The Black Tulip - Alexandre Dumas (comprehension books .TXT) 📗

towards heaven.”

“Ah, you accursed sorcerer! you are making game of me, I believe,” roared Gryphus.

Cornelius continued:

“For heaven is our home,
Our true home, as from thence comes our soul,
As thither our soul returns⁠—
Our soul, that is to say, our perfume.”

Gryphus went up to the prisoner and said⁠—

“But you don’t see that I have taken means to get you under, and to force you to confess your crimes.”

“Are you mad, my dear Master Gryphus?” asked Cornelius.

And, as he now for the first time observed the frenzied features, the flashing eyes, and foaming mouth of the old jailer, he said⁠—

“Bless the man, he is more than mad, he is furious.”

Gryphus flourished his stick above his head, but Van Baerle moved not, and remained standing with his arms akimbo.

“It seems your intention to threaten me, Master Gryphus.”

“Yes, indeed, I threaten you,” cried the jailer.

“And with what?”

“First of all, look at what I have in my hand.”

“I think that’s a stick,” said Cornelius calmly, “but I don’t suppose you will threaten me with that.”

“Oh, you don’t suppose! why not?”

“Because any jailer who strikes a prisoner is liable to two penalties⁠—the first laid down in Article 9 of the regulations at Loewestein:

“ ‘Any jailer, inspector, or turnkey who lays hands upon any prisoner of State will be dismissed.’ ”

“Yes, who lays hands,” said Gryphus, mad with rage, “but there is not a word about a stick in the regulation.”

“And the second,” continued Cornelius, “which is not written in the regulation, but which is to be found elsewhere:

“ ‘Whosoever takes up the stick will be thrashed by the stick.’ ”

Gryphus, growing more and more exasperated by the calm and sententious tone of Cornelius, brandished his cudgel, but at the moment when he raised it Cornelius rushed at him, snatched it from his hands, and put it under his own arm.

Gryphus fairly bellowed with rage.

“Hush, hush, my good man,” said Cornelius, “don’t do anything to lose your place.”

“Ah, you sorcerer! I’ll pinch you worse,” roared Gryphus.

“I wish you may.”

“Don’t you see my hand is empty?”

“Yes, I see it, and I am glad of it.”

“You know that it is not generally so when I come upstairs in the morning.”

“It’s true, you generally bring me the worst soup, and the most miserable rations one can imagine. But that’s not a punishment to me; I eat only bread, and the worse the bread is to your taste, the better it is to mine.”

“How so?”

“Oh, it’s a very simple thing.”

“Well, tell it me,” said Gryphus.

“Very willingly. I know that in giving me bad bread you think you do me harm.”

“Certainly; I don’t give it you to please you, you brigand.”

“Well, then, I, who am a sorcerer, as you know, change your bad into excellent bread, which I relish more than the best cake; and then I have the double pleasure of eating something that gratifies my palate, and of doing something that puts you in a rage.”

Gryphus answered with a growl.

“Oh! you confess, then, that you are a sorcerer.”

“Indeed, I am one. I don’t say it before all the world, because they might burn me for it, but as we are alone, I don’t mind telling you.”

“Well, well, well,” answered Gryphus. “But if a sorcerer can change black bread into white, won’t he die of hunger if he has no bread at all?”

“What’s that?” said Cornelius.

“Consequently, I shall not bring you any bread at all, and we shall see how it will be after eight days.”

Cornelius grew pale.

“And,” continued Gryphus, “we’ll begin this very day. As you are such a clever sorcerer, why, you had better change the furniture of your room into bread; as to myself, I shall pocket the eighteen sous which are paid to me for your board.”

“But that’s murder,” cried Cornelius, carried away by the first impulse of the very natural terror with which this horrible mode of death inspired him.

“Well,” Gryphus went on, in his jeering way, “as you are a sorcerer, you will live, notwithstanding.”

Cornelius put on a smiling face again, and said⁠—

“Have you not seen me make the pigeons come here from Dort?”

“Well?” said Gryphus.

“Well, a pigeon is a very dainty morsel, and a man who eats one every day would not starve, I think.”

“And how about the fire?” said Gryphus.

“Fire! but you know that I’m in league with the devil. Do you think the devil will leave me without fire? Why, fire is his proper element.”

“A man, however healthy his appetite may be, would not eat a pigeon every day. Wagers have been laid to do so, and those who made them gave them up.”

“Well, but when I am tired of pigeons, I shall make the fish of the Waal and of the Meuse come up to me.”

Gryphus opened his large eyes, quite bewildered.

“I am rather fond of fish,” continued Cornelius; “you never let me have any. Well, I shall turn your starving me to advantage, and regale myself with fish.”

Gryphus nearly fainted with anger and with fright, but he soon rallied, and said, putting his hand in his pocket⁠—

“Well, as you force me to it,” and with these words he drew forth a clasp-knife and opened it.

“Halloa! a knife?” said Cornelius, preparing to defend himself with his stick.

XXIX In Which Van Baerle, Before Leaving Loewestein, Settles Accounts with Gryphus

The two remained silent for some minutes, Gryphus on the offensive, and Van Baerle on the defensive.

Then, as the situation might be prolonged to an indefinite length, Cornelius, anxious to know something more of the causes which had so fiercely exasperated his jailer, spoke first by putting the question⁠—

“Well, what do you want, after all?”

“I’ll tell you what I want,” answered Gryphus; “I want you to restore to me my daughter Rosa.”

“Your daughter?” cried Van Baerle.

“Yes, my daughter Rosa, whom you have taken from me by your devilish magic. Now, will you tell me where she is?”

And the attitude of Gryphus became more and more threatening.

“Rosa is not at Loewestein?” cried Cornelius.

“You know well she is not. Once more, will