Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

“All right! all right! my dear Craeke,” said Cornelius,

stretching his arm under the table for the bulb; “your paper

shall be read, indeed it shall.”

Then, examining the bulb which he held in the hollow of his

hand, he said: “Well, here is one of them uninjured. That

confounded Craeke! thus to rush into my dry-room; let us now

look after the other.”

And without laying down the bulb which he already held,

Baerle went to the fireplace, knelt down and stirred with

the tip of his finger the ashes, which fortunately were

quite cold.

He at once felt the other bulb.

“Well, here it is,” he said; and, looking at it with almost

fatherly affection, he exclaimed, “Uninjured as the first!”

At this very instant, and whilst Cornelius, still on his

knees, was examining his pets, the door of the dry-room was

so violently shaken, and opened in such a brusque manner,

that Cornelius felt rising in his cheeks and his ears the

glow of that evil counsellor which is called wrath.

“Now, what is it again,” he demanded; “are people going mad

here?”

“Oh, sir! sir!” cried the servant, rushing into the dry-room

with a much paler face and with a much more frightened mien

than Craeke had shown.

“Well!” asked Cornelius, foreboding some mischief from the

double breach of the strict rule of his house.

“Oh, sir, fly! fly quick!” cried the servant.

“Fly! and what for?”

“Sir, the house is full of the guards of the States.”

“What do they want?”

“They want you.”

“What for?”

“To arrest you.”

“Arrest me? arrest me, do you say?”

“Yes, sir, and they are headed by a magistrate.”

“What’s the meaning of all this?” said Van Baerle, grasping

in his hands the two bulbs, and directing his terrified

glance towards the staircase.

“They are coming up! they are coming up!” cried the servant.

“Oh, my dear child, my worthy master!” cried the old

housekeeper, who now likewise made her appearance in the

dry-room, “take your gold, your jewelry, and fly, fly!”

“But how shall I make my escape, nurse?” said Van Baerle.

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Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

“Jump out of the window.”

“Twenty-five feet from the ground!”

“But you will fall on six feet of soft soil!”

“Yes, but I should fall on my tulips.”

“Never mind, jump out.”

Cornelius took the third bulb, approached the window and

opened it, but seeing what havoc he would necessarily cause

in his borders, and, more than this, what a height he would

have to jump, he called out, “Never!” and fell back a step.

At this moment they saw across the banister of the staircase

the points of the halberds of the soldiers rising.

The housekeeper raised her hands to heaven.

As to Cornelius van Baerle, it must be stated to his honour,

not as a man, but as a tulip-fancier, his only thought was

for his inestimable bulbs.

Looking about for a paper in which to wrap them up, he

noticed the fly-leaf from the Bible, which Craeke had laid

upon the table, took it without in his confusion remembering

whence it came, folded in it the three bulbs, secreted them

in his bosom, and waited.

At this very moment the soldiers, preceded by a magistrate,

entered the room.

“Are you Dr. Cornelius van Baerle?” demanded the magistrate

(who, although knowing the young man very well, put his

question according to the forms of justice, which gave his

proceedings a much more dignified air).

“I am that person, Master van Spennen,” answered Cornelius,

politely, to his judge, “and you know it very well.”

“Then give up to us the seditious papers which you secrete

in your house.”

“The seditious papers!” repeated Cornelius, quite dumfounded

at the imputation.

“Now don’t look astonished, if you please.”

“I vow to you, Master van Spennen, “Cornelius replied, “that

I am completely at a loss to understand what you want.”

“Then I shall put you in the way, Doctor,” said the judge;

“give up to us the papers which the traitor Cornelius de

Witt deposited with you in the month of January last.”

A sudden light came into the mind of Cornelius.