La tulipe noire. English Page 4

  Chapter 4. The Murderers

  The young man with his hat slouched over his eyes, still leaning on thearm of the officer, and still wiping from time to time his brow with hishandkerchief, was watching in a corner of the Buytenhof, in the shadeof the overhanging weather-board of a closed shop, the doings of theinfuriated mob, a spectacle which seemed to draw near its catastrophe.

  "Indeed," said he to the officer, "indeed, I think you were right,Van Deken; the order which the deputies have signed is truly thedeath-warrant of Master Cornelius. Do you hear these people? Theycertainly bear a sad grudge to the two De Witts."

  "In truth," replied the officer, "I never heard such shouts."

  "They seem to have found out the cell of the man. Look, look! is notthat the window of the cell where Cornelius was locked up?"

  A man had seized with both hands and was shaking the iron bars of thewindow in the room which Cornelius had left only ten minutes before.

  "Halloa, halloa!" the man called out, "he is gone."

  "How is that? gone?" asked those of the mob who had not been able to getinto the prison, crowded as it was with the mass of intruders.

  "Gone, gone," repeated the man in a rage, "the bird has flown."

  "What does this man say?" asked his Highness, growing quite pale.

  "Oh, Monseigneur, he says a thing which would be very fortunate if itshould turn out true!"

  "Certainly it would be fortunate if it were true," said the young man;"unfortunately it cannot be true."

  "However, look!" said the officer.

  And indeed, some more faces, furious and contorted with rage, showedthemselves at the windows, crying,--

  "Escaped, gone, they have helped them off!"

  And the people in the street repeated, with fearful imprecations,--

  "Escaped gone! After them, and catch them!"

  "Monseigneur, it seems that Mynheer Cornelius has really escaped," saidthe officer.

  "Yes, from prison, perhaps, but not from the town; you will see, VanDeken, that the poor fellow will find the gate closed against him whichhe hoped to find open."

  "Has an order been given to close the town gates, Monseigneur?"

  "No,--at least I do not think so; who could have given such an order?"

  "Indeed, but what makes your Highness suppose?"

  "There are fatalities," Monseigneur replied, in an offhand manner; "andthe greatest men have sometimes fallen victims to such fatalities."

  At these words the officer felt his blood run cold, as somehow or otherhe was convinced that the prisoner was lost.

  At this moment the roar of the multitude broke forth like thunder, forit was now quite certain that Cornelius de Witt was no longer in theprison.