155 



FAITH UNTO DEATH ; 



A TRADITION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



*' Existence may be borne, and the deep root 

 Of life and sufferance make its firm abode 

 In bare and desolated bosoms." 



Childe Harold, Canto IV., Stanza xxi. 



The mellow beams of the setting sun shed a flood of amber light 

 through the curious octagonal-paned windows of a large room in 

 the upper story of an old-fashioned house in one of the principal 

 streets in Amsterdam. The room bore a singular appearance 

 from the diversified nature of its contents. The furniture wa.s 

 gothic in form, of dark woods, polished and carved j and scattered 

 in every direction were fragments of sculpture, vestiges of 

 stained glass, relics of rare stuffs, of cloth of gold, and tapestry, 

 weapons of defence, sabres and javelins and battle-axes, mingled 

 with musical instruments and huge tomes protected in vellum and 

 clasped with the precious metals. Here lay a plumed head-piece 

 and a shirt of linked mail, and there was a pile of parchment 

 M8S., decorated with a scull and the detached bones of a skele- 

 ton. On an ebony table stood a crucifix of mother-of-pearl, 

 enclosed in a glazed cabinet of sandal-wood j and before it were an 

 illuminated missal, an hour-glass with a gnomon and dial-plate on 

 the top, a musk-rose in a goblet of crystal, a flute, a rosary of 

 opals and silver, and a golden chain with a medal attached, bearing 

 an honorary legend. Then there were many busts and bronzes ; 

 jars and bottles, fossils and minerals, and objects of natural history 

 mounted upon brackets, and shelves, and suspended from the 

 cross beams of the roof: on a long table lay reeds and chalks, 

 pencils and papers, with oils, gums and colours of every descrip- 

 tion, and, carefully placed against the wall, were the " St. Hubert" 

 and the " Sleeping Mahomet" engraven by Lucas Jacobs,^ the 

 precocious genius of Leyden, then but a boy in his fourteenth year, 

 and the wonder of his contemporaries. 



In this museum-like apartment, and standing before an easel, a 

 stripHng was giving the finishing touches to the landscape back- 

 ground of a picture of the Nativity. In person the student was 

 slight but well formed, of a fair complexion, with light hazel eves, 

 straight nose, full lips, short mustachios, and dark chesnut hair 

 parted on the forehead and flowing in thick curls on his shoulders. 

 His dress consisted of a tunic of lawn plaited round the neck and 

 terminated by a narrow band exquisitely embroidered j over this a 

 doublet of raven-grey, open in front and falling in folds to the 

 knee, was confined round the waist by a black girdle j hose of the 

 same texture and hue, with square-toed shoes of fine leather, com- 



* Otherwise '* Lucas of Leyden" the celebrated German engrraver. 

 NO. HI. X 



