Page:The black tulip (IA 10892334.2209.emory.edu).pdf/244

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240
The Black Tulip.

him as pleasant details, and exact explanations, concerning this third strange part of his adventures, as he had done concerning the two first.

The travellers passed the night in the carriage. On the following morning, at dawn, Cornelius found himself beyond Leyden, having the North Sea on his left, and the Zuyder Zee on his right.

Three hours after, he entered Haarlem.

Cornelius was not aware of what had passed at Haarlem, and we shall leave him in ignorance of it until the course of events enlighten him.

But the reader has a right to know all about it, even before our hero, and, therefore, we shall not make him wait.

We have seen that Rosa and the tulip, like two orphan sisters, had been left, by the Prince William of Orange, at the house of the President Van Herysen.

Rosa did not hear again from the Stadtholder until the evening of that day on which she had seen him face to face.

About evening, an officer called at Van Herysen’s house. He came from His Highness, with a request for Rosa to appear at the Town Hall.

There, in the large Council Room, into which she was ushered, she found the Prince writing.

He was alone, with a large Frisian greyhound at his feet, which looked at him with a steady glance, as if the faithful animal were wishing to do what no man could do—read the thoughts of his master in his face.

William continued his writing for a moment; then, raising his eyes, and seeing Rosa standing near the door, he said, without laying down his pen,—

“Come here, my child.”

Rosa advanced a few steps towards the table.

“Sit down,” he said.

Rosa obeyed, for the Prince was fixing his eyes upon her; but he had scarcely turned them again to his paper, when she bashfully retired to the door.

The Prince finished his letter.

During this time, the greyhound went up to Rosa,