ered the pictures by Sodoma
to remain in the rooms of the Popes, when he himself could have done so
much better, only because he had a regard for the work of a man, from
whom he had learnt something?"

Frederic III. shook his head in great displeasure and stepping to the
window gazed up at the pediment above bathed in the golden splendor of
a setting sun. Now that the upper row of images shone out in the clear
golden light, whilst the lower portion of the building lay in a bluish
shadow, the planetary Deities looked across so pleasantly at the old
gentleman, that a feeling came over him, that his Palatinate Lions
would besport themselves in a manner less genial. "This building,"
sighed he, "will always be a beauteous stranger in my Pfalz, what can I
do with a castle that is too beautiful even to bear my coat-of-arms."

Laurenzano had also stept up to the window and once more looked over
the rows of images. "The home of this artistic workmanship is not
unknown to me," said he. "Master Gherardo Doceno has painted almost the
same series, as the frieze of a patrician's house at Florence. The
facade is not without serious faults, but it is impossible, even to do
away with one of the figures, without sinning against the idea in its
entirety. The glory of a princely house is built upon Strength and
Heroism. That is shown by the giants and heroes which support the
whole. Virtues adorn a princely house, they stand there the chief
ornaments in the middle. Above the house rules a higher Power, to whom
the members must all look up, this is represented by the Planets and
Lights, through whom the Godhead rules the Day and the Night. Does Your
Grace think, it would be less of an idolatry should the descendants of
this noble House see in the highest place nothing but their own
heraldic Lion?"

This last argument which appealed to the religious mind of the Count
Palatine, made its impression. The old Prince looked with his big
astonished eyes straight at the bold Youth, and it was evident, he had
been touched.

"Do it not," now prayed the young artist with the touching fervor of a
southerner. "How many works of art have been destroyed in Germany
within the last fifty years. You have broken some to pieces because
they were popish, others because they were heathen or immoral--what
remains besides? In Augsburg I wished to see the pictures of Albrecht
Duerer, and was told that they have been dispersed since the
Reformation. In Basel I