reader has guessed before this, the di

d escaped him. He had, indeed, heard nothing, but he had seen everything, and had rightly concluded that the papers intrusted by the Warden to the Docto

ornelius was used to do, heard the news of the brothers De Witt being arrested on a charge of high treason against the States, he

he at first shrank with horror from the idea of informing ag

in evil thoughts, that evil min

Boxtel encouraged himself

citizen, as he is charged wi

I am not charged with anything in the wor

be no doubt, as he is charged with high treason, and arrested,-his ac

f every good citizen to inform against the bad ones,

te a hold of Boxtel, nor would he perhaps have yielded to the mere desire of vengeance wh

ess which Van Baerle had made towar

st intimate friends that he was all but certain to win, in the year of grace 1673, th

s van Baerle that caused the fever whi

eat upset in his house, and during the night after his arrest n

ad of flowering for Cornelius, it would flower for him, Isaac; he also, instead of Van Baerle, would have the prize of a hundred thousand guilders, not to speak of

g but the grand black tulip

in the afternoon, the temptation grew so strong, t

, the minute exactness of which made up for it

the jaws of the bronze lions at Venice, p

they assembled, and decided on Van Baerle's arrest, placing the order for its execution in the hands of Master van Spennen, who, as we have seen, performed his duty like a true Holl

Isaac Boxtel did not venture that day to point his telescope e

ok into it. He did not even get up when his only servant-who envied the lot of the servants of Cor

get up to-d

made him tremble, at this moment he was paler than a real inva

room; Boxtel hid himse

the mishap which had befallen Van Baerle, he was announcing agreeable news to

wered Boxtel, with an al

ent your neighbour Cornelius van B

d, with a faltering voice;

say; and, besides, I have seen Judge van S

with your own eyes, that's

ll go and inquire once more. Be you quiet

ignifying his approval of the z

t, and returned

t I told you is i

w s

d has been put into a carriage, and

he Ha

what people say is true,

they say?"

-that by this hour the burghers must be murder

closing his eyes from the dreadful picture

aving the room, "Mynheer Isaac Boxtel must be very sick n

el was very sick, like a ma

ouble object; the first was attained

the night which Boxtel

it was dark

mbed into h

keeping watch over the garden; the house and

ock strike-ten,

untenance, he descended from the tree, took a ladder, leaned it ag

silence of the night; one solitary light, tha

ped for an instant, and, after having ascertained that there was nothing to fea

he spot, following, however, the gravelled walks in order not to be betrayed by his footprints, and, on arriv

g, and thought

the cold sweat s

ut close by

the right, and on

front and at th

atisfied himself that on that very m

had gone down to his garden, had taken up the mothe

ve the place. He dug up with his hand

, he returned to his ladder, mounted the wall, drew up the

e seedling bulbs might be in the dry-room; it was therefore only

sashes of the dry-room might be raised like those of a greenhouse. Cornelius

he could procure a ladder of sufficient len

ived a house which was being repaired, and

mirably, unless the wor

great exertion to his garden, and with even greater difficulty raised it

into his pocket, mounted the lad

table; his legs failed him, his heart beat as if it would choke him. Here it was ev

in: he had not gone so far t

to Cornelius had been deposited; he found ticketed, as in a botanical garden, the "Jane," the "John de Witt," the hazel-nut, and the roas

ept in duplicate, if possible even with greater exactitude and care than the

the mother bulb of the grand black tulip, whi

tel, turning over everything in the dry-r

arated from his bulbs? Would any one leave them at Dort, when one goes to the Hague? Could one live far from one's bulbs, when they

which showed to Boxtel the abys

ot where, some hours before, the unfortunate Van Baerle had so leis

s livid face from his hands in which it had been buried-"if

able thought was expres

refore, I can no longer live at Dort: away,

bed by another inestimable treasure, let himself out by the window, glided down the ladder, carried i