Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

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 —