the footsteps of the prisoner, is a pleasant city, which
justly prides itself on being one of the most shady in all
the Netherlands.
While other towns boast of the magnificence of their
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arsenals and dock-yards, and the splendour of their shops
and markets, Haarlem’s claims to fame rest upon her
superiority to all other provincial cities in the number and
beauty of her spreading elms, graceful poplars, and, more
than all, upon her pleasant walks, shaded by the lovely
arches of magnificent oaks, lindens, and chestnuts.
Haarlem, — just as her neighbour, Leyden, became the centre
of science, and her queen, Amsterdam, that of commerce, —
Haarlem preferred to be the agricultural, or, more strictly
speaking, the horticultural metropolis.
In fact, girt about as she was, breezy and exposed to the
sun’s hot rays, she seemed to offer to gardeners so many
more guarantees of success than other places, with their
heavy sea air, and their scorching heat.
On this account all the serene souls who loved the earth and
its fruits had gradually gathered together at Haarlem, just
as all the nervous, uneasy spirits, whose ambition was for
travel and commerce, had settled in Rotterdam and Amsterdam,
and all the politicians and selfish worldlings at the Hague.
We have observed that Leyden overflowed with scholars. In
like manner Haarlem was devoted to the gentle pursuits of
peace, — to music and painting, orchards and avenues,
groves and parks. Haarlem went wild about flowers, and
tulips received their full share of worship.
Haarlem offered prizes for tulip-growing; and this fact
brings us in the most natural manner to that celebration
which the city intended to hold on May 15th, 1673 in honour
of the great black tulip, immaculate and perfect, which
should gain for its discoverer one hundred thousand
guilders!
Haarlem, having placed on exhibition its favourite, having
advertised its love of flowers in general and of tulips in
particular, at a period when the souls of men were filled
with war and sedition, — Haarlem, having enjoyed the
exquisite pleasure of admiring the very purest ideal of
tulips in full bloom, — Haarlem, this tiny town, full of
trees and of sunshine, of light and shade, had determined
that the ceremony of bestowing the prize should be a fete
which should live for ever in the memory of men.
So much the more reason was there, too, in her
determination, in that Holland is the home of fetes; never
did sluggish natures manifest more eager energy of the
singing and dancing sort than those of the good republicans
of the Seven Provinces when amusement was the order of the
day.
Study the pictures of the two Teniers.
It is certain that sluggish folk are of all men the most
earnest in tiring themselves, not when they are at work, but
at play.
Thus Haarlem was thrice given over to rejoicing, for a
three-fold celebration was to take place.
In the first place, the black tulip had been produced;
secondly, the Prince William of Orange, as a true Hollander,
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had promised to be present at the ceremony of its
inauguration; and, thirdly, it was a point of honour with
the States to show to the French, at the conclusion of such
a disastrous war as that of 1672, that the flooring of the
Batavian Republic was solid enough for its people to dance
on it, with the accompaniment of the cannon of their fleets.
The Horticultural Society of Haarlem had shown itself worthy
of its fame by giving a hundred thousand guilders for the
bulb of a tulip. The town, which did not wish to be outdone,
voted a like sum, which was placed in the hands of that
notable body to solemnise the auspicious event.
And indeed on the Sunday fixed for this ceremony there was
such a stir among the people, and such an enthusiasm among
the townsfolk, that even a Frenchman, who laughs at
everything at all times, could not have helped admiring the
character of those honest Hollanders, who were equally ready
to spend their money for the construction of a man-of-war —