Part 1 (1/2)
The Black Tulip
by Alexandre Dumas
Chapter 1
A Grateful People
On the 20th of August, 1672, the city of the Hague, always so lively, so neat, and so triht believe every day to be Sunday, with its shady park, with its tall trees, spreading over its Gothic houses, with its canals like large mirrors, in which its steeples and its alue, the capital of the Seven United Provinces, elling in all its arteries with a black and red strea, and restless citizens, ith their knives in their girdles, muskets on their shoulders, or sticks in their hands, were pushi+ng on to the Buytenhof, a terrible prison, the grated s of which are still shohere, on the charge of atteeon Tyckelaer, Cornelius de Witt, the brother of the Grand Pensionary of Holland was confined
If the history of that time, and especially that of the year in the middle of which our narrative commences, were not indissolubly connected with the two naes which we are about to add atory; but ill, from the very first, apprise the reader -- our old friend, to e are wont on the first page to promise amusement, and e always try to keep our word as well as is in our power -- that this explanation is as indispensable to the right understanding of our story as to that of the great event itself on which it is based
Cornelius de Witt, Ruart de Pulten, that is to say, warden of the dikes, ex-burgomaster of Dort, his native town, and member of the assee, when the Dutch people, tired of the Republic such as John de Witt, the Grand Pensionary of Holland, understood it, at once conceived a most violent affection for the Stadtholderate, which had been abolished for ever in Holland by the ”Perpetual Edict” forced by John de Witt upon the United Provinces
As it rarely happens that public opinion, in its whihts, does not identify a principle with a man, thus the people saw the personification of the Republic in the two stern figures of the brothers De Witt, those Ro to pander to the fancies of thefidelity to liberty without licentiousness, and prosperity without the waste of superfluity; on the other hand, the Stadtholderate recalled to the popularPrince Williae
The brothers De Witt humoured Louis XIV, whose moral influence was felt by the whole of Europe, and the pressure of whose material power Holland had been n on the Rhine, which, in the space of three months, had laid the power of the United Provinces prostrate
Louis XIV had long been the enemy of the Dutch, who insulted or ridiculed hih it ees for the mouthpiece of their spite Their national pride held him up as the Mithridates of the Republic The brothers De Witt, therefore, had to strive against a double difficulty, -- against the force of national antipathy, and, besides, against the feeling of weariness which is natural to all vanquished people, when they hope that a new chief will be able to save them from ruin and shame
This new chief, quite ready to appear on the political stage, and to antic the fortunes of the Grand Monarch looe, son of Williarandson, by his land We have mentioned him before as the person by whom the people expected to see the office of Stadtholder restored
This young e John de Witt, as his tutor, had brought hi his country better than he did his disciple, the uished the hope which the young PrinceStadtholder But God laughs at the presumption of man, ants to raise and prostrate the powers on earth without consulting the King above; and the fickleness and caprice of the Dutch co the Perpetual Edict, and re-establishi+ng the office of Stadtholder in favour of Williae, for whom the hand of Providence had traced out ulterior destinies on the hidden map of the future
The Grand Pensionary bowed before the will of his fellow citizens; Cornelius de Witt, however, wasall the threats of death froed hin the act by which the office of Stadtholder was restored Moved by the tears and entreaties of his wife, he at last conature the two letters V C (Vi Coactus), notifying thereby that he only yielded to force
It was a real miracle that on that day he escaped from the dooe from his ready compliance with the wishes of his fellow citizens Only a few days after, an atteh not mortally wounded
This by no e faction The life of the two brothers being a constant obstacle to their plans, they changed their tactics, and tried to obtain by calumny what they had not been able to effect by the aid of the poniard
How rarely does it happen that, in the right reat ns; and for that reason, when such a providential concurrence of circumstances does occur, history is prompt to record the name of the chosen one, and to hold him up to the admiration of posterity But when Satan interposes in human affairs to cast a shadow upon sodom, it seldom happens that he does not find at his side some miserable tool, in whose ear he has but to whisper a word to set him at once about his task
The wretched tool as at hand to be the agent of this dastardly plot was one Tyckelaer e have already ed an infor forth that the warden -- who, as he had shown by the letters added to his signature, was fu at the repeal of the Perpetual Edict -- had, froe, hired an assassin to deliver the new Republic of its new Stadtholder; and he, Tyckelaer was the person thus chosen; but that, horrified at the bare idea of the act which he was asked to perpetrate, he had preferred rather to reveal the crime than to commit it
