what occasions."

"Troth," she said, laughing, "to read all the letters which were written
to 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 the
Buytenhof, all the officers who went to parade, all the clerks, and even
the 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, which
was capital fun, but since a certain time--well, what use is it to
attend to all this nonsense?--since a certain time I have burnt them."

"Since a certain time!" exclaimed Cornelius, with a look beaming with
love and joy.

Rosa cast down her eyes, blushing. In her sweet confusion, she did
not observe the lips of Cornelius, which, alas! only met the cold
wire-grating. Yet, in spite of this obstacle, they communicated to the
lips of the young girl the glowing breath of the most tender kiss.

At this sudden outburst of tenderness, Rosa grew very pale,--perhaps
paler than she had been on the day of the execution. She uttered a
plaintive sob, closed her fine eyes, and fled, trying in vain to still
the beating of her heart.

And thus Cornelius was again alone.

Rosa had fled so precipitately, that she completely forgot to return to
Cornelius the three bulbs of the Black Tulip.

Chapter 16. Master and Pupil

The worthy Master Gryphus, as the reader may have seen, was far from
sharing the kindly feeling of his daughter for the godson of Cornelius
de Witt.

There being only five prisoners at Loewestein, the post of turnkey was
not a very onerous one, but rather a sort of sinecure, given after a
long period of service.

But the worthy jailer, in his zeal, had magnified with all the power
of his imagination the importance of his office. To him Cornelius had
swelled to the gigantic proportions of a criminal of the first order. He
looked upon him, therefore, as the most dangerous of all his prisoners.
He watched all his steps, and always spoke to him with an angry
countenance; punishing him for what he called his dreadful rebellion
against such a clement prince as the Stadtholder.

Three times a day he entered Van Baerle's cell, expecting to find
him trespassing; but Cornelius had ceased to correspond, since his
correspondent was at hand. It is even probable that, if Cornelius had
obtained his full liberty, with pe