Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

volley of maledictions and furious threats as to make it

indeed a matter of wonder that this venomous breath of envy

and hatred did not carry a blight on the innocent flowers

which had excited it.

When the evil spirit has once taken hold of the heart of

man, it urges him on, without letting him stop. Thus Boxtel

soon was no longer content with seeing Van Baerle. He wanted

to see his flowers, too; he had the feelings of an artist,

the master-piece of a rival engrossed his interest.

He therefore bought a telescope, which enabled him to watch

as accurately as did the owner himself every progressive

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Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

development of the flower, from the moment when, in the

first year, its pale seed-leaf begins to peep from the

ground, to that glorious one, when, after five years, its

petals at last reveal the hidden treasures of its chalice.

How often had the miserable, jealous man to observe in Van

Baerle’s beds tulips which dazzled him by their beauty, and

almost choked him by their perfection!

And then, after the first blush of the admiration which he

could not help feeling, he began to be tortured by the pangs

of envy, by that slow fever which creeps over the heart and

changes it into a nest of vipers, each devouring the other

and ever born anew. How often did Boxtel, in the midst of

tortures which no pen is able fully to describe, — how

often did he feel an inclination to jump down into the

garden during the night, to destroy the plants, to tear the

bulbs with his teeth, and to sacrifice to his wrath the

owner himself, if he should venture to stand up for the

defence of his tulips!

But to kill a tulip was a horrible crime in the eyes of a

genuine tulip-fancier; as to killing a man, it would not

have mattered so very much.

Yet Van Baerle made such progress in the noble science of

growing tulips, which he seemed to master with the true

instinct of genius, that Boxtel at last was maddened to such

a degree as to think of throwing stones and sticks into the

flower-stands of his neighbour. But, remembering that he

would be sure to be found out, and that he would not only be

punished by law, but also dishonoured for ever in the face

of all the tulip-growers of Europe, he had recourse to

stratagem, and, to gratify his hatred, tried to devise a

plan by means of which he might gain his ends without being

compromised himself.

He considered a long time, and at last his meditations were

crowned with success.

One evening he tied two cats together by their hind legs

with a string about six feet in length, and threw them from

the wall into the midst of that noble, that princely, that

royal bed, which contained not only the “Cornelius de Witt,”

but also the “Beauty of Brabant,” milk-white, edged with

purple and pink, the “Marble of Rotterdam,” colour of flax,

blossoms feathered red and flesh colour, the “Wonder of

Haarlem,” the “Colombin obscur,” and the “Columbin clair

terni.”

The frightened cats, having alighted on the ground, first

tried to fly each in a different direction, until the string

by which they were tied together was tightly stretched

across the bed; then, however, feeling that they were not

able to get off, they began to pull to and fro, and to wheel

about with hideous caterwaulings, mowing down with their

string the flowers among which they were struggling, until,

after a furious strife of about a quarter of an hour, the

string broke and the combatants vanished.

Boxtel, hidden behind his sycamore, could not see anything,

as it was pitch-dark; but the piercing cries of the cats

told the whole tale, and his heart overflowing with gall now

throbbed with triumphant joy.

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Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

Boxtel was so eager to ascertain the extent of the injury,

that he remained at his post until morning to feast his eyes

on the sad state in which the two cats had left the