eared in the most
delightful simplicity of belief? Dearest friends, can you give us the
assurance that we shall be able to educate our son in the simple
Catholic faith which we have learnt to recognise as the most vital and
consoling." Overbeck, it need hardly be added, shrank from the dangers
and declined the duties.

But, at length, free from pressing and onerous commissions, he lent a
more willing ear to invitations from Germany. Cornelius in 1830 had come
to Rome from Munich, the better to complete certain cartoons; with him
were a daughter, also his wife, who had under charge Fraulein Emilie
Linder, a young lady of Basle, of some means and given to pictorial
pursuits. Overbeck, on the completion of his wall-painting at Assisi,
rejoined the brilliant art circle of the Roman capital, and from this
time dates the memorable friendship between the lady, then a Protestant,
and the great Catholic painter. After a winter pleasantly passed among
congenial spirits, the whole party in the early summer of 1831 set out
from Rome and reached Florence. Emilie Linder returned for a time to
Basle, while Overbeck, under the care of Cornelius, by way of the Tyrol
reached Munich. On the news of their approach in July, the local
artists, young and old, assembled at the gates, outposts had been
stationed along the road, and the townfolks gathered by thousands in the
streets: from afar the cheering was heard, and then group after group
raised the cry, "Overbeck!" "Cornelius!" The entry soon grew into a
triumphal march, and, protests notwithstanding, the horses were unyoked,
and a company of lusty youths drew the carriage to the dwelling of
Cornelius.

Twenty years had elapsed since Overbeck, an unknown youth, had quitted
his native land; he now returned with a world-wide reputation.
Cornelius, once the sharer of his trials, became the equal recipient of
the triumphs; he had just completed the grand series of frescoes for the
Glyptothek, and with him were brought the cartoons elaborated in Rome
for the wall-paintings in the new Ludwig Kirche. Overbeck, as the guest
of his old friend, passed happy weeks in Munich. The two painters
conferred closely together in the interests of Christian Art, and aided
each other in the arduous works soon to be carried out. The artists of
Bavaria signalised the visit of the apostle of Christian Painting by a
jubilee; they gave in honour of the illustrious stranger one of those
joyous and scenic fetes for