t the bad ones, it is my duty to inform against
Cornelius van Baerle."

Specious as this mode of reasoning might sound, it would not perhaps
have taken so complete a hold of Boxtel, nor would he perhaps have
yielded to the mere desire of vengeance which was gnawing at his heart,
had not the demon of envy been joined with that of cupidity.

Boxtel was quite aware of the progress which Van Baerle had made towards
producing the grand black tulip.

Dr. Cornelius, notwithstanding all his modesty, had not been able to
hide from his most intimate friends that he was all but certain to win,
in the year of grace 1673, the prize of a hundred thousand guilders
offered by the Horticultural Society of Haarlem.

It was just this certainty of Cornelius van Baerle that caused the fever
which raged in the heart of Isaac Boxtel.

If Cornelius should be arrested there would necessarily be a great upset
in his house, and during the night after his arrest no one would think
of keeping watch over the tulips in his garden.

Now in that night Boxtel would climb over the wall and, as he knew the
position of the bulb which was to produce the grand black tulip, he
would filch it; and instead of flowering for Cornelius, it would flower
for him, Isaac; he also, instead of Van Baerle, would have the prize
of a hundred thousand guilders, not to speak of the sublime honour of
calling the new flower Tulipa nigra Boxtellensis,--a result which would
satisfy not only his vengeance, but also his cupidity and his ambition.

Awake, he thought of nothing but the grand black tulip; asleep, he
dreamed of it.

At last, on the 19th of August, about two o'clock in the afternoon,
the temptation grew so strong, that Mynheer Isaac was no longer able to
resist it.

Accordingly, he wrote an anonymous information, the minute exactness of
which made up for its want of authenticity, and posted his letter.

Never did a venomous paper, slipped into the jaws of the bronze lions at
Venice, produce a more prompt and terrible effect.

On the same evening the letter reached the principal magistrate, who
without a moment's delay convoked his colleagues early for the next
morning. On the following morning, therefore, they assembled, and
decided on Van Baerle's arrest, placing the order for its execution in
the hands of Master van Spennen, who, as we have seen, performed his
duty like a true Hollander, and who arrested the Doctor at the very hour
when the Orange party