; the tulip was indeed stolen.

Rosa made up a little parcel of things indispensable for a journey; took
her three hundred guilders,--that is to say, all her fortune,--fetched
the third bulb from among her lace, where she had laid it up, and
carefully hid it in her bosom; after which she locked her door twice to
disguise her flight as long as possible, and, leaving the prison by
the same door which an hour before had let out Boxtel, she went to a
stable-keeper to hire a carriage.

The man had only a two-wheel chaise, and this was the vehicle which
Boxtel had hired since last evening, and in which he was now driving
along the road to Delft; for the road from Loewestein to Haarlem, owing
to the many canals, rivers, and rivulets intersecting the country, is
exceedingly circuitous.

Not being able to procure a vehicle, Rosa was obliged to take a horse,
with which the stable-keeper readily intrusted her, knowing her to be
the daughter of the jailer of the fortress.

Rosa hoped to overtake her messenger, a kind-hearted and honest lad,
whom she would take with her, and who might at the same time serve her
as a guide and a protector.

And in fact she had not proceeded more than a league before she saw
him hastening along one of the side paths of a very pretty road by the
river. Setting her horse off at a canter, she soon came up with him.

The honest lad was not aware of the important character of his message;
nevertheless, he used as much speed as if he had known it; and in less
than an hour he had already gone a league and a half.

Rosa took from him the note, which had now become useless, and explained
to him what she wanted him to do for her. The boatman placed himself
entirely at her disposal, promising to keep pace with the horse if Rosa
would allow him to take hold of either the croup or the bridle of her
horse. The two travellers had been on their way for five hours, and made
more than eight leagues, and yet Gryphus had not the least suspicion of
his daughter having left the fortress.

The jailer, who was of a very spiteful and cruel disposition, chuckled
within himself at the idea of having struck such terror into his
daughter's heart.

But whilst he was congratulating himself on having such a nice story to
tell to his boon companion, Jacob, that worthy was on his road to Delft;
and, thanks to the swiftness of the horse, had already the start of Rosa
and her companion by four leagues.

And whilst the affect