Chapter 27. The Third Bulb
Boxtel's return was scarcely announced, when he entered in person thedrawing-room of Mynheer van Systens, followed by two men, who carried ina box their precious burden and deposited it on a table.
The Prince, on being informed, left the cabinet, passed into thedrawing-room, admired the flower, and silently resumed his seat in thedark corner, where he had himself placed his chair.
Rosa, trembling, pale and terrified, expected to be invited in her turnto see the tulip.
She now heard the voice of Boxtel.
"It is he!" she exclaimed.
The Prince made her a sign to go and look through the open door into thedrawing-room.
"It is my tulip," cried Rosa, "I recognise it. Oh, my poor Cornelius!"
And saying this she burst into tears.
The Prince rose from his seat, went to the door, where he stood for sometime with the full light falling upon his figure.
As Rosa's eyes now rested upon him, she felt more than ever convincedthat this was not the first time she had seen the stranger.
"Master Boxtel," said the Prince, "come in here, if you please."
Boxtel eagerly approached, and, finding himself face to face withWilliam of Orange, started back.
"His Highness!" he called out.
"His Highness!" Rosa repeated in dismay.
Hearing this exclamation on his left, Boxtel turned round, and perceivedRosa.
At this sight the whole frame of the thief shook as if under theinfluence of a galvanic shock.
"Ah!" muttered the Prince to himself, "he is confused."
But Boxtel, making a violent effort to control his feelings, was alreadyhimself again.
"Master Boxtel," said William, "you seem to have discovered the secretof growing the black tulip?"
"Yes, your Highness," answered Boxtel, in a voice which still betrayedsome confusion.
It is true his agitation might have been attributable to the emotionwhich the man must have felt on suddenly recognising the Prince.
"But," continued the Stadtholder, "here is a young damsel who alsopretends to have found it."
Boxtel, with a disdainful smile, shrugged his shoulders.
William watched all his movements with evident interest and curiosity.
"Then you don't know this young girl?" said the Prince.
"No, your Highness!"
"And you, child, do you know Master Boxtel?"
"No, I don't know Master Boxtel, but I know Master Jacob."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean to say that at Loewestein the man who here calls himself IsaacBoxtel went by the name of Master Jacob."
"What do you say to that, Master Boxtel?"
"I say that this damsel lies, your Highness."
"You deny, therefore, having ever been at Loewestein?"
Boxtel hesitated; the fixed and searching glance of the proud eye of thePrince prevented him from lying.
"I cannot deny having been at Loewestein, your Highness, but I denyhaving stolen the tulip."
"You have stolen it, and that from my room," cried Rosa, withindignation.
"I deny it."
"Now listen to me. Do you deny having followed me into the garden, onthe day when I prepared the border where I was to plant it? Do you denyhaving followed me into the garden when I pretended to plant it? Do youdeny that, on that evening, you rushed after my departure to the spotwhere you hoped to find the bulb? Do you deny having dug in the groundwith your hands--but, thank God! in vain, as it was a stratagem todiscover your intentions. Say, do you deny all this?"
Boxtel did not deem it fit to answer these several charges, but, turningto the Prince, continued,--
"I have now for twenty years grown tulips at Dort. I have even acquiredsome reputation in this art; one of my hybrids is entered in thecatalogue under the name of an illustrious personage. I have dedicatedit to the King of Portugal. The truth in the matter is as I shall nowtell your Highness. This damsel knew that I had produced the blacktulip, and, in concert with a lover of hers in the fortress ofLoewestein, she formed the plan of ruining me by appropriating toherself the prize of a hundred thousand guilders, which, with the helpof your Highness's justice, I hope to gain."
"Yah!" cried Rosa, beyond herself with anger.
"Silence!" said the Prince.
Then, turning to Boxtel, he said,--
"And who is that prisoner to whom you allude as the lover of this youngwoman?"
Rosa nearly swooned, for Cornelius was designated as a dangerousprisoner, and recommended by the Prince to the especial surveillance ofthe jailer.
Nothing could have been more agreeable to Boxtel than this question.
