Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

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,

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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, —