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Black Tulip
On
the
20th
of
August
,
1672
,
the
city
of
the
Hague
,
always
so
lively
,
so
neat
,
and
so
trim
that
one
might
believe
every
day
to
be
Sunday
,
with
its
shady
park
,
with
its
tall
trees
,
spreading
over
its
Gothic
houses
,
with
its
canals
like
large
mirrors
,
in
which
its
steeples
and
its
almost
Eastern
cupolas
are
reflected
,
--
the
city
of
the
Hague
,
the
capital
of
the
Seven
United
Provinces
,
was
swelling
in
all
its
arteries
with
a
black
and
red
stream
of
hurried
,
panting
,
and
restless
citizens
,
who
,
with
their
knives
in
their
girdles
,
muskets
on
their
shoulders
,
or
sticks
in
their
hands
,
were
pushing
on
to
the
Buytenhof
,
a
terrible
prison
,
the
grated
windows
of
which
are
still
shown
,
where
,
on
the
charge
of
attempted
murder
preferred
against
him
by
the
surgeon
Tyckelaer
,
Cornelius
de
Witt
,
the
brother
of
the
Grand
Pensionary
of
Holland
was
confined
.
If
the
history
of
that
time
,
and
especially
that
of
the
year
in
the
middle
of
which
our
narrative
commences
,
were
not
indissolubly
connected
with
the
two
names
just
mentioned
,
the
few
explanatory
pages
which
we
are
about
to
add
might
appear
quite
supererogatory
;
but
we
will
,
from
the
very
first
,
apprise
the
reader
--
our
old
friend
,
to
whom
we
are
wont
on
the
first
page
to
promise
amusement
,
and
with
whom
we
always
try
to
keep
our
word
as
well
as
is
in
our
power
--
that
this
explanation
is
as
indispensable
to
the
right
understanding
of
our
story
as
to
that
of
the
great
event
itself
on
which
it
is
based
.
Cornelius
de
Witt
,
Ruart
de
Pulten
,
that
is
to
say
,
warden
of
the
dikes
,
ex-burgomaster
of
Dort
,
his
native
town
,
and
member
of
the
Assembly
of
the
States
of
Holland
,
was
forty-nine
years
of
age
,
when
the
Dutch
people
,
tired
of
the
Republic
such
as
John
de
Witt
,
the
Grand
Pensionary
of
Holland
,
understood
it
,
at
once
conceived
a
most
violent
affection
for
the
Stadtholderate
,
which
had
been
abolished
for
ever
in
Holland
by
the
"
Perpetual
Edict
"
forced
by
John
de
Witt
upon
the
United
Provinces
.
As
it
rarely
happens
that
public
opinion
,
in
its
whimsical
flights
,
does
not
identify
a
principle
with
a
man
,
thus
the
people
saw
the
personification
of
the
Republic
in
the
two
stern
figures
of
the
brothers
De
Witt
,
those
Romans
of
Holland
,
spurning
to
pander
to
the
fancies
of
the
mob
,
and
wedding
themselves
with
unbending
fidelity
to
liberty
without
licentiousness
,
and
prosperity
without
the
waste
of
superfluity
;
on
the
other
hand
,
the
Stadtholderate
recalled
to
the
popular
mind
the
grave
and
thoughtful
image
of
the
young
Prince
William
of
Orange
.
The
brothers
De
Witt
humoured
Louis
XIV.
,
whose
moral
influence
was
felt
by
the
whole
of
Europe
,
and
the
pressure
of
whose
material
power
Holland
had
been
made
to
feel
in
that
marvellous
campaign
on
the
Rhine
,
which
,
in
the
space
of
three
months
,
had
laid
the
power
of
the
United
Provinces
prostrate
.
Louis
XIV
.
had
long
been
the
enemy
of
the
Dutch
,
who
insulted
or
ridiculed
him
to
their
hearts
'
content
,
although
it
must
be
said
that
they
generally
used
French
refugees
for
the
mouthpiece
of
their
spite
.
Their
national
pride
held
him
up
as
the
Mithridates
of
the
Republic
.
The
brothers
De
Witt
,
therefore
,
had
to
strive
against
a
double
difficulty
,
--
against
the
force
of
national
antipathy
,
and
,
besides
,
against
the
feeling
of
weariness
which
is
natural
to
all
vanquished
people
,
when
they
hope
that
a
new
chief
will
be
able
to
save
them
from
ruin
and
shame
.
This
new
chief
,
quite
ready
to
appear
on
the
political
stage
,
and
to
measure
himself
against
Louis
XIV.
,
however
gigantic
the
fortunes
of
the
Grand
Monarch
loomed
in
the
future
,
was
William
,
Prince
of
Orange
,
son
of
William
II.
,
and
grandson
,
by
his
mother
Henrietta
Stuart
,
of
Charles
I.
of
England
.
We
have
mentioned
him
before
as
the
person
by
whom
the
people
expected
to
see
the
office
of
Stadtholder
restored
.
This
young
man
was
,
in
1672
,
twenty-two
years
of
age
.
John
de
Witt
,
who
was
his
tutor
,
had
brought
him
up
with
the
view
of
making
him
a
good
citizen
.
Loving
his
country
better
than
he
did
his
disciple
,
the
master
had
,
by
the
Perpetual
Edict
,
extinguished
the
hope
which
the
young
Prince
might
have
entertained
of
one
day
becoming
Stadtholder
.
But
God
laughs
at
the
presumption
of
man
,
who
wants
to
raise
and
prostrate
the
powers
on
earth
without
consulting
the
King
above
;
and
the
fickleness
and
caprice
of
the
Dutch
combined
with
the
terror
inspired
by
Louis
XIV.
,
in
repealing
the
Perpetual
Edict
,
and
re-establishing
the
office
of
Stadtholder
in
favour
of
William
of
Orange
,
for
whom
the
hand
of
Providence
had
traced
out
ulterior
destinies
on
the
hidden
map
of
the
future
.
The
Grand
Pensionary
bowed
before
the
will
of
his
fellow
citizens
;
Cornelius
de
Witt
,
however
,
was
more
obstinate
,
and
notwithstanding
all
the
threats
of
death
from
the
Orangist
rabble
,
who
besieged
him
in
his
house
at
Dort
,
he
stoutly
refused
to
sign
the
act
by
which
the
office
of
Stadtholder
was
restored
.
Moved
by
the
tears
and
entreaties
of
his
wife
,
he
at
last
complied
,
only
adding
to
his
signature
the
two
letters
V.
C.
(
Vi
Coactus
)
,
notifying
thereby
that
he
only
yielded
to
force
.
