The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas (lightweight ebook reader txt) 📗
- Author: Alexandre Dumas
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“I?”
“Yes, you.”
“But for whom do you take me, sir?”
“And for whom do you take me?”
“I hope, sir, I take you for what you are,—that is to say, for the honorable Mynheer van Systens, Burgomaster of Haarlem, and President of the Horticultural Society.”
“And what is it you told me just now?”
“I told you, sir, that my tulip has been stolen.”
“Then your tulip is that of Mynheer Boxtel. Well, my child, you express yourself very badly. The tulip has been stolen, not from you, but from Mynheer Boxtel.”
“I repeat to you, sir, that I do not know who this Mynheer Boxtel is, and that I have now heard his name pronounced for the first time.”
“You do not know who Mynheer Boxtel is, and you also had a black tulip?”
“But is there any other besides mine?” asked Rosa, trembling.
“Yes,—that of Mynheer Boxtel.”
“How is it?”
“Black, of course.”
“Without speck?”
“Without a single speck, or even point.”
“And you have this tulip,—you have it deposited here?”
“No, but it will be, as it has to be exhibited before the committee previous to the prize being awarded.”
“Oh, sir!” cried Rosa, “this Boxtel—this Isaac Boxtel—who calls himself the owner of the black tulip——”
“And who is its owner?”
“Is he not a very thin man?”
“Bald?”
“Yes.”
“With sunken eyes?”
“I think he has.”
“Restless, stooping, and bowlegged?”
“In truth, you draw Master Boxtel’s portrait feature by feature.”
“And the tulip, sir? Is it not in a pot of white and blue earthenware, with yellowish flowers in a basket on three sides?”
“Oh, as to that I am not quite sure; I looked more at the flower than at the pot.”
“Oh, sir! that’s my tulip, which has been stolen from me. I came here to reclaim it before you and from you.”
“Oh! oh!” said Van Systens, looking at Rosa. “What! you are here to claim the tulip of Master Boxtel? Well, I must say, you are cool enough.”
“Honoured sir,” a little put out by this apostrophe, “I do not say that I am coming to claim the tulip of Master Boxtel, but to reclaim my own.”
“Yours?”
“Yes, the one which I have myself planted and nursed.”
“Well, then, go and find out Master Boxtel, at the White Swan Inn, and you can then settle matters with him; as for me, considering that the cause seems to me as difficult to judge as that which was brought before King Solomon, and that I do not pretend to be as wise as he was, I shall content myself with making my report, establishing the existence of the black tulip, and ordering the hundred thousand guilders to be paid to its grower. Good-bye, my child.”
“Oh, sir, sir!” said Rosa, imploringly.
“Only, my child,” continued Van Systens, “as you are young and pretty, and as there may be still some good in you, I’ll give you some good advice. Be prudent in this matter, for we have a court of justice and a prison here at Haarlem, and, moreover, we are exceedingly ticklish as far as the honour of our tulips is concerned. Go, my child, go, remember, Master Isaac Boxtel at the White Swan Inn.”
And Mynheer van Systens, taking up his fine pen, resumed his report, which had been interrupted by Rosa’s visit.
Chapter 26. A Member of the Horticultural Society
Rosa, beyond herself and nearly mad with joy and fear at the idea of the black tulip being found again, started for the White Swan, followed by the boatman, a stout lad from Frisia, who was strong enough to knock down a dozen Boxtels single-handed.
He had been made acquainted in the course of the journey with the state of affairs, and was not afraid of any encounter; only he had orders, in such a case, to spare the tulip.
But on arriving in the great market-place Rosa at once stopped, a sudden thought had struck her, just as Homer’s Minerva seizes Achilles by the hair at the moment when he is about to be carried away by his anger.
“Good Heaven!” she muttered to herself, “I have made a grievous blunder; it may be I have ruined Cornelius, the tulip, and myself. I have given the alarm, and perhaps awakened suspicion. I am but a woman; these men may league themselves against me, and then I shall be lost. If I am lost that matters nothing,—but Cornelius and the tulip!”
She reflected for a moment.
“If I go to that Boxtel, and do not know him; if that Boxtel is not my Jacob, but another fancier, who has also discovered the black tulip; or if my tulip has been stolen by some one else, or has already passed into the hands of a third person;—if I do not recognize the man, only the tulip, how shall I prove that it belongs to me? On the other hand, if I recognise this Boxtel as Jacob, who knows what will come out of it? whilst we are contesting with each other, the tulip will die.”
In the meanwhile, a great noise was heard, like the distant roar of the sea, at the other extremity of the market-place. People were running about, doors opening and shutting, Rosa alone was unconscious of all this hubbub among the multitude.
“We must return to the President,” she muttered.
“Well, then, let us return,” said the boatman.
They took a small street, which led them straight to the mansion of Mynheer van Systens, who with his best pen in his finest hand continued to draw up his report.
Everywhere on her way Rosa heard people speaking only of the black tulip, and the prize of a hundred thousand guilders. The news had spread like wildfire through the town.
Rosa had not a little difficulty is penetrating a second time into the office of Mynheer van Systens, who, however, was again moved by the magic
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