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The Black Tulip-Part8_Alexandre Dumas(1802-1870)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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country and of his age, one of the most elegant and

expensive, -- he became a tulip-fancier.



It was the time when the Dutch and the Portuguese, rivalling

each other in this branch of horticulture, had begun to



worship that flower, and to make more of a cult of it than

ever naturalists dared to make of the human race for fear of



arousing the jealousy of God.

Soon people from Dort to Mons began to talk of Mynheer van



Baerle's tulips; and his beds, pits, drying-rooms, and

drawers of bulbs were visited, as the galleries and



libraries of Alexandria were by illustrious Roman

travellers.



Van Baerle began by expending his yearlyrevenue in laying

the groundwork of his collection, after which he broke in



upon his new guilders to bring it to perfection. His

exertions, indeed, were crowned with a most magnificent



result: he produced three new tulips, which he called the

"Jane," after his mother; the "Van Baerle," after his



father; and the "Cornelius," after his godfather; the other

names have escaped us, but the fanciers will be sure to find



them in the catalogues of the times.

In the beginning of the year 1672, Cornelius de Witt came to



Dort for three months, to live at his old family mansion;

for not only was he born in that city, but his family had



been resident there for centuries.

Cornelius, at that period, as William of Orange said, began



to enjoy the most perfect unpopularity. To his fellow

citizens, the good burghers of Dort, however, he did not



appear in the light 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 mutualdevotion in the face of death

made sure the existence of their brotherlyaffection 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.




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