The Black Tulip

On the 20th of August, 1672, the city of the Hague, always so lively, so neat, and so trim that one might believe every day to be Sunday, with its shady park, with its tall trees, ...

As the fair Rosa, with foreboding doubt, had foretold, so it happened. Whilst John de Witt was climbing the narrow winding stairs which led to the prison of his brother Cornelius, ...

Whilst the clamour of the crowd in the square of Buytenhof, which grew more and more menacing against the two brothers, determined John de Witt to hasten the departure of his broth...

The young man with his hat slouched over his eyes, still leaning on the arm of the officer, and still wiping from time to time his brow with his handkerchief, was watching in a cor...

Whilst the burghers of the Hague were tearing in pieces the bodies of John and Cornelius de Witt, and whilst William of Orange, after having made sure that his two antagonists were...

From that moment Boxtel’s interest in tulips was no longer a stimulus to his exertions, but a deadening anxiety. Henceforth all his thoughts ran only upon the injury which his neig...

Cornelius de Witt, after having attended to his family affairs, reached the house of his godson, Cornelius van Baerle, one evening in the month of January, 1672. De Witt, although...

The incident just related was, as the reader has guessed before this, the diabolical work of Mynheer Isaac Boxtel. It will be remembered that, with the help of his telescope, not ...

It was about midnight when poor Van Baerle was locked up in the prison of the Buytenhof. What Rosa foresaw had come to pass. On finding the cell of Cornelius de Witt empty, the wr...

On the same evening Gryphus, as he brought the prisoner his mess, slipped on the damp flags whilst opening the door of the cell, and fell, in the attempt to steady himself, on his ...

Rosa had not been mistaken; the judges came on the following day to the Buytenhof, and proceeded with the trial of Cornelius van Baerle. The examination, however, did not last long...

Cornelius had not three hundred paces to walk outside the prison to reach the foot of the scaffold. At the bottom of the staircase, the dog quietly looked at him whilst he was pass...

Spectators Whilst Cornelius was engaged with his own thoughts, a coach had driven up to the scaffold. This vehicle was for the prisoner. He was invited to enter it, and he obeyed....

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...

Gryphus was followed by the mastiff. The turnkey took the animal round the jail, so that, if needs be, he might recognize the prisoners. “Father,” said Rosa, “here is the famous ...

The worthy Master Gryphus, as the reader may have seen, was far from sharing the kindly feeling of his daughter for the godson of Cornelius de Witt. There being only five prisoner...

On the following evening, as we have said, Rosa returned with the Bible of Cornelius de Witt. Then began between the master and the pupil one of those charming scenes which are th...

Rosa had scarcely pronounced these consolatory words when a voice was heard from the staircase asking Gryphus how matters were going on. “Do you hear, father?” said Rosa. “What?”...

But poor Rosa, in her secluded chamber, could not have known of whom or of what Cornelius was dreaming. From what he had said she was more ready to believe that he dreamed of the ...

On the following evening, at the usual hour, Van Baerle heard some one scratch at the grated little window, just as Rosa had been in the habit of doing in the heyday of their frien...

The night was a happy one, and the whole of the next day happier still. During the last few days, the prison had been heavy, dark, and lowering, as it were, with all its weight on...

The night passed away very sweetly for Cornelius, although in great agitation. Every instant he fancied he heard the gentle voice of Rosa calling him. He then started up, went to t...

And in fact the poor young people were in great need of protection. They had never been so near the destruction of their hopes as at this moment, when they thought themselves cert...

Cornelius remained standing on the spot where Rosa had left him. He was quite overpowered with the weight of his twofold happiness. Half an hour passed away. Already did the first...

Rosa, on leaving Cornelius, had fixed on her plan, which was no other than to restore to Cornelius the stolen tulip, or never to see him again. She had seen the despair of the pri...

Rosa, beyond herself and nearly mad with joy and fear at the idea of the black tulip being found again, started for the White Swan, followed by the boatman, a stout lad from Frisia...

Boxtel’s return was scarcely announced, when he entered in person the drawing-room of Mynheer van Systens, followed by two men, who carried in a box their precious burden and depos...

Whilst the events we have described in our last chapter were taking place, the unfortunate Van Baerle, forgotten in his cell in the fortress of Loewestein, suffered at the hands of...

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 indefin...

that was awaiting Van Baerle The carriage rolled on during the whole day; it passed on the right of Dort, went through Rotterdam, and reached Delft. At five o’clock in the evening...

Haarlem, whither, three days ago, we conducted our gentle reader, and whither we request him to follow us once more in the footsteps of the prisoner, is a pleasant city, which just...

At this solemn moment, and whilst the cheers still resounded, a carriage was driving along the road on the outskirts of the green on which the scene occurred; it pursued its way sl...

Van Baerle, led by four guards, who pushed their way through the crowd, sidled up to the black tulip, towards which his gaze was attracted with increasing interest the nearer he ap...