tulip; and as it grew in the most profoundsecrecy, and as, moreover, his word, being that of arenowned tulip-grower, would any day be taken against thatof an unknown girl without any knowledge of horticulture, oragainst that of a prisoner convicted of high treason, heconfidently hoped that, having once got possession of thebulb, he would be certain to obtain the prize; and then thetulip, instead of being called Tulipa nigra Barlaensis,would go down to posterity¹⁶ under the name of Tulipa nigraBoxtellensis or Boxtellea.

　　Mynheer Isaac had not yet quite decided¹⁷ which of these twonames he would give to the tulip, but, as both meant thesame thing, this was, after all, not the important point.

　　The point was to steal the tulip. But in order that Boxtelmight steal the tulip, it was necessary that Rosa shouldleave her room.

　　Great therefore was his joy when he saw the usual eveningmeetings of the lovers resumed.

　　He first of all took advantage of Rosa's absence to makehimself fully¹³ acquainted with all the peculiarities¹⁸ of thedoor of her chamber¹⁹. The lock was a double one and in goodorder, but Rosa always took the key with her.

　　Boxtel at first entertained an idea of stealing the key, butit soon occurred to him, not only that it would beexceedingly difficult to abstract it from her pocket, butalso that, when she perceived her loss, she would not leaveher room until the lock was changed, and then Boxtel's firsttheft would be useless.

　　He thought it, therefore, better to employ a differentexpedient. He collected as many keys as he could, and triedall of them during one of those delightful²⁰ hours which Rosaand Cornelius passed together at the grating of the cell.

　　Two of the keys entered the lock, and one of them turnedround once, but not the second time.

　　There was, therefore, only a little to be done to this key.

　　Boxtel covered it with a slight coat of wax, and when hethus renewed the experiment, the obstacle which preventedthe key from being turned a second time left its impressionon the wax.

　　It cost Boxtel two days more to bring his key to perfection,with the aid of a small file.

　　Rosa's door thus opened without noise and withoutdifficulty, and Boxtel found himself in her room alone withthe tulip.

　　The first guilty act of Boxtel had been to climb over a wallin order to dig up the tulip; the second, to introducehimself into the dry-room of Cornelius, through an openwindow; and the third, to enter Rosa's room by means of afalse key.

　　Thus envy urged Boxtel on with rapid steps in the career ofcrime.

　　Boxtel, as we have said, was alone with the tulip.

　　A common thief would have taken the pot under his arm, andcarried it off.

　　But Boxtel was not a common thief, and he reflected.

　　It was not yet certain, although very probable, that thetulip would flower black; if, therefore, he stole it now, henot only might be committing a useless crime, but also thetheft might be discovered in the time which must elapseuntil the flower should open.

　　He therefore -- as being in possession of the key, he mightenter Rosa's chamber whenever he liked -- thought it betterto wait and to take it either an hour before or afteropening, and to start on the instant to Haarlem, where thetulip would be before the judges of the committee before anyone else could put in a reclamation²¹.

　　Should any one then reclaim²² it, Boxtel would in his turncharge him or her with theft.

　　This was a deep-laid scheme, and quite worthy of its author.

　　Thus, every evening during that delightful hour which thetwo lovers passed together at the grated window, Boxtelentered Rosa's chamber to watch the progress which the blacktulip had made towards flowering.

　　On the evening at which we have arrived he was going toenter according to custom; but the two lovers, as we haveseen, only exchanged a few words before Cornelius sent Rosaback to watch over the tulip.

　　Seeing Rosa enter her room ten minutes after she had leftit, Boxtel guessed that the tulip had opened, or was aboutto open.

　　During that night, therefore, the great blow was to bestruck. Boxtel presented himself before Gryphus with adouble supply of Genievre, that is to say, with a bottle ineach pocket.

　　Gryphus being once fuddled, Boxtel was very nearly master ofthe house.

　　At eleven o'clock Gryphus was dead drunk. At two in themorning Boxtel saw Rosa leaving the chamber; but evidentlyshe held in her arms something which she carried with greatcare.