"This prisoner," he said, "is a man whose name in itself will prove toyour Highness what trust you may place in his probity. He is a prisonerof state, who was once condemned to death."
"And his name?"
Rosa hid her face in her hands with a movement of despair.
"His name is Cornelius van Baerle," said Boxtel, "and he is godson ofthat villain Cornelius de Witt."
The Prince gave a start, his generally quiet eye flashed, and adeath-like paleness spread over his impassible features.
He went up to Rosa, and with his finger, gave her a sign to remove herhands from her face.
Rosa obeyed, as if under mesmeric influence, without having seen thesign.
"It was, then to follow this man that you came to me at Leyden tosolicit for the transfer of your father?"
Rosa hung down her head, and, nearly choking, said,--
"Yes, your Highness."
"Go on," said the Prince to Boxtel.
"I have nothing more to say," Isaac continued. "Your Highness knows all.But there is one thing which I did not intend to say, because I did notwish to make this girl blush for her ingratitude. I came to Loewesteinbecause I had business there. On this occasion I made the acquaintanceof old Gryphus, and, falling in love with his daughter, made an offerof marriage to her; and, not being rich, I committed the imprudence ofmentioning to them my prospect of gaining a hundred thousand guilders,in proof of which I showed to them the black tulip. Her lover havinghimself made a show at Dort of cultivating tulips to hide his politicalintrigues, they now plotted together for my ruin. On the eve of the daywhen the flower was expected to open, the tulip was taken away by thisyoung woman. She carried it to her room, from which I had the good luckto recover it at the very moment when she had the impudence to despatcha messenger to announce to the members of the Horticultural Societythat she had produced the grand black tulip. But she did not stop there.There is no doubt that, during the few hours which she kept the flowerin her room, she showed it to some persons whom she may now call aswitnesses. But, fortunately, your Highness has now been warned againstthis impostor and her witnesses."
"Oh, my God, my God! what infamous falsehoods!" said Rosa, burstinginto tears, and throwing herself at the feet of the Stadtholder, who,although thinking her guilty, felt pity for her dreadful agony.
"You have done very wrong, my child," he said, "and your lover shall bepunished for having thus badly advised you. For you are so young, andhave such an honest look, that I am inclined to believe the mischief tohave been his doing, and not yours."
"Monseigneur! Monseigneur!" cried Rosa, "Cornelius is not guilty."
William started.
"Not guilty of having advised you? that's what you want to say, is itnot?"
"What I wish to say, your Highness, is that Cornelius is as littleguilty of the second crime imputed to him as he was of the first."
"Of the first? And do you know what was his first crime? Do you knowof what he was accused and convicted? Of having, as an accomplice ofCornelius de Witt, concealed the correspondence of the Grand Pensionaryand the Marquis de Louvois."
"Well, sir, he was ignorant of this correspondence being deposited withhim; completely ignorant. I am as certain as of my life, that, if itwere not so, he would have told me; for how could that
pure mind haveharboured a secret without revealing it to me? No, no, your Highness, Irepeat it, and even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, Corneliusis no more guilty of the first crime than of the second; and of thesecond no more than of the first. Oh, would to Heaven that you knew myCornelius; Monseigneur!"
"He is a De Witt!" cried Boxtel. "His Highness knows only too much ofhim, having once granted him his life."
"Silence!" said the Prince; "all these affairs of state, as I havealready said, are completely out of the province of the HorticulturalSociety of Haarlem."
Then, knitting his brow, he added,--
"As to the tulip, make yourself easy, Master Boxtel, you shall havejustice done to you."
Boxtel bowed with a heart full of joy, and received the congratulationsof the President.
"You, my child," William of Orange continued, "you were going to commita crime. I will not punish you; but the real evil-doer shall pay thepenalty for both. A man of his name may be a conspirator, and even atraitor, but he ought not to be a thief."
"A thief!" cried Rosa. "Cornelius a thief? Pray, your Highness, do notsay such a word, it would kill him, if he knew it. If theft there hasbeen, I swear to you, Sir, no one else but this man has committed it."
