Dumas, Alexandre – The Black Tulip

to the love and care of Rosa.

For it may well be imagined that the tender secret of the

two lovers had not escaped the prying curiosity of Boxtel.

The question, therefore, was how to wrest the second bulb

from the care of Rosa.

Certainly this was no easy task.

Rosa watched over her tulip as a mother over her child, or a

dove over her eggs.

Rosa never left her room during the day, and, more than

that, strange to say, she never left it in the evening.

For seven days Boxtel in vain watched Rosa; she was always

at her post.

This happened during those seven days which made Cornelius

so unhappy, depriving him at the same time of all news of

Rosa and of his tulip.

Would the coolness between Rosa and Cornelius last for ever?

This would have made the theft much more difficult than

Mynheer Isaac had at first expected.

We say the theft, for Isaac had simply made up his mind to

steal the tulip; and as it grew in the most profound

secrecy, and as, moreover, his word, being that of a

renowned tulip-grower, would any day be taken against that

of an unknown girl without any knowledge of horticulture, or

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against that of a prisoner convicted of high treason, he

confidently hoped that, having once got possession of the

bulb, he would be certain to obtain the prize; and then the

tulip, instead of being called Tulipa nigra Barlaensis,

would go down to posterity under the name of Tulipa nigra

Boxtellensis or Boxtellea.

Mynheer Isaac had not yet quite decided which of these two

names he would give to the tulip, but, as both meant the

same thing, this was, after all, not the important point.

The point was to steal the tulip. But in order that Boxtel

might steal the tulip, it was necessary that Rosa should

leave her room.

Great therefore was his joy when he saw the usual evening

meetings of the lovers resumed.

He first of all took advantage of Rosa’s absence to make

himself fully acquainted with all the peculiarities of the

door of her chamber. The lock was a double one and in good

order, but Rosa always took the key with her.

Boxtel at first entertained an idea of stealing the key, but

it soon occurred to him, not only that it would be

exceedingly difficult to abstract it from her pocket, but

also that, when she perceived her loss, she would not leave

her room until the lock was changed, and then Boxtel’s first

theft would be useless.

He thought it, therefore, better to employ a different

expedient. He collected as many keys as he could, and tried

all of them during one of those delightful hours which Rosa

and Cornelius passed together at the grating of the cell.

Two of the keys entered the lock, and one of them turned

round once, but not the second time.

There was, therefore, only a little to be done to this key.

Boxtel covered it with a slight coat of wax, and when he

thus renewed the experiment, the obstacle which prevented

the key from being turned a second time left its impression

on the wax.

It cost Boxtel two days more to bring his key to perfection,

with the aid of a small file.

Rosa’s door thus opened without noise and without

difficulty, and Boxtel found himself in her room alone with

the tulip.

The first guilty act of Boxtel had been to climb over a wall

in order to dig up the tulip; the second, to introduce

himself into the dry-room of Cornelius, through an open

window; and the third, to enter Rosa’s room by means of a

false key.

Thus envy urged Boxtel on with rapid steps in the career of

crime.

Boxtel, as we have said, was alone with the tulip.

A common thief would have taken the pot under his arm, and

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carried it off.

But Boxtel was not a common thief, and he reflected.

It was not yet certain, although very probable, that the

tulip would flower black; if, therefore, he stole it now, he