the 19th of August, about two o’clock in the afternoon
If Cornelius should be arrested there would necessarily be a great upset in his house , and during the night after his arrest no one would think of keeping watch over the tulips in his garden . Now in that night Boxtel would climb over the wall and , as he knew the position of the bulb which was to produce the grand black tulip , he would filch it ; and instead of flowering for Cornelius , it would flower for him , Isaac ; he also , instead of Van Baerle , would have the prize of a hundred thousand guilders , not to speak of the sublime honour of calling the new flower Tulipa nigra Boxtellensis , -- a result which would satisfy not only his vengeance , but also his cupidity and his ambition . Awake , he thought of nothing but the grand black tulip ; asleep , he dreamed of it . At last , on the 19th of August , about two o'clock in the afternoon , the temptation grew so strong , that Mynheer Isaac was no longer able to resist it . Accordingly , he wrote an anonymous information , the minute exactness of which made up for its want of authenticity , and posted his letter . Never did a venomous paper , slipped into the jaws of the bronze lions at Venice , produce a more prompt and terrible effect . On the same evening the letter reached the principal magistrate , who without a moment 's delay convoked his colleagues early for the next morning .