ck and a knife,
attacked Cornelius, calling out, "Give me back my daughter." Cornelius
got hold of the stick, forced Gryphus to drop the knife, and then
proceeded to give the gaoler a thrashing. The noise brought in turnkeys
and guards, who speedily carried off the wounded gaoler and arrested Van
Baerle. To comfort the prisoner they assured him he would certainly be
shot within twelve hours.

Then an officer, an aide-de-camp of the Prince of Orange, entered,
escorted Van Baerle to the prison gate, and bade him enter a carriage.
Believing himself about to die, he thought sadly of Rosa and of the
tulip he was never to see again. The carriage rolled off, and they
travelled all that day and night until the journey ended at Haarlem.

_IV.--The Triumph of the Tulip_

Rosa reached Haarlem just four hours after Boxtel's arrival, and she
went at once to seek an interview with Mynheer van Systens, the
President of the Horticultural Society. Immediate admittance was granted
on her mentioning the magic words "black tulip."

"Sir, the black tulip has been stolen from me," said Rosa.

"But I only saw it two hours ago!" replied the president.

"You saw it--where?"

"Why, at your master's! Are you not in the service of Mynheer Isaac
Boxtel?"

"I, sir? Certainly not! But this Isaac Boxtel, is he a thin,
bald-headed, bow-legged, crook-backed, haggard-looking man?"

"You have described him exactly."

"He is the thief; he stole the black tulip from me."

"Well, go and find Mynheer Boxtel--he is at the White Swan Inn, and
settle it with him." And with that the president took up his pen and
went on writing, for he was busy over his report.

But Rosa still implored him, and while she was speaking the Prince of
Orange entered the building. Rosa told everything, how she had received
the bulb from the prisoner at Loewenstein, and how she had first seen
the prisoner at The Hague. Then Boxtel was sent for. He was ready with
his tale. The girl had plotted with her lover, the state prisoner,
Cornelius van Baerle, and had stolen his--Boxtel's--black tulip, which
he had unwisely mentioned. However, he had recovered it.

A thought struck Rosa.

"There were three bulbs. What has become of the others?" she asked.

"One failed, the second produced the black tulip, and the third is at
home at Dordrecht," said Boxtel uneasily.

"You lie; it is here!" cried Rosa. And she drew from her bosom the third
bulb, still wrapped in the same pa