or of
his cell, muttering,--

"Stolen! it has been stolen from me!"

During this time Boxtel had left the fortress by the door which Rosa
herself had opened. He carried the black tulip wrapped up in a cloak,
and, throwing himself into a coach, which was waiting for him at Gorcum,
he drove off, without, as may well be imagined, having informed his
friend Gryphus of his sudden departure.

And now, as we have seen him enter his coach, we shall with the consent
of the reader, follow him to the end of his journey.

He proceeded but slowly, as the black tulip could not bear travelling
post-haste.

But Boxtel, fearing that he might not arrive early enough, procured at
Delft a box, lined all round with fresh moss, in which he packed the
tulip. The flower was so lightly pressed upon all sides, with a supply
of air from above, that the coach could now travel full speed without
any possibility of injury to the tulip.

He arrived next morning at Haarlem, fatigued but triumphant; and, to
do away with every trace of the theft, he transplanted the tulip, and,
breaking the original flower-pot, threw the pieces into the canal. After
which he wrote the President of the Horticultural Society a letter, in
which he announced to him that he had just arrived at Haarlem with
a perfectly black tulip; and, with his flower all safe, took up his
quarters at a good hotel in the town, and there he waited.

Chapter 25. The President van Systens

Rosa, on leaving Cornelius, had fixed on her plan, which was no other
than to restore to Cornelius the stolen tulip, or never to see him
again.

She had seen the despair of the prisoner, and she knew that it was
derived from a double source, and that it was incurable.

On the one hand, separation became inevitable,--Gryphus having at
the same time surprised the secret of their love and of their secret
meetings.

On the other hand, all the hopes on the fulfilment of which Cornelius
van Baerle had rested his ambition for the last seven years were now
crushed.

Rosa was one of those women who are dejected by trifles, but who in
great emergencies are supplied by the misfortune itself with the energy
for combating or with the resources for remedying it.

She went to her room, and cast a last glance about her to see whether
she had not been mistaken, and whether the tulip was not stowed away in
some corner where it had escaped her notice. But she sought in vain, the
tulip was still missing