Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

reasonably entertained, as he could not have received such

papers from the hand of his godfather without being made

acquainted with their important character.

He replied that his godfather Cornelius loved him too well,

and, above all, that he was too considerate a man to have

communicated to him anything of the contents of the parcel,

well knowing that such a confidence would only have caused

anxiety to him who received it.

To this it was objected that, if De Witt had wished to act

in such a way, he would have added to the parcel, in case of

accidents, a certificate setting forth that his godson was

an entire stranger to the nature of this correspondence, or

at least he would during his trial have written a letter to

him, which might be produced as his justification.

Cornelius replied that undoubtedly his godfather could not

have thought that there was any risk for the safety of his

deposit, hidden as it was in a press which was looked upon

as sacred as the tabernacle by the whole household of Van

Baerle; and that consequently he had considered the

certificate as useless. As to a letter, he certainly had

some remembrance that some moments previous to his arrest,

whilst he was absorbed in the contemplation of one of the

rarest of his bulbs, John de Witt’s servant entered his

dry-room, and handed to him a paper, but the whole was to

him only like a vague dream; the servant had disappeared,

and as to the paper, perhaps it might be found if a proper

search were made.

As far as Craeke was concerned, it was impossible to find

him, as he had left Holland.

The paper also was not very likely to be found, and no one

gave himself the trouble to look for it.

Cornelius himself did not much press this point, since, even

supposing that the paper should turn up, it could not have

any direct connection with the correspondence which

constituted the crime.

The judges wished to make it appear as though they wanted to

urge Cornelius to make a better defence; they displayed that

benevolent patience which is generally a sign of the

magistrate’s being interested for the prisoner, or of a

man’s having so completely got the better of his adversary

that he needs no longer any oppressive means to ruin him.

Cornelius did not accept of this hypocritical protection,

and in a last answer, which he set forth with the noble

bearing of a martyr and the calm serenity of a righteous

man, he said, —

“You ask me things, gentlemen, to which I can answer only

the exact truth. Hear it. The parcel was put into my hands

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in the way I have described; I vow before God that I was,

and am still, ignorant of its contents, and that it was not

until my arrest that I learned that this deposit was the

correspondence of the Grand Pensionary with the Marquis de

Louvois. And lastly, I vow and protest that I do not

understand how any one should have known that this parcel

was in my house; and, above all, how I can be deemed

criminal for having received what my illustrious and

unfortunate godfather brought to my house.”

This was Van Baerle’s whole defence; after which the judges

began to deliberate on the verdict.

They considered that every offshoot of civil discord is

mischievous, because it revives the contest which it is the

interest of all to put down.

One of them, who bore the character of a profound observer,

laid down as his opinion that this young man, so phlegmatic

in appearance, must in reality be very dangerous, as under

this icy exterior he was sure to conceal an ardent desire to

avenge his friends, the De Witts.

Another observed that the love of tulips agreed perfectly

well with that of politics, and that it was proved in

history that many very dangerous men were engaged in

gardening, just as if it had been their profession, whilst

really they occupied themselves with perfectly different

concerns; witness Tarquin the Elder, who grew poppies at