Part 27 (1/2)
Dark crimson velvet, dark purple silk, and jet-black cloth, with linen of dazzling whiteness, composed the festive dress of the President, whoan enoray, like that which a hundred and twenty-one years later, Monsieur de Robespierre displayed at the festival of ”The Supre”
There was, however, a little difference between the two; very different from the French tribune, whose heart was so full of hatred and ambitious vindictiveness, was the honest President, who carried in his bosom a heart as innocent as the flohich he held in his hand
Behind the Coarden in spring, istrates, the military, the nobles and the boors
The people, even a the respected republicans of the Seven Provinces, had no place assigned to them in the procession; they merely lined the streets
This is the place for the multitude, which with true philosophic spirit, waits until the triueants have passed, to knohat to say of them, and sometimes also to knohat to do
This time, however, there was no question either of the triumph of Pompey or of Caesar; neither of the defeat of Mithridates, nor of the conquest of Gaul The procession was as placid as the passing of a flock of lah the air
Haarleardeners Worshi+pping flowers, Haarlem idolised the florist
In the centre of this pacific and fragrant cortege the black tulip was seen, carried on a litter, which was covered hite velvet and fringed with gold
The handles of the litter were supported by four men, ere from time to time relieved by fresh relays, -- even as the bearers of Mother Cybele used to take turn and turn about at Roht from Etruria to the Eternal City, amid the blare of trumpets and the worshi+p of a whole nation
This public exhibition of the tulip was an act of adoration rendered by an entire nation, unlettered and unrefined, to the refinement and culture of its illustrious and devout leaders, whose blood had stained the foul paveht at a future day to inscribe the nahest stone of the Dutch Pantheon
It was arranged that the Prince Stadtholder hiuilders, which interested the people at large, and it was thought that perhaps he would make a speech which interested more particularly his friends and enenificant words of men of political importance their friends and their opponents always endeavour to detect, and hence think they can interpret, sohts
As if your true politician's hat were not a bushel under which he always hides his light!
At length the great and long-expected day -- May 15, 1673 -- arrived; and all Haarleathered in the beautiful tree-lined streets, determined on this occasion not to waste its applause upon military heroes, or those who had won notable victories in the field of science, but to reserve their applause for those who had overcome Nature, and had forced the inexhaustible arded as i however, is more fickle than such a resolution of the people When a crowd is once in the huins to hiss It never knohen to stop
It therefore, in the first place, cheered Van Systens and his nosegay, then the corporation, then followed a cheer for the people; and, at last, and for once with great justice, there was one for the excellent enerously treated the asseerly for the heroine of the festival, -- that is to say, the black tulip, -- and for its hero in the person of the one who had grown it
In case this hero should make his appearance after the address we have seen worthy Van Systens at work on so conscientiously, he would not fail to make as much of a sensation as the Stadtholder his for us is centred neither in the learned discourse of our friend Van Systens, however eloquent itdandies, resplendent in their Sunday clothes, and nawing smoked eels as if they were sticks of vanilla sweetirls, with red cheeks and ivory bosoms; nor in the fat, round mynheers, who had never left their homes before; nor in the sallow, thin travellers from Ceylon or Java; nor in the thirsty croho quenched their thirst with pickled cucumbers; -- no, so far as we are concerned, the real interest of the situation, the fascinating, dramatic interest, is not to be found here
Our interest is in a s face to be seen amid the members of the Horticultural Committee; in the person with a flower in his belt, combed and brushed, and all clad in scarlet, -- a colour which makes his black hair and yellow skin stand out in violent contrast
This hero, radiant with rapturous joy, who had the distinguished honour of et the speech of Van Systens, and even the presence of the Stadtholder, was Isaac Boxtel, who saw, carried on his right before hihter; and on his left, in a large purse, the hundred thousand guilders in glittering gold pieces, towards which he was constantly squinting, fearful of losing sight of them for one moment
Now and then Boxtel quickened his step to rub elbows for a moment with Van Systens He borrowed a little importance from everybody to make a kind of false importance for hilory, and thereby make his fortune
Another quarter of an hour and the Prince will arrive and the procession will halt for the last time; after the tulip is placed on its throne, the Prince, yielding precedence to this rival for the popular adoration, will take a nificently erower; and his Highness, in a loud and audible tone, will proclaim him to be the discoverer of a wonder; that Holland, by the instrumentality of him, Boxtel, has forced Nature to produce a black flohich shall henceforth be called Tulipa nigra Boxtellea
From time to time, however, Boxtel withdrew his eyes for athe crowd, forhe dreaded to descry there the pale face of the pretty Frisian girl
She would have been a spectre spoiling the joy of the festival for hihost did that of Macbeth
And yet, if the truth must be told, this wretch, who had stolen as the boast of man, and the dowry of a woman, did not consider himself as a thief He had so intently watched this tulip, followed it so eagerly from the drawer in Cornelius's dry-room to the scaffold of the Buytenhof, and from the scaffold to the fortress of Loewestein; he had seen it bud and grow in Rosa's , and so often warmed the air round it with his breath, that he felt as if no one had a better right to call himself its producer than he had; and any one ould now take the black tulip from him would have appeared to him as a thief
Yet he did not perceive Rosa; his joy therefore was not spoiled
In the centre of a circle of arlands and inscriptions, the procession halted, a damsels of Haarlem made their appearance to escort the tulip to the raised seat which it was to occupy on the platforhness the Stadtholder
And the proud tulip, raised on its pedestal, soon overlooked the assembled crowd of people, who clapped their hands, and made the old town of Haarlem re-echo with their tremendous cheers
Chapter 32
A Last Request
At this solee was driving along the road on the outskirts of the green on which the scene occurred; it pursued its way slowly, on account of the flocks of children ere pushed out of the avenue by the crowd of e, covered with dust, and creaking on its axles, the result of a long journey, enclosed the unfortunate Van Baerle, as just beginning to get a glih the openof the scene which we have tried -- with poor success, no doubt -- to present to the eyes of the reader
The crowd and the noise and the display of artificial and natural ht flashi+ng suddenly into his dungeon
Notwithstanding the little readiness which his co his fate, he ventured once ht seemed to be utterly disconnected with his own affairs
”What is all this, pray, Mynheer Lieutenant?” he asked of his conductor
”As you may see, sir,” replied the officer, ”it is a feast”
”Ah, a feast,” said Cornelius, in the sad tone of indifference of a man to whom no joy remains in this world
Then, after soe had proceeded a few yards, he asked once more, -- ”The feast of the patron saint of Haarlem? as I see so many flowers”
”It is, indeed, a feast in which flowers play a principal part”
”Oh, the sweet scents! oh, the beautiful colours!” cried Cornelius
”Stop, that the gentleman may see,” said the officer, with that frank kindliness which is peculiar toas postilion
”Oh, thank you, Sir, for your kindness,” replied Van Baerle, in a melancholy tone; ”the joy of others pains ”
”Just as you wish Drive on! I ordered the driver to stop because I thought it would please you, as you are said to love flowers, and especially that the feast of which is celebrated to-day”
”And what flower is that?”