And now," continued Cornelius,--wiping away a tear which was glistening
in his eye, and which was shed much more for that marvellous black
tulip which he was not to see than for the life which he was about to
lose,--"I have no wish left, except that the tulip should be called Rosa
Barlaensis, that is to say, that its name should combine yours and mine;
and as, of course, you do not understand Latin, and might therefore
forget this name, try to get for me pencil and paper, that I may write
it down for you."

Rosa sobbed afresh, and handed to him a book, bound in shagreen, which
bore the initials C. W.

"What is this?" asked the prisoner.

"Alas!" replied Rosa, "it is the Bible of your poor godfather, Cornelius
de Witt. From it he derived strength to endure the torture, and to bear
his sentence without flinching. I found it in this cell, after the death
of the martyr, and have preserved it as a relic. To-day I brought it to
you, for it seemed to me that this book must possess in itself a divine
power. Write in it what you have to write, Mynheer Cornelius; and
though, unfortunately, I am not able to read, I will take care that what
you write shall be accomplished."

Cornelius took the Bible, and kissed it reverently.

"With what shall I write?" asked Cornelius.

"There is a pencil in the Bible," said Rosa.

This was the pencil which John de Witt had lent to his brother, and
which he had forgotten to take away with him.

Cornelius took it, and on the second fly leaf (for it will be remembered
that the first was torn out), drawing near his end like his godfather,
he wrote with a no less firm hand:--

"On this day, the 23d of August, 1672, being on the point of rendering,
although innocent, my soul to God on the scaffold, I bequeath to Rosa
Gryphus the only worldly goods which remain to me of all that I have
possessed in this world, the rest having been confiscated; I bequeath, I
say, to Rosa Gryphus three bulbs, which I am convinced must produce,
in the next May, the Grand Black Tulip for which a prize of a hundred
thousand guilders has been offered by the Haarlem Society, requesting
that she may be paid the same sum in my stead, as my sole heiress, under
the only condition of her marrying a respectable young man of about
my age, who loves her, and whom she loves, and of her giving the black
tulip, which will constitute a new species, the name of Rosa Barlaensis,
that is to say, hers and mine combined.

"So may G