Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

them from us, just as he has done this fellow.”

Among all the spectators whom Van Baerle’s execution had

attracted to the Buytenhof, and whom the sudden turn of

affairs had disagreeably surprised, undoubtedly the one most

disappointed was a certain respectably dressed burgher, who

from early morning had made such a good use of his feet and

elbows that he at last was separated from the scaffold only

by the file of soldiers which surrounded it.

Many had shown themselves eager to see the perfidious blood

of the guilty Cornelius flow, but not one had shown such a

keen anxiety as the individual just alluded to.

The most furious had come to the Buytenhof at daybreak, to

secure a better place; but he, outdoing even them, had

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passed the night at the threshold of the prison, from

whence, as we have already said, he had advanced to the very

foremost rank, unguibus et rostro, — that is to say,

coaxing some, and kicking the others.

And when the executioner had conducted the prisoner to the

scaffold, the burgher, who had mounted on the stone of the

pump the better to see and be seen, made to the executioner

a sign which meant, —

“It’s a bargain, isn’t it?”

The executioner answered by another sign, which was meant to

say, —

“Be quiet, it’s all right.”

This burgher was no other than Mynheer Isaac Boxtel, who

since the arrest of Cornelius had come to the Hague to try

if he could not get hold of the three bulbs of the black

tulip.

Boxtel had at first tried to gain over Gryphus to his

interest, but the jailer had not only the snarling

fierceness, but likewise the fidelity, of a dog. He had

therefore bristled up at Boxtel’s hatred, whom he had

suspected to be a warm friend of the prisoner, making

trifling inquiries to contrive with the more certainty some

means of escape for him.

Thus to the very first proposals which Boxtel made to

Gryphus to filch the bulbs which Cornelius van Baerle must

be supposed to conceal, if not in his breast, at least in

some corner of his cell, the surly jailer had only answered

by kicking Mynheer Isaac out, and setting the dog at him.

The piece which the mastiff had torn from his hose did not

discourage Boxtel. He came back to the charge, but this time

Gryphus was in bed, feverish, and with a broken arm. He

therefore was not able to admit the petitioner, who then

addressed himself to Rosa, offering to buy her a head-dress

of pure gold if she would get the bulbs for him. On this,

the generous girl, although not yet knowing the value of the

object of the robbery, which was to be so well remunerated,

had directed the tempter to the executioner, as the heir of

the prisoner.

In the meanwhile the sentence had been pronounced. Thus

Isaac had no more time to bribe any one. He therefore clung

to the idea which Rosa had suggested: he went to the

executioner.

Isaac had not the least doubt that Cornelius would die with

the bulbs on his heart.

But there were two things which Boxtel did not calculate

upon: —

Rosa, that is to say, love;

William of Orange, that is to say, clemency.

But for Rosa and William, the calculations of the envious

neighbour would have been correct.

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But for William, Cornelius would have died.

But for Rosa, Cornelius would have died with his bulbs on

his heart.

Mynheer Boxtel went to the headsman, to whom he gave himself

out as a great friend of the condemned man; and from whom he

bought all the clothes of the dead man that was to be, for

one hundred guilders; rather an exorbitant sum, as he

engaged to leave all the trinkets of gold and silver to the

executioner.

But what was the sum of a hundred guilders to a man who was

all but sure to buy with it the prize of the Haarlem

Society?

It was money lent at a thousand per cent., which, as nobody