“I promise.”
“Well, then, speak before this gentleman; this gentleman is one of the members of the Horticultural Society.”
“What am I to tell you, sir,” said Rosa, “besides that which I have told you already?”
“Well, then, what is it?”
“I repeat the request which I have addressed to you before.”
“Which?”
“That you will order Mynheer Boxtel to come here with his tulip; if I do not recognise it as mine I will frankly tell it; but if I do recognise it I will reclaim it, even if I must go before His Highness, the Stadtholder himself, with my proofs in my hands.”
“You have, then, some proofs, my child?”
“God, who knows my good right, will assist me to some.”
Van Herysen exchanged a look with the Prince, who, since the first words of Rosa, seemed to try to remember her, as if it were not for the first time that this sweet voice rang in his ears.
An officer went off to fetch Boxtel, and Van Herysen, in the meanwhile, continued his examination.
“And with what do you support your assertion that you are the real owner of the black tulip?”
“With the very simple fact of my having planted and grown it in my own chamber.”
“In your chamber? Where was your chamber?”
“At Lœvestein.”
“You are from Lœvestein?”
“I am the daughter of the jailor of the fortress.”
The Prince made a little movement, as much as to say, “Well, that’s it, I remember now.”
And, all the while feigning to be engaged with his
