The Cloister and the Hearth

oes, philosophers, and martyrs, the greater part will never be known till that hour, when many that are great shall be small, and the small gre

ing stories appealing to his heart, but little historic hailstones striking him but to glance off his

have left so much to the imagination, and imagination is so rare a gift. He

untrumpeted, and died unsung, four hundred years ago; and lie now, as unpitied, in that stern page, as fossils in a rock. Thus, living or dead, Fate is still unjust to them. For if I c

ongful King of England; and Philip "the Good," having by force and cunning dispossessed his cousin Ja

a material highly valued by the middling people, because it would stand twenty years' wear, and turn an ordinary knife, no small virtue in a jerkin of that century,

r annum, each was hailed with rejoicings, and the saints were thanked, not expostulated with; and when parents and children were all young toget

ngularly wise and provident people: in Holland reckless parents were as rare as disobedient children. So now when the huge loaf came in on a gigantic trencher, looking like a fortress i

long as that luminary should travel round the earth, so long must the brown loaf go round their family circle, and set in their stomachs only to rise again in the family oven. But the remark awaken

row so, this table wi

therine, answering not his words, but

n. The free burghers had their pride as well as the nobles; and these two could

eed all the great mouths, and yet put by a small hoard to meet the future; and, as

nature of this people begged her to intercede with his father to send him to Amsterdam, and place him with a merchant. "It is the way of life tha

ds with dismay and incredu

nother? If I can leave the folk of Te

oor father now he

an leave you, I

brothers and sisters,

ugh in the hou

ought of than you? Stay, have I spoken

her," said Richart gravely, but the tear was in his eye, "it all lies in a word

to cry. For she saw her first young bird on the edge of the nest trying his wings, to

young Richart went to Amsterdam with a face so long and sa

AUGHT HIM

wept bitterly. On this Elias shouted roughly and angrily to the children "sit wider! Can'

er, which was at eleven in the forenoon. At supper that day Elias remembered what had happened the last time; so it was in a low whisper he said, "sit wider, dears!" Now until that moment, Catherine would not see the gap at table, for her daughter Catherine had besought her not to grieve to-night, and she had sa

ave us," sobbed she, "

us alike. Heed her not! What God takes from us still seems better than what h

cob were the flower of th

and the necessaries of life