31. Haarlem

by Alexandre Dumas

　　Haarlem, whither, three days ago, we conducted our gentlereader, and whither we request him to follow us once more inthe footsteps of the prisoner, is a pleasant city, whichjustly prides itself on being one of the most shady in allthe Netherlands.While other towns boast of the magnificence of theirarsenals and dock-yards, and the splendour of their shopsand markets, Haarlem's claims to fame rest upon hersuperiority to all other provincial cities in the number andbeauty of her spreading elms, graceful poplars, and, morethan all, upon her pleasant walks, shaded by the lovelyarches of magnificent oaks, lindens, and chestnuts.Haarlem, -- just as her neighbour, Leyden, became the centreof science, and her queen, Amsterdam, that of commerce, --Haarlem preferred to be the agricultural, or, more strictlyspeaking, the horticultural metropolis.In fact, girt about as she was, breezy and exposed to thesun's hot rays, she seemed to offer to gardeners so manymore guarantees of success than other places, with theirheavy sea air, and their scorching heat.On this account all the serene souls who loved the earth andits fruits had gradually gathered together at Haarlem, justas all the nervous, uneasy spirits, whose ambition was fortravel and commerce, had settled in Rotterdam and Amsterdam,and all the politicians and selfish worldlings at the Hague.We have observed that Leyden overflowed with scholars. Inlike manner Haarlem was devoted to the gentle pursuits ofpeace, -- to music and painting, orchards and avenues,groves and parks. Haarlem went wild about flowers, andtulips received their full share of worship.Haarlem offered prizes for tulip-growing; and this factbrings us in the most natural manner to that celebrationwhich the city intended to hold on May 15th, 1673 in honourof the great black tulip, immaculate and perfect, whichshould gain for its discoverer one hundred thousandguilders!Haarlem, having placed on exhibition its favourite, havingadvertised its love of flowers in general and of tulips inparticular, at a period when the souls of men were filledwith war and sedition, -- Haarlem, having enjoyed theexquisite pleasure of admiring the very purest ideal oftulips in full bloom, -- Haarlem, this tiny town, full oftrees and of sunshine, of light and shade, had determinedthat the ceremony of bestowing the prize should be a fetewhich should live for ever in the memory of men.So much the more reason was there, too, in herdetermination, in that Holland is the home of fetes; neverdid sluggish natures manifest more eager energy of thesinging and dancing sort than those of the good republicansof the Seven Provinces when amusement was the order of theday.Study the pictures of the two Teniers.It is certain that sluggish folk are of all men the mostearnest in tiring themselves, not when they are at work, butat play.Thus Haarlem was thrice given over to rejoicing, for athree-fold celebration was to take place.In the first place, the black tulip had been produced;secondly, the Prince William of Orange, as a true Hollander,had promised to be present at the ceremony of itsinauguration; and, thirdly, it was a point of honour withthe States to show to the French, at the conclusion of sucha disastrous war as that of 1672, that the flooring of theBatavian Republic was solid enough for its people to danceon it, with the accompaniment of the cannon of their fleets.The Horticultural Society of Haarlem had shown itself worthyof its fame by giving a hundred thousand guilders for thebulb of a tulip. The town, which did not wish to be outdone,voted a like sum, which was placed in the hands of thatnotable body to solemnise the auspicious event.And indeed on the Sunday fixed for this ceremony there wassuch a stir among the people, and such an enthusiasm amongthe townsfolk, that even a Frenchman, who laughs ateverything at all times, could not have helped admiring thecharacter of those honest Hollanders, who were equally readyto spend their money for the construction of a man-of-war --that is to say, for the support of national honour -- asthey were to reward the growth of a new flower, destined tobloom for one day, and to serve during that day to divertthe ladies, the learned, and the curious.At the head of the notables and of the HorticulturalCommittee shone Mynheer van Systens, dressed in his richesthabiliments.The worthy man had done his best to imitate his favouriteflower in the sombre and stern elegance of his garments; andwe are bound to record, to his honour, that he had perfectlysucceeded in his object.Dark crimson velvet, dark purple silk, and jet-black cloth,with linen of dazzling whiteness, composed the festive dressof the President, who marched at the head of his Committeecarrying an enormous nosegay, like that which a hundred andtwenty-one years later, Monsieur de Robespierre displayed atthe festival of "The Supreme Being."There was, however, a little difference between the two;very different from the French tribune, whose heart was sofull of hatred and ambitious vindictiveness, was the honestPresident, who carried in his bosom a heart as innocent asthe flowers which he held in his hand.Behind the Committee, who were as gay as a meadow, and asfragrant as a garden in spring, marched the learnedsocieties of the town, the magistrates, the military, thenobles and the boors.The people, even among the respected republicans of theSeven Provinces, had no place assigned to them in theprocession; they merely lined the streets.This is the place for the multitude, which with truephilosophic spirit, waits until the triumphal pageants havepassed, to know what to say of them, and sometimes also toknow what to do.This time, however, there was no question either of thetriumph of Pompey or of Caesar; neither of the defeat ofMithridates, nor of the conquest of Gaul. The procession wasas placid as the passing of a flock of lambs, and asinoffensive as a flight of birds sweeping through the air.Haarlem had no other triumphers, except its gardeners.Worshipping flowers, Haarlem idolised the florist.In the centre of this pacific and fragrant cortege the blacktulip was seen, carried on a litter, which was covered withwhite velvet and fringed with gold.The handles of