Author: Alexandre Dumas/ Year: 1802 - 1870 / Genre:Historic Novels The government announces a competition to award 100,000 guilders to the gardener who can produce a flawless black tulip (a real plant that requires enormous skill and time to produce). Cornelius doesn’t care about the money, but is excited by the challenge. Boxtel, with his shaded garden, knows he now has no chance to beat Cornelius. Boxtel sees evidence of Cornelius’ involvement with de Witt due to his spying, and he has Cornelius arrested for treason. Cornelius is initially sentenced to death, but William of Orange, newly-installed as Stadhouder after de Witt’s death, commutes it to life in prison. Cornelius manages to save three cuttings from his tulips—cuttings that will almost certainly bloom into the black tulip.
