Van Baerle, led by four guards, who pushed their way throughthe crowd, sidled up to the black tulip, towards which hisgaze was attracted with increasing interest the nearer heapproached to it.
He saw it at last, that unique flower, which he was to seeonce and no more. He saw it at the distance of six paces,and was delighted with its perfection and gracefulness; hesaw it surrounded by young and beautiful girls, who formed,as it were, a guard of honour for this queen of excellenceand purity. And yet, the more he ascertained with his owneyes the perfection of the flower, the more wretched andmiserable he felt. He looked all around for some one to whomhe might address only one question, but his eyes everywheremet strange faces, and the attention of all was directedtowards the chair of state, on which the Stadtholder hadseated himself.
William rose, casting a tranquil glance over theenthusiastic crowd, and his keen eyes rested by turns on thethree extremities of a triangle formed opposite to him bythree persons of very different interests and feelings.
At one of the angles, Boxtel, trembling with impatience, andquite absorbed in watching the Prince, the guilders, theblack tulip, and the crowd.
At the other, Cornelius, panting for breath, silent, and hisattention, his eyes, his life, his heart, his love, quiteconcentrated on the black tulip.
And thirdly, standing on a raised step among the maidens ofHaarlem, a beautiful Frisian girl, dressed in fine scarletwoollen cloth, embroidered with silver, and covered with alace veil, which fell in rich folds from her head-dress ofgold brocade; in one word, Rosa, who, faint and withswimming eyes, was leaning on the arm of one of the officersof William.
The Prince then slowly unfolded the parchment, and said,with a calm clear voice, which, although low, made itselfperfectly heard amidst the respectful silence, which all atonce arrested the breath of fifty thousand spectators. --"You know what has brought us here
A prize of one hundred thousand guilders has been promisedto whosoever should grow the black tulip.
The black tulip has been grown; here it is before youreyes, coming up to all the conditions required by theprogramme of the Horticultural Society of Haarlem.
The history of its production, and the name of its grower,will be inscribed in the book of honour of the city.
Let the person approach to whom the black tulip belongs."In pronouncing these words, the Prince, to judge of theeffect they produced, surveyed with his eagle eye the threeextremities of the triangle.
He saw Boxtel rushing forward. He saw Cornelius make aninvoluntary movement; and lastly he saw the officer who wastaking care of Rosa lead, or rather push her forward towardshim.
At the sight of Rosa, a double cry arose on the right andleft of the Prince.
Boxtel, thunderstruck, and Cornelius, in joyful amazement,both exclaimed, --"Rosa! Rosa!""This tulip is yours, is it not, my child?" said the Prince.
Yes, Monseigneur," stammered Rosa, whose striking beautyexcited a general murmur of applause.
Oh!" muttered Cornelius, "she has then belied me, when shesaid this flower was stolen from her. Oh! that's why sheleft Loewestein. Alas! am I then forgotten, betrayed by herwhom I thought my best friend on earth?""Oh!" sighed Boxtel, "I am lost.""This tulip," continued the Prince, "will therefore bear thename of its producer, and figure in the catalogue under thetitle, Tulipa nigra Rosa Barlaensis, because of the name VanBaerle, which will henceforth be the name of this damsel."And at the same time William took Rosa's hand, and placed itin that of a young man, who rushed forth, pale and beyondhimself with joy, to the foot of the throne salutingalternately the Prince and his bride; and who with agrateful look to heaven, returned his thanks to the Giver ofall this happiness.
At the same moment there fell at the feet of the Presidentvan Systens another man, struck down by a very differentemotion.
Boxtel, crushed by the failure of his hopes, lay senselesson the ground.
When they raised him, and examined his pulse and his heart,he was quite dead.
This incident did not much disturb the festival, as neitherthe Prince nor the President seemed to mind it much.
Cornelius started back in dismay, when in the thief, in thepretended Jacob, he recognised his neighbour, Isaac Boxtel,whom, in the innocence of his heart, he had not for oneinstant suspected of such a wicked action.
Then, to the sound of trumpets, the procession marched backwithout any change in its order, except that Boxtel was nowdead, and that Cornelius and Rosa were walking triumphantlyside by side and hand in hand.
