involuntary movement; and lastly he saw the officer who was
taking care of Rosa lead, or rather push her forward towards
him.
At the sight of Rosa, a double cry arose on the right and
left 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 beauty
excited a general murmur of applause.
“Oh!” muttered Cornelius, “she has then belied me, when she
said this flower was stolen from her. Oh! that’s why she
left Loewestein. Alas! am I then forgotten, betrayed by her
whom I thought my best friend on earth?”
“Oh!” sighed Boxtel, “I am lost.”
“This tulip,” continued the Prince, “will therefore bear the
name of its producer, and figure in the catalogue under the
title, Tulipa nigra Rosa Barlaensis, because of the name Van
Baerle, which will henceforth be the name of this damsel.”
And at the same time William took Rosa’s hand, and placed it
in that of a young man, who rushed forth, pale and beyond
himself with joy, to the foot of the throne saluting
alternately the Prince and his bride; and who with a
grateful look to heaven, returned his thanks to the Giver of
all this happiness.
At the same moment there fell at the feet of the President
van Systens another man, struck down by a very different
emotion.
Boxtel, crushed by the failure of his hopes, lay senseless
on 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 neither
the Prince nor the President seemed to mind it much.
Cornelius started back in dismay, when in the thief, in the
pretended Jacob, he recognised his neighbour, Isaac Boxtel,
whom, in the innocence of his heart, he had not for one
instant suspected of such a wicked action.
Then, to the sound of trumpets, the procession marched back
without any change in its order, except that Boxtel was now
dead, and that Cornelius and Rosa were walking triumphantly
side by side and hand in hand.
On their arriving at the Hotel de Ville, the Prince,
Page 179
Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip
pointing with his finger to the purse with the hundred
thousand guilders, said to Cornelius, —
“It is difficult to say by whom this money is gained, by you
or by Rosa; for if you have found the black tulip, she has
nursed it and brought it into flower. It would therefore be
unjust to consider it as her dowry; it is the gift of the
town of Haarlem to the tulip.”
Cornelius wondered what the Prince was driving at. The
latter 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 her
honesty. As to you, Sir — thanks to Rosa again, who has
furnished the proofs of your innocence —- ”
And, saying these words, the Prince handed to Cornelius that
fly-leaf of the Bible on which was written the letter of
Cornelius de Witt, and in which the third bulb had been
wrapped, —
“As to you, it has come to light that you were imprisoned
for a crime which you had not committed. This means, that
you are not only free, but that your property will be
restored to you; as the property of an innocent man cannot
be confiscated. Cornelius van Baerle, you are the godson of
Cornelius de Witt and the friend of his brother John. Remain
worthy of the name you have received from one of them, and
of the friendship you have enjoyed with the other. The two
De Witts, wrongly judged and wrongly punished in a moment of
popular error, were two great citizens, of whom Holland is
now proud.”
The Prince, after these last words, which contrary to his
custom, he pronounced with a voice full of emotion, gave his
hands to the lovers to kiss, whilst they were kneeling
before him.
Then heaving a sigh, he said, —