“Go, Mynheer Boxtel; you shall have justice.  And you, Mynheer van Systens, take care of this maiden and of the tulip,” said the prince.

That same evening the prince summoned Rosa to the town hall, and talked to her.  Rosa did not deny her love for Cornelius.

“But what is the good of loving a man condemned to live and die in prison?” the prince asked.

“I can help him to live and die,” came the answer.

The prince sealed a letter, and sent it off to Loewenstein by Colonel van Deken.  Then he turned to Rosa, and said, “The day after to-morrow is Sunday, and it will be the festival of the tulip.  Take these 500 guilders, and dress yourself in the costume of a Friesland bride, for I want it to be a grand festival for you.”

Sunday came, May 15, 1673, and all Haarlem gathered to do honour to the black tulip.  Boxtel was in the crowd, feasting his eyes on the sacred flower, which was born aloft in a litter.  The procession stopped, and the flower was placed on a pedestal, while the people cheered with wild enthusiasm.  At the solemn moment when the Prince of Orange was to acclaim the triumphant owner of the black tulip and present the prize of 100,000 guilders, the coach with the unhappy prisoner Cornelius van Baerle drew up in the market-place.

Cornelius, hearing that the celebration of the black tulip was actually proceeding, besought his guard to let him have one glimpse of the flower; and the petition was granted by the Prince of Orange.

From a distance of six paces Van Baerle gazed at the black tulip, and then he, with the multitude, turned his eyes towards the prince.  In dead silence the prince declared the occasion of the festival, the discovery of the wonderful black tulip, and concluded, “Let the owner of the black tulip approach.”

Cornelius made an involuntary movement.  Boxtel and Rosa rushed forward from the crowd.

The prince turned to Rosa.  “This tulip is yours, is it not?” he said.

“Yes, my lord,” she answered softly.  And general applause came from the crowd.

“This tulip will henceforth bear the name of its producer, and will be called Tulipa nigra Rosa Baerttensis, because Van Baerle is to be the married name of this damsel,” the prince announced; and at the same time he took Rosa’s hand and placed it within the hand of the prisoner, who had rushed forward at the words he had heard.

Boxtel fell down in a fit, and when they raised him up he was dead.

The procession returned to the town hall, the prince declared Rosa the prizewinner, and informed Cornelius that, having been wrongfully condemned, his property was restored to him.  Then he entered his coach, and was driven away.

Cornelius and Rosa departed for Dordrecht, and Van Baerle remained ever faithful to his wife and his tulips.

As for old Gryphus, after being the roughest gaoler of men, he lived to be the fiercest guardian of tulips at Dordrecht.