Part 7 (1/2)
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 sublira Boxtellensis, -- a result which would satisfy not only his vengeance, but also his cupidity and his arand black tulip; asleep, he dreaust, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the teer 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 athe letter reached the principal ues early for the next , therefore, they asse 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 at the Hague were roasting the bleeding shreds of flesh torn from the corpses of Cornelius and John de Witt
But, whether fro of shame or from craven weakness, Isaac Boxtel did not venture that day to point his telescope either at the garden, or at the laboratory, or at the dry-room
He knew too as about to happen in the house of the poor doctor to feel any desire to look into it He did not even get up when his only servant -- who envied the lot of the servants of Cornelius just as bitterly as Boxtel did that of their master -- entered his bedrooet up to-day, I areat noise in the street which made him tremble, at this moment he was paler than a real invalid, and shook ht of fever
His servant entered the room; Boxtel hid himself under the counterpane
”Oh, sir!” cried the servant, not without so the reeable news to hisat this moment?”
”How can I know it?” answered Boxtel, with an alible voice
”Well, Mynheer Boxtel, at this h treason”
”Nonsense!” Boxtelis impossible”
”Faith, sir, at any rate that's what people say; and, besides, I have seen Judge van Spennen with the archers entering the house”
”Well, if you have seen it with your own eyes, that's a different case altogether”
”At all events,” said the servant, ”I shall go and inquire once more Be you quiet, sir, I shall let you know all about it”
Boxtel contented hi his approval of the zeal of his servant by dumb show
The man went out, and returned in half an hour
”Oh, sir, all that I told you is indeed quite true”
”How so?”
”Mynheer van Baerle is arrested, and has been put into a carriage, and they are driving hiue, and if what people say is true, it won't do hiood”
”And what do they say?” Boxtel asked
”Faith, sir, they say -- but it is not quite sure -- that by this hour the burghersMynheer Cornelius and Mynheer John de Witt”
”Oh,”his eyes froination
”Why, to be sure,” said the servant to hi the room, ”Mynheer Isaac Boxtelsuch good news”
And, in reality, Isaac Boxtel was very sick, like a man who has murdered another
But he had murdered his man with a double object; the first was attained, the second was still to be attained
Night closed in It was the night which Boxtel had looked forward to
As soon as it was dark he got up
He then climbed into his sycaht of keeping watch over the garden; the house and the servants were all in the utmost confusion
He heard the clock strike -- ten, eleven, twelve
Athands, and a livid countenance, he descended froainst the wall, mounted it to the last step but one, and listened
All was perfectly quiet, not a sound broke the silence of the night; one solitary light, that of the housekeeper, was burning in the house
This silence and this darkness eot astride the wall, stopped for an instant, and, after having ascertained that there was nothing to fear, he put his ladder froarden into that of Cornelius, and descended
Then, knowing to an inch where the bulbs which were to produce the black tulip were planted, he ran towards the spot, following, however, the gravelled walks in order not to be betrayed by his footprints, and, on arriving at the precise spot, he proceeded, with the eagerness of a tiger, to plunge his hand into the soft ground
He found nothing, and thought he was mistaken
In the meanwhile, the cold sweat stood on his brow
He felt about close by it, -- nothing
He felt about on the right, and on the left, -- nothing
He felt about in front and at the back, -- nothing
He was nearly mad, when at last he satisfied hi the earth had been disturbed
In fact, whilst Boxtel was lying in bed, Cornelius had gone down to his garden, had taken up the mother bulb, and, as we have seen, divided it into three
Boxtel could not bring hi up with his hands round
At last no doubt ree, he returned to his ladder, arden, and jumped after it