ht of a criminal who deserved
to be hung. It is true, they did not particularly like his somewhat
austere republicanism, but they were proud of his valour; and when he
made his entrance into their town, the cup of honour was offered to him,
readily enough, in the name of the city.

After having thanked his fellow citizens, Cornelius proceeded to his old
paternal house, and gave directions for some repairs, which he wished to
have executed before the arrival of his wife and children; and thence
he wended his way to the house of his godson, who perhaps was the only
person in Dort as yet unacquainted with the presence of Cornelius in the
town.

In the same degree as Cornelius de Witt had excited the hatred of the
people by sowing those evil seeds which are called political passions,
Van Baerle had gained the affections of his fellow citizens by
completely shunning the pursuit of politics, absorbed as he was in the
peaceful pursuit of cultivating tulips.

Van Baerle was truly beloved by his servants and labourers; nor had
he any conception that there was in this world a man who wished ill to
another.

And yet it must be said, to the disgrace of mankind, that Cornelius
van Baerle, without being aware of the fact, had a much more ferocious,
fierce, and implacable enemy than the Grand Pensionary and his brother
had among the Orange party, who were most hostile to the devoted
brothers, who had never been sundered by the least misunderstanding
during their lives, and by their mutual devotion in the face of death
made sure the existence of their brotherly affection beyond the grave.

At the time when Cornelius van Baerle began to devote himself to
tulip-growing, expending on this hobby his yearly revenue and the
guilders of his father, there was at Dort, living next door to him, a
citizen of the name of Isaac Boxtel who from the age when he was able to
think for himself had indulged the same fancy, and who was in ecstasies
at the mere mention of the word "tulban," which (as we are assured
by the "Floriste Francaise," the most highly considered authority in
matters relating to this flower) is the first word in the Cingalese
tongue which was ever used to designate that masterpiece of floriculture
which is now called the tulip.

Boxtel had not the good fortune of being rich, like Van Baerle. He
had therefore, with great care and patience, and by dint of strenuous
exertions, laid out near his house at Dort a garden fit for the