The Black Tulip

adening anxiety. Henceforth all his thoughts ran only upon the injury which his neighbour would

eeded in growing the finest tulips. Indeed; he knew better than any one else at Haarlem or Leyden-the two towns which bo

r motto in the seventeenth century the aphorism uttered by one

s, the most exclusive of all schools, worked

flowers is t

ower is, the more does one

e most beautiful

pises the tulip offend

t those of Ceylon and China and the Indies, might, if so disposed, put the whole world under the ban, and condemn as schismatics an

though he was Van Baerle's deadly foe, woul

Boxtel's name disappeared for ever from the list of the notable tulip-growers in Holland, and

le, caressed by the whole fraternity of tulip-growers in Europe, entertained nor the l

e covered his borders with such marvellous productions as no mortal man, following in the tr

ications which might be effected by crosses of colour or otherwise, Boxtel, concealed behind a small sycamore which he had trained at the top of the partition wall in the shape of a fan, watched, with his eyes starting from their sockets and with foaming mouth, every step and every gesture of his neighbour; and whenever he thought h

im stop. Thus Boxtel soon was no longer content with seeing Van Baerle. He wanted to see his flo

n the first year, its pale seed-leaf begins to peep from the ground, to that glorious one, when, after five years, its petals at last reveal the hidden treasures of it

est of vipers, each devouring the other and ever born anew. How often did Boxtel, in the midst of tortures which no pen is able fully to describe,-how often did he feel an inclination to jump down in

eyes of a genuine tulip-fancier; as to killing

rowing stones and sticks into the flower-stands of his neighbour. But, remembering that he would be sure to be found out, and that he would not only be punished by law, but also dishonoured for ever in

and at last his meditations

at princely, that royal bed, which contained not only the "Cornelius de Witt," but also the "Beauty of Brabant," milk-white, edged with purple and pink, the "

ched across the bed; then, however, feeling that they were not able to get off, they began to pull to and fro, and to wheel about with hideous caterwaulings, mowing down

pitch-dark; but the piercing cries of the cats told the whole tale,

which the two cats had left the flower-beds of his neighbour. The mists of the morning chilled his frame, but he did not feel the cold, th

ade his appearance, approaching the flower-beds with the smile of a man w

ore had been as smooth as a mirror, all at once he perceived the symmetrical rows of his tulips to

them with b

of them bent, others completely broken and already withering, the sap oozing from their ble

roy was injured at all. They raised proudly their noble heads above the corpses of their slain companions. This was enough to console Van Baerle, a

whole night had been disturbed by terrible caterwaulings. He besides found traces of the cats, their footmarks and hairs left behind on the battle-field; to guard, th

ut he deemed himself lucky in not having been suspected, and, being more than e

had not yet been accomplished, and was considered impossible, as at that time there did not exist a flower of that species approaching even to a dark nut brown. It was, t

cticable, but such is the power of imagination among florists, that although considering the undertaking as certain to fail, all their thoughts wer

on. Van Baerle, as soon as the idea had once taken root in his clear and ingenious mind, began slowly the necessary pla

rown, and Boxtel espied them in the border, whereas he had

o maintain and establish that nothing is impossible for a florist who avails himself with judgment and discretion and patience of the sun's heat; the clear water, the juices of the earth, and the cool breezes. But t

val, was now completely disgusted with tulip-growing, and, b

Boxtel allowed his bulbs to rot in the pits, his seedlings to dry up in their cases, and his tulips to wither in the borders and henceforward occupied himself with nothing else but the doings at Van Baerle'

of the operations was no

lazed cabinet whither Boxtel's telescope had such an easy access; and here, as soon as the l

, then combining them with others by a sort of grafting,-a minute and marvellously delicate manipulation,-and when he shut up in darkness those which were expected to furnish the black colour, expo

is patient untiring labour, of which Boxtel knew himself to be incapable-made him, gnawed as

luded himself into a belief that he was levelling a never-failing musket at him; and then he would seek with his finger for the trigger to fire the shot which was to have killed his neigh