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Page 132
Haarlem offered prizes for tulip-growing; and this fact
brings us in the most natural manner to that celebration
which the city intended to hold on May 15th, 1673 in honour
of the great black tulip, immaculate and perfect, which
should gain for its discoverer one hundred thousand
guilders!
Haarlem, having placed on exhibition its favourite, having
advertised its love of flowers in general and of tulips in
particular, at a period when the souls of men were filled
with war and sedition, -- Haarlem, having enjoyed the
exquisite pleasure of admiring the very purest ideal of
tulips in full bloom, -- Haarlem, this tiny town, full of
trees and of sunshine, of light and shade, had determined
that the ceremony of bestowing the prize should be a fete
which should live for ever in the memory of men.
So much the more reason was there, too, in her
determination, in that Holland is the home of fetes; never
did sluggish natures manifest more eager energy of the
singing and dancing sort than those of the good republicans
of the Seven Provinces when amusement was the order of the
day.
Study the pictures of the two Teniers.
It is certain that sluggish folk are of all men the most
earnest in tiring themselves, not when they are at work, but
at play.
Thus Haarlem was thrice given over to rejoicing, for a
three-fold celebration was to take place.
In the first place, the black tulip had been produced;
secondly, the Prince William of Orange, as a true Hollander,
had promised to be present at the ceremony of its
inauguration; and, thirdly, it was a point of honour with
the States to show to the French, at the conclusion of such
a disastrous war as that of 1672, that the flooring of the
Batavian Republic was solid enough for its people to dance
on it, with the accompaniment of the cannon of their fleets.
The Horticultural Society of Haarlem had shown itself worthy
of its fame by giving a hundred thousand guilders for the
bulb of a tulip. The town, which did not wish to be outdone,
voted a like sum, which was placed in the hands of that
notable body to solemnise the auspicious event.
And indeed on the Sunday fixed for this ceremony there was
such a stir among the people, and such an enthusiasm among
the townsfolk, that even a Frenchman, who laughs at
everything at all times, could not have helped admiring the
character of those honest Hollanders, who were equally ready
to spend their money for the construction of a man-of-war --
that is to say, for the support of national honour -- as
they were to reward the growth of a new flower, destined to
bloom for one day, and to serve during that day to divert
the ladies, the learned, and the curious.
At the head of the notables and of the Horticultural
Committee shone Mynheer van Systens, dressed in his richest
habiliments.
The worthy man had done his best to imitate his favourite
flower in the sombre and stern elegance of his garments; and
we are bound to record, to his honour, that he had perfectly
succeeded in his object.
Dark crimson velvet, dark purple silk, and jet-black cloth,
with linen of dazzling whiteness, composed the festive dress
of the President, who marched at the head of his Committee
carrying an enormous nosegay, like that which a hundred and
twenty-one years later, Monsieur de Robespierre displayed at
the festival of "The Supreme Being."
There was, however, a little difference between the two;
very different from the French tribune, whose heart was so
full of hatred and ambitious vindictiveness, was the honest
President, who carried in his bosom a heart as innocent as
the flowers which he held in his hand.
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