This disclosure was, indeed, well calculated to call forth a furious outbreak ae faction The Attorney General caused, on the 16th of August, 1672, Cornelius de Witt to be arrested; and the noble brother of John de Witt had, like the vilest crio, in one of the apartrees of torture, by es expected to force froainst Williareat ed to that race of martyrs who, indissolubly wedded to their political convictions as their ancestors were to their faith, are able to s stretched on the rack, he recited with a fir to measure, the first strophe of the ”Justu no confession, tired not only the strength, but even the fanaticis, acquitted Tyckelaer fro Cornelius to be deposed fronities; to pay all the costs of the trial; and to be banished froainst not only an innocent, but also a great ratification to the passions of the people, to whose interests Cornelius de Witt had always devoted hih
The Athenians, who indeed have left behind theratitude, have in this respect to yield precedence to the Dutch They, at least in the case of Aristides, contented the hie brought against his brother, had resigned his office of Grand Pensionary He too received a noble recompense for his devotedness to the best interests of his country, taking with him into the retirement of private life the hatred of a host of enemies, and the fresh scars of wounds inflicted by assassins, only too often the sole guerdon obtained by honest people, who are guilty of having worked for their country, and of having forgotten their own private interests
In the ed on the course of events by everyfor the time when the people, by whom he was idolised, should have made of the bodies of the brothers the two steps over which he ht ascend to the chair of Stadtholder
Thus, then, on the 20th of August, 1672, as we have already stated in the beginning of this chapter, the whole toas crowding towards the Buytenhof, to witness the departure of Cornelius de Witt fro to exile; and to see what traces the torture of the rack had left on the noble frame of the man who knew his Horace so well
Yet all thisto the Buytenhof with the innocent view oftheir eyes with the spectacle; there were many ent there to play an active part in it, and to take upon themselves an office which they conceived had been badly filled, -- that of the executioner
There were, indeed, others with less hostile intentions All that they cared for was the spectacle, always so attractive to the ht of greatness hurled down into the dust
”Has not,” they would say, ”this Cornelius de Witt been locked up and broken by the rack? Shall we not see hi with blood, covered with shahers of the Hague, whose envy even beat that of the common rabble; a triuht be expected to share?
”Moreover,” hinted the Orange agitators interspersed through the crohoed and at the sa instrument, -- ”ate of the town, a nice little opportunity present itself to throw some handfuls of dirt, or a few stones, at this Cornelius de Witt, who not only conferred the dignity of Stadtholder on the Prince of Orange merely vi coactus, but who also intended to have him assassinated?”
”Besides which,” the fierce enemies of France chiue, Cornelius would certainly not be allowed to go into exile, where he will renew his intrigues with France, and live with his big scoundrel of a brother, John, on the gold of the Marquis de Louvois”
Being in such a teenerally will run rather than walk; which was the reason why the inhabitants of the Hague were hurrying so fast towards the Buytenhof
Honest Tyckelaer, with a heart full of spite and malice, and with no particular plan settled in hisparaded about by the Orange party like a hero of probity, national honour, and Christian charity
This daring miscreant detailed, with all the eested by his base ination, the attempts which he pretended Cornelius de Witt had made to corrupt him; the sums of ems planned beforehand to smooth for him, Tyckelaer, all the difficulties in the path of erly listened to by the populace, called forth enthusiastic cheers for the Prince of Orange, and groans and iainst the brothers De Witt
The ainst the iniquitous judges, who had allowed such a detestable criet off so cheaply
Soitators whispered, ”He will be off, he will escape fro for hi, a French craft Tyckelaer has seen her”
”Honest Tyckelaer! Hurrah for Tyckelaer!” the et,” a voice exclaimed from the crowd, ”that at the same time with Cornelius his brother John, who is as rascally a traitor as hiues will in France make merry with our money, with the money for our vessels, our arsenals, and our dockyards, which they have sold to Louis XIV”
”Well, then, don't let us allow theained the start of the others
”Forward to the prison, to the prison!” echoed the crowd
A faster and faster, cocking theirdeath and defiance in all directions
No violence, however, had as yet been co the approaches of the Buytenhof re in their ihers, with their cries, their agitation, and their threats The men on their horses, indeed, stood like so many statues, under the eye of their chief, Count Tilly, the captain of the ue, who had his sword drawn, but held it with its point doards, in a line with the straps of his stirrup
This troop, the only defence of the prison, overawed by its firm attitude not only the disorderly riotous her guard, which, being placed opposite the Buytenhof to support the soldiers in keeping order, gave to the rioters the exae! Doith the traitors!”
The presence of Tilly and his horsemen, indeed, exercised a salutary check on these civic warriors; but by degrees they waxed ry by their own shouts, and as they were not able to understand how any one could have courage without showing it by cries, they attributed the silence of the dragoons to pusillanimity, and advanced one step towards the prison, with all the turbulentin their wake
In this le-handed,his brohilst he addressed theuard, what are you advancing for, and what do you wish?”