CHAPTER XIV.
The Pigeons Of Dort.
It was, indeed, in itself a great honour for Cornelius Van Baerle to be confined in the same prison which had once received the learned master Grotius.
But, on arriving at the prison, he met with an honour even greater. As chance would have it, the cell formerly inhabited by the illustrious Barneveldte happened to be vacant, when the clemency of the Prince of Orange sent the tulip-fancier Van Baerle there.
The cell had a very bad character at the castle, since the time when Grotius, by means of the device of his wife, made escape from thence in that famous book-chest, which the jailors forgot to examine.
On the other hand, it seemed to Van Baerle an auspicious omen that this very cell was assigned to him; for, according to his ideas, a jailor ought never to have given to a second pigeon the cage from which the first had so easily flown.
The cell has an historical character. We will only state here that, with the exception of an alcove, which was contrived there for the use of Madame Grotius, it differed in no respect from the other cells of the prison; only, perhaps, it was a little higher, and had a splendid view from the grated window.
Cornelius himself felt perfectly indifferent as to the place where he had to lead an existence which was little more than vegetation. There were only two things now for which he cared, and the possession of which was a happiness enjoyed only in imagination.
