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Updated: May 24, 2025
Mynheer van Baerle and his tulips, therefore, were in the mouth of everybody; so much so, that Boxtel's name disappeared for ever from the list of the notable tulip-growers in Holland, and those of Dort were now represented by Cornelius van Baerle, the modest and inoffensive savant.
This argument capped all the others, and, in order so much the more effectually to destroy the germ of conspiracy, sentence of death was unanimously pronounced against Cornelius van Baerle, as being arraigned, and convicted, for having, under the innocent appearance of a tulip-fancier, participated in the detestable intrigues and abominable plots of the brothers De Witt against Dutch nationality and in their secret relations with their French enemy.
Whilst the events we have described in our last chapter were taking place, the unfortunate Van Baerle, forgotten in his cell in the fortress of Loewestein, suffered at the hands of Gryphus all that a prisoner can suffer when his jailer has formed the determination of playing the part of hangman.
"'So, then, my pretty Rosa, he said, with a voice as sweet a honey, 'so you think that bulb to have been a precious one? "I saw that I had made a blunder. "'What do I know? I said, negligently; 'do I understand anything of tulips? I only know as unfortunately it is our lot to live with prisoners that for them any pastime is of value. This poor Mynheer van Baerle amused himself with this bulb.
He therefore came to the conclusion that the parcel contained simply some papers, and that these papers were relating to politics. But why should papers of political import be intrusted to Van Baerle, who not only was, but also boasted of being, an entire stranger to the science of government, which, in his opinion, was more occult than alchemy itself?
First of all, you will have no books, no paper, and no conjuring book. It's books that helped Mynheer Grotius to get off." "I assure you, Master Gryphus," replied Van Baerle, "that if I have entertained the idea of escaping, I most decidedly have it no longer." "Well, well," said Gryphus, "just look sharp: that's what I shall do also.
The magistrate broke the seals, tore off the envelope, cast an eager glance on the first leaves which met his eye and then exclaimed, in a terrible voice, "Well, justice has been rightly informed after all!" "How," said Cornelius, "how is this?" "Don't pretend to be ignorant, Mynheer van Baerle," answered the magistrate. "Follow me." "How's that! follow you?" cried the Doctor.
Then, examining the bulb which he held in the hollow of his hand, he said: "Well, here is one of them uninjured. That confounded Craeke! thus to rush into my dry-room; let us now look after the other." And without laying down the bulb which he already held, Baerle went to the fireplace, knelt down and stirred with the tip of his finger the ashes, which fortunately were quite cold.
And yet, on looking over the register of seeds and bulbs, which Van Baerle kept in duplicate, if possible even with greater exactitude and care than the first commercial houses of Amsterdam their ledgers, Boxtel read these lines: "To-day, 20th of August, 1672, I have taken up the mother bulb of the grand black tulip, which I have divided into three perfect suckers."
"My father might grow impatient not seeing me return, and that precious lover might suspect a rival." Here she listened uneasily. "What is it?" asked Van Baerle. "I thought I heard something." "What, then?" "Something like a step, creaking on the staircase." "Surely," said the prisoner, "that cannot be Master Gryphus, he is always heard at a distance."
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