"Prove it," Boxtel coolly remarked.
"I shall prove it. With God's help I shall."
Then, turning towards Boxtel, she asked,--
"The tulip is yours?"
"It is."
"How many bulbs were there of it?"
Boxtel hesitated for a moment, but after a short consideration he cameto the conclusion that she would not ask this question if there werenone besides the two bulbs of which he had known already. He thereforeanswered,--
"Three."
"What has become of these bulbs?"
"Oh! what has become of them? Well, one has failed; the second hasproduced the black tulip."
"And the third?"
"The third!"
"The third,--where is it?"
"I have it at home," said Boxtel, quite confused.
"At home? Where? At Loewestein, or at Dort?"
"At Dort," said Boxtel.
"You lie!" cried Rosa. "Monseigneur," she continued, whilst turninground to the Prince, "I will tell you the true story of these threebulbs. The first was crushed by my father in the prisoner's cell, andthis man is quite aware of it, for he himself wanted to get hold of it,and, being balked in his hope, he very nearly fell out with my father,who had been the cause of his disappointment. The second bulb, plantedby me, has produced the black tulip, and the third and last"--sayingthis, she drew it from her bosom--"here it is, in the very same paper inwhich it was wrapped up together with the two others. When about to beled to the scaffold, Cornelius van Baerle gave me all the three. Takeit, Monseigneur, take it."
And Rosa, unfolding the paper, offered the bulb to the Prince, who tookit from her hands and examined it.
"But, Monseigneur, this young woman may have stolen the bulb, as she didthe tulip," Boxtel said, with a faltering voice, and evidently alarmedat the attention with which the Prince examined the bulb; and even moreat the movements of Rosa, who was reading some lines written on thepaper which remained in her hands.
Her eyes suddenly lighted up; she read, with breathless anxiety, themysterious paper over and over again; and at last, uttering a cry, heldit out to the Prince and said, "Read, Monseigneur, for Heaven's sake,read!"
William handed the third bulb to Van Systens, took the paper, and read.
No sooner had he looked at it than he began to stagger; his handtrembled, and very nearly let the paper fall to the ground; and theexpression of pain and compassion in his features was really frightfulto see.
It was that fly-leaf, taken from the Bible, which Cornelius de Witt hadsent to Dort by Craeke, the servant of his brother John, to requestVan Baerle to burn the correspondence of the Grand Pensionary with theMarquis de Louvois.
This request, as the reader may remember, was couched in the followingterms:--
"My Dear Godson,--
"Burn the parcel which I have intrusted to you. Burn it without lookingat it, and without opening it, so that its contents may for ever remainunknown to yourself. Secrets of this description are death to thosewith whom they are deposited. Burn it, and you will have saved John andCornelius de Witt.
"Farewell, and love me.
"Cornelius de Witt.
"August 20, 1672."
This slip of paper offered the proofs both of Van Baerle's innocence andof his claim to the property of the tulip.
Rosa and the Stadtholder exchanged one look only.
That of Rosa was meant to express, "Here, you see yourself."
That of the Stadtholder signified, "Be quiet, and wait."
The Prince wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and slowly folded upthe paper, whilst his thoughts were wandering in that labyrinth withouta goal and without a guide, which is called remorse and shame for thepast.
Soon, however, raising his head with an effort, he said, in his usualvoice,--
"Go, Mr. Boxtel; justice shall be done, I promise you."
Then, turning to the President, he added,--
"You, my dear Mynheer van Systens, take charge of this young woman andof the tulip. Good-bye."
All bowed, and the Prince left, among the deafening cheers of the crowdoutside.
Boxtel returned to his inn, rather puzzled and uneasy, tormented bymisgivings about that paper which William had received from the hand ofRosa, and which his Highness had read, folded up, and so carefully putin his pocket. What was the meaning of all this?
Rosa went up to the tulip, tenderly kissed its leaves and, with a heartfull of happiness and confidence in the ways of God, broke out in thewords,--
"Thou knowest best for what end Thou madest my good Cornelius teach meto read."