　　He did not doubt that this was the black tulip which was inflower.

　　But what was she going to do with it? Would she set out thatinstant to Haarlem with it?

　　It was not possible that a young girl should undertake sucha journey alone during the night.

　　Was she only going to show the tulip to Cornelius? This wasmore likely.

　　He followed Rosa in his stocking feet, walking on tiptoe.

　　He saw her approach the grated window. He heard her callingCornelius. By the light of the dark lantern he saw the tulipopen, and black as the night in which he was hidden.

　　He heard the plan concerted between Cornelius and Rosa tosend a messenger to Haarlem. He saw the lips of the loversmeet, and then heard Cornelius send Rosa away.

　　He saw Rosa extinguish the light and return to her chamber.

　　Ten minutes after, he saw her leave the room again, and lockit twice.

　　Boxtel, who saw all this whilst hiding himself on thelanding-place of the staircase above, descended²³ step by stepfrom his story as Rosa descended from hers; so that, whenshe touched with her light foot the lowest step of thestaircase, Boxtel touched with a still lighter²⁴ hand the lockof Rosa's chamber.

　　And in that hand, it must be understood, he held the falsekey which opened Rosa's door as easily as did the real one.

　　And this is why, in the beginning of the chapter, we saidthat the poor young people were in great need of theprotection of God.

1 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

2 distilled   

adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华

参考例句：

• The televised interview was distilled from 16 hours of film. 那次电视采访是从16个小时的影片中选出的精华。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gasoline is distilled from crude oil. 汽油是从原油中提炼出来的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

4 zeal   

n.热心，热情，热忱

参考例句：

• Revolutionary zeal caught them up,and they joined the army.革命热情激励他们，于是他们从军了。
• They worked with great zeal to finish the project.他们热情高涨地工作，以期完成这个项目。

5 evaded   

逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出

参考例句：

• For two weeks they evaded the press. 他们有两周一直避而不见记者。
• The lion evaded the hunter. 那狮子躲开了猎人。

6 instinctive   

adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的

参考例句：

• He tried to conceal his instinctive revulsion at the idea.他试图饰盖自己对这一想法本能的厌恶。
• Animals have an instinctive fear of fire.动物本能地怕火。

7 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

8 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

9 stratagem   

n.诡计，计谋

参考例句：

• Knit the brows and a stratagem comes to mind.眉头一皱，计上心来。
• Trade discounts may be used as a competitive stratagem to secure customer loyalty.商业折扣可以用作维护顾客忠诚度的一种竞争策略。

10 feigned   

a.假装的，不真诚的

参考例句：

• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work. 他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。
• He accepted the invitation with feigned enthusiasm. 他假装热情地接受了邀请。

11 crafty   

adj.狡猾的，诡诈的

参考例句：

• He admired the old man for his crafty plan.他敬佩老者的神机妙算。
• He was an accomplished politician and a crafty autocrat.他是个有造诣的政治家，也是个狡黠的独裁者。

12 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

13 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

14 prying   

adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开

参考例句：

• I'm sick of you prying into my personal life! 我讨厌你刺探我的私生活！
• She is always prying into other people's affairs. 她总是打听别人的私事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 wrest   

n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲

参考例句：

• The officer managed to wrest the gun from his grasp.警官最终把枪从他手中夺走了。
• You wrest my words out of their real meaning.你曲解了我话里的真正含义。

16 posterity   

n.后裔，子孙，后代

参考例句：

• Few of his works will go down to posterity.他的作品没有几件会流传到后世。
• The names of those who died are recorded for posterity on a tablet at the back of the church.死者姓名都刻在教堂后面的一块石匾上以便后人铭记。

17 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

18 peculiarities   

n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪

参考例句：

• the cultural peculiarities of the English 英国人的文化特点
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another. 他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

19 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

20 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

21 reclamation   

n.开垦；改造；（废料等的）回收

参考例句：

• We should encourage reclamation and recycling.我们应当鼓励废物的回收和利用。
• The area is needed for a land reclamation project.一个土地开垦项目要在这一地区进行。

22 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

23 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

24 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。