On their arriving at the Hotel de Ville, the Prince,pointing with his finger to the purse with the hundredthousand guilders, said to Cornelius, --"It is difficult to say by whom this money is gained, by youor by Rosa; for if you have found the black tulip, she hasnursed it and brought it into flower. It would therefore beunjust to consider it as her dowry; it is the gift of thetown of Haarlem to the tulip."Cornelius wondered what the Prince was driving at. Thelatter continued, --"I give to Rosa the sum of a hundred thousand guilders,which she has fairly earned, and which she can offer to you.
They are the reward of her love, her courage, and herhonesty. As to you, Sir -- thanks to Rosa again, who hasfurnished the proofs of your innocence ---- "And, saying these words, the Prince handed to Cornelius thatfly-leaf of the Bible on which was written the letter ofCornelius de Witt, and in which the third bulb had beenwrapped, --"As to you, it has come to light that you were imprisonedfor a crime which you had not committed. This means, thatyou are not only free, but that your property will berestored to you; as the property of an innocent man cannotbe confiscated. Cornelius van Baerle, you are the godson ofCornelius de Witt and the friend of his brother John. Remainworthy of the name you have received from one of them, andof the friendship you have enjoyed with the other. The twoDe Witts, wrongly judged and wrongly punished in a moment ofpopular error, were two great citizens, of whom Holland isnow proud."The Prince, after these last words, which contrary to hiscustom, he pronounced with a voice full of emotion, gave hishands to the lovers to kiss, whilst they were kneelingbefore him.
Then heaving a sigh, he said, --"Alas! you are very happy, who, dreaming only of whatperhaps is the true glory of Holland, and forms especiallyher true happiness, do not attempt to acquire for heranything beyond new colours of tulips."And, casting a glance towards that point of the compasswhere France lay, as if he saw new clouds gathering there,he entered his carriage and drove off.
Cornelius started on the same day for Dort with Rosa, whosent her lover's old housekeeper as a messenger to herfather, to apprise him of all that had taken place.
Those who, thanks to our description, have learned thecharacter of old Gryphus, will comprehend that it was hardfor him to become reconciled to his son-in-law. He had notyet forgotten the blows which he had received in that famousencounter. To judge from the weals which he counted, theirnumber, he said, amounted to forty-one; but at last, inorder, as he declared, not to be less generous than hisHighness the Stadtholder, he consented to make his peace.
Appointed to watch over the tulips, the old man made therudest keeper of flowers in the whole of the SevenProvinces.
It was indeed a sight to see him watching the obnoxiousmoths and butterflies, killing slugs, and driving away thehungry bees.
As he had heard Boxtel's story, and was furious at havingbeen the dupe of the pretended Jacob, he destroyed thesycamore behind which the envious Isaac had spied into thegarden; for the plot of ground belonging to him had beenbought by Cornelius, and taken into his own garden.
Rosa, growing not only in beauty, but in wisdom also, aftertwo years of her married life, could read and write so wellthat she was able to undertake by herself the education oftwo beautiful children which she had borne in 1674 and 1675,both in May, the month of flowers.
As a matter of course, one was a boy, the other a girl, theformer being called Cornelius, the other Rosa.
Van Baerle remained faithfully attached to Rosa and to histulips. The whole of his life was devoted to the happinessof his wife and the culture of flowers, in the latter ofwhich occupations he was so successful that a great numberof his varieties found a place in the catalogue of Holland.
The two principal ornaments of his drawing-room were thosetwo leaves from the Bible of Cornelius de Witt, in largegolden frames; one of them containing the letter in whichhis godfather enjoined him to burn the correspondence of theMarquis de Louvois, and the other his own will, in which hebequeathed to Rosa his bulbs under condition that she shouldmarry a young man of from twenty-six to twenty-eight years,who loved her and whom she loved, a condition which wasscrupulously fulfilled, although, or rather because,Cornelius did not die.
And to ward off any envious attempts of another IsaacBoxtel, he wrote over his door the lines which Grotius had,on the day of his flight, scratched on the walls of hisprison: --"Sometimes one has suffered so much that he has the rightnever to be able to say, 'I am too happy.