tly by the trim state of her room,--by the hour-glass on the
table,--by the evident use of all the books she has, (well bound, every
one of them, in stoutest leather or velvet, and with no dog's-ears,) but
more distinctly from another picture of her, not asleep. In that one a
prince of England has sent to ask her in marriage: and her father,
little liking to part with her, sends for her to his room to ask her
what she would do. He sits, moody and sorrowful; she, standing before
him in a plain house-wifely dress, talks quietly, going on with her
needlework all the time.

A work-woman, friends, she, no less than a princess; and princess most
in being so. In like manner, is a picture by a Florentine, whose mind I
would fain have you know somewhat, as well as Carpaccio's--Sandro
Botticelli--the girl who is to be the wife of Moses, when he first sees
her at the desert well, has fruit in her left hand, but a distaff in her
right.[2]

"To do good work, whether you live or die," it is the entrance to all
Princedoms; and if not done, the day will come, and that infallibly,
when you must labour for evil instead of good.

_Fors Clavigera_ (Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent, 1872).

FOOTNOTES:

[2] More accurately a rod cloven into three at the top, and so holding
the wool. The fruit is a bunch of apples; she has golden sandals, and a
wreath of myrtle round her hair.

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

(_RUBENS_)

EUGENE FROMENTIN

Many people say _Antwerp_; but many also say _the country of Rubens_,
and this mode of speech more exactly expresses all the things that
constitute the magic of the place: a great city, a great personal
destiny, a famous school, and ultra-celebrated pictures. All this is
imposing, and our imagination becomes excited rather more than usual
when, in the centre of the _Place Vert_, we see the statue of Rubens
and, farther on, the old basilica where are preserved the triptychs
which, humanly speaking, have consecrated it.

The statue is not a masterpiece; but it is he, in his own home. Under
the form of a man, who was nothing but a painter, with the sole
attributes of a painter, in perfect truth it personifies the sole
Flemish sovereignty which has neither been contested nor menaced, and
which certainly never will be.

[Illustration: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.
_Rubens._]

At the end of the square is seen Notre Dame; it presents itself in
profile, being outlined by one of its lateral f