the litter were supported by four men, whowere from time to time relieved by fresh relays, -- even asthe bearers of Mother Cybele used to take turn and turnabout at Rome in the ancient days, when she was brought fromEtruria to the Eternal City, amid the blare of trumpets andthe worship of a whole nation.This public exhibition of the tulip was an act of adorationrendered by an entire nation, unlettered and unrefined, tothe refinement and culture of its illustrious and devoutleaders, whose blood had stained the foul pavement of theBuytenhof, reserving the right at a future day to inscribethe names of its victims upon the highest stone of the DutchPantheon.It was arranged that the Prince Stadtholder himself shouldgive the prize of a hundred thousand guilders, whichinterested the people at large, and it was thought thatperhaps he would make a speech which interested moreparticularly his friends and enemies.For in the most insignificant words of men of politicalimportance their friends and their opponents alwaysendeavour to detect, and hence think they can interpret,something of their true thoughts.As if your true politician's hat were not a bushel underwhich he always hides his light!At length the great and long-expected day -- May 15, 1673 --arrived; and all Haarlem, swelled by her neighbours, wasgathered in the beautiful tree-lined streets, determined onthis occasion not to waste its applause upon militaryheroes, or those who had won notable victories in the fieldof science, but to reserve their applause for those who hadovercome Nature, and had forced the inexhaustible mother tobe delivered of what had theretofore been regarded asimpossible, -- a completely black tulip.Nothing however, is more fickle than such a resolution ofthe people. When a crowd is once in the humour to cheer, itis just the same as when it begins to hiss. It never knowswhen to stop.It therefore, in the first place, cheered Van Systens andhis nosegay, then the corporation, then followed a cheer forthe people; and, at last, and for once with great justice,there was one for the excellent music with which thegentlemen of the town councils generously treated theassemblage at every halt.Every eye was looking eagerly for the heroine of thefestival, -- that is to say, the black tulip, -- and for itshero in the person of the one who had grown it.In case this hero should make his appearance after theaddress we have seen worthy Van Systens at work on soconscientiously, he would not fail to make as much of asensation as the Stadtholder himself.But the interest of the day's proceedings for us is centredneither in the learned discourse of our friend Van Systens,however eloquent it might be, nor in the young dandies,resplendent in their Sunday clothes, and munching theirheavy cakes; nor in the poor young peasants, gnawing smokedeels as if they were sticks of vanilla sweetmeat; neither isour interest in the lovely Dutch girls, with red cheeks andivory bosoms; nor in the fat, round mynheers, who had neverleft their homes before; nor in the sallow, thin travellersfrom Ceylon or Java; nor in the thirsty crowds, who quenchedtheir thirst with pickled cucumbers; -- no, so far as we areconcerned, the real interest of the situation, thefascinating, dramatic interest, is not to be found here.Our interest is in a smiling, sparkling face to be seen amidthe members of the Horticultural Committee; in the personwith a flower in his belt, combed and brushed, and all cladin scarlet, -- a colour which makes his black hair andyellow skin stand out in violent contrast.This hero, radiant with rapturous joy, who had thedistinguished honour of making the people forget the speechof Van Systens, and even the presence of the Stadtholder,was Isaac Boxtel, who saw, carried on his right before him,the black tulip, his pretended daughter; and on his left, ina large purse, the hundred thousand guilders in glitteringgold 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 amoment with Van Systens. He borrowed a little importancefrom everybody to make a kind of false importance forhimself, as he had stolen Rosa's tulip to effect his ownglory, and thereby make his fortune.Another quarter of an hour and the Prince will arrive andthe procession will halt for the last time; after the tulipis placed on its throne, the Prince, yielding precedence tothis rival for the popular adoration, will take amagnificently emblazoned parchment, on which is written thename of the grower; and his Highness, in a loud and audibletone, will proclaim him to be the discoverer of a wonder;that Holland, by the instrumentality of him, Boxtel, hasforced Nature to produce a black flower, which shallhenceforth be called Tulipa nigra Boxtellea.From time to time, however, Boxtel withdrew his eyes for amoment from the tulip and the purse, timidly looking amongthe crowd, for more than anything he dreaded to descry therethe pale face of the pretty Frisian girl.She would have been a spectre spoiling the joy of thefestival for him, just as Banquo's ghost did that ofMacbeth.And yet, if the truth must be told, this wretch, who hadstolen what was the boast of man, and the dowry of a woman,did not consider himself as a thief. He had so intentlywatched this tulip, followed it so eagerly from the drawerin Cornelius's dry-room to the scaffold of the Buytenhof,and from the scaffold to the fortress of Loewestein; he hadseen it bud and grow in Rosa's window, and so often warmedthe air round it with his breath, that he felt as if no onehad a better right to call himself its producer than he had;and any one who would now take the black tulip from himwould have appeared to him as a thief.Yet he did not perceive Rosa; his joy therefore was notspoiled.In the centre of a circle of magnificent trees, which weredecorated with garlands and inscriptions, the processionhalted, amidst the sounds of lively music, and the youngdamsels of Haarlem made their appearance to escort the tulipto the raised seat which it was to occupy on the platform,by the side of the gilded chair of his Highness theStadtholder.And the proud tulip, raised on its pedestal, soon overlookedthe assembled crowd of people, who clapped their hands, andmade the old town of Haarlem re-echo with their tremendouscheers.