ered his native town,
proposed, it is said, to Van Claes to let him escape if he would give
him Van Huysum's great work; but the weaver had already despatched it to
Douai.

The parlor, whose walls were entirely panelled with this carving, which
Van Huysum, out of regard for the martyr's memory, came to Douai to
frame in wood painted in lapis-lazuli with threads of gold, is therefore
the most complete work of this master, whose least carvings now sell for
nearly their weight in gold. Hanging over the fire-place, Van Claes
the martyr, painted by Titian in his robes as president of the Court
of Parchons, still seemed the head of the family, who venerated him as
their greatest man. The chimney-piece, originally in stone with a very
high mantle-shelf, had been made over in marble during the last century;
on it now stood an old clock and two candlesticks with five twisted
branches, in bad taste, but of solid silver. The four windows were
draped by wide curtains of red damask with a flowered black design,
lined with white silk; the furniture, covered with the same material,
had been renovated in the time of Louis XIV. The floor, evidently
modern, was laid in large squares of white wood bordered with strips
of oak. The ceiling, formed of many oval panels, in each of which Van
Huysum had carved a grotesque mask, had been respected and allowed to
keep the brown tones of the native Dutch oak.

In the four corners of this parlor were truncated columns, supporting
candelabra exactly like those on the mantle-shelf; and a round table
stood in the middle of the room. Along the walls card-tables were
symmetrically placed. On two gilded consoles with marble slabs there
stood, at the period when this history begins, two glass globes filled
with water, in which, above a bed of sand and shells, red and gold and
silver fish were swimming about. The room was both brilliant and sombre.
The ceiling necessarily absorbed the light and reflected none. Although
on the garden side all was bright and glowing, and the sunshine danced
upon the ebony carvings, the windows on the court-yard admitted
so little light that the gold threads in the lapis-lazuli scarcely
glittered on the opposite wall. This parlor, which could be gorgeous
on a fine day, was usually, under the Flemish skies, filled with soft
shadows and melancholy russet tones, like those shed by the sun on the
tree-tops of the forests in autumn.

It is unnecessary to continue this descripti