The Black Tulip

galloping over the Leyden road, followed by Captain van Deken, whom he found a little too compassionate to honour him any longer with his confidence, Craeke, the faithful servant, mounted on a goo

hanting little islands, edged with willows and rushes, and abounding in luxurious vegetation, whereon flocks of fat sheep browsed in peaceful sleepiness. Craeke from afar off recognised Dort, the smiling city, at the foot of a hill dotted with windmills. He saw the fine red brick houses, mortared in white lines, standing on the edge of the

ts roof were merging in the yellow foliage of a curtain of poplar trees, the whole habitation having for background a dark grove of gigantic elms. The mansion was situated in such a way tha

e house which we have just described, and which-white, trim, and tidy, even more cleanly scoured and more car

nhabited the same house ever since his childhood, for it was the house in which his father

hem bore the date of coinage of 1640, and the other that of 1610, a fact which proved that they were guilders of Van Baerle the father and of Van Baerle the grandfather; but we will inform the reader at once that these three o

r having buried his wife, who seemed to have departed first to smooth for him the path of death as

time to die will also come; and if you are not then so fortunate as to have a son, you will let my name grow extinct, and my guilders, which no one has ever fingered but my father, myself, and the coiner, will have the surpri

r van Baerle died, to the intense grief of his son Cornelius, who

his vessel would soon have to strike, made the best of his way aboard the "Saint Michael"; when he had seen the "Saint Michael," riddled and shattered by the Dutch broadside, drift out of the line; when he had witnessed the sinking of the "Earl of Sandwich," and the death by fire or drowning of four hundred sailors; when he realized that the result of all this destruction-after twenty ships had been blown to pieces, three thousand men killed and five thousand injured-was that nothing was decided, that both sides claimed the victory, that the fighting would soon begin again, and that just one more name, that of Southwold Bay, had been added to the list of battles; when he had est

hole entomology of the province, on which he wrote a treatise, with plates drawn by his own hands; and at last, being at a loss what to do with his time, and especially with his money, which went on a

f horticulture, had begun to worship that flower, and to make more of a cult of it than

and his beds, pits, drying-rooms, and drawers of bulbs were visited, as th

His exertions, indeed, were crowned with a most magnificent result: he produced three new tulips, which he called the "Jane," after his mother; the "Van Baerle," af

three months, to live at his old family mansion; for not only was he b

er, he did not appear in the light of a criminal who deserved to be hung. It is true, they did not particularly like his somewhat austere republicanism, but

airs, which he wished to have executed before the arrival of his wife and children; and thence he wended his way to the h

which are called political passions, Van Baerle had gained the affections of his fellow citizens by comp

labourers; nor had he any conception that there w

e enemy than the Grand Pensionary and his brother had among the Orange party, who were most hostile to the devoted brothers, who had never been sundered by the l

ame of Isaac Boxtel who from the age when he was able to think for himself had indulged the same fancy, and who was in ecstasies at the mere mention of the word "tulban," which (as we are assured by the "Floriste Fran

us exertions, laid out near his house at Dort a garden fit for the culture of his cherished flower; he had mixed the soil according to

ay, distinguished. Several fanciers had come to see Boxtel's tulips. At last he had even started amongst all the Linnaeuses and Tourneforts a tulip which bore his name, and which, after having travelled all through France, had found its way into Spain, and penetrated as far as Portu

was next door to that of Boxtel. He raised a certain building in his court-yard by a story, which shutting out the sun, took half a degree of warmth from Boxtel's garden, and,

the wonders of nature. The painter, he thought, had raised his studio by a story to get better light, and thus far he had only been in the right. Mynheer van B

Baerle, and Boxtel

uicker, and had a better colouring, with the temperate warmth of morning, than with the powerful heat of the

ac Boxtel's feelings in particular. It is certainly astonishing what rich comfort great min

e new story set out with bulbs and seedlings of tulips for the border, and tulips

for the cupboards, to allow free access to the air whilst keeping out slugs, mice, dormi

that pleases the eye. He studied Nature in all her aspects for the benefit of his paintings, which were as minutely finished as those of Gerard Dow, his master, and o

convinced himself that the soil of a large square bed, which had formerly been occupied by different plants, was removed, and the ground disposed in beds of loam mixed with river mud (a combination which is particularly favourable to the tulip), and the whole surrounded by a border of turf to

, devoting all his intellectual and financial resources to the cultivation of the tulip. He foresaw his neighbour's success, and he felt

t admirably fitted aspect, and, besides, a large, airy, and well ventilated chamber where to preserve his bulbs and seedlings; while he, Boxtel, had been obliged to

titor; and his rival, instead of being some unknown, obscure gardener,

e spirit of Porus, who, on being conquered by Alexande

d it the John de Witt, after having named one the Co

f his own misfortune. And, after having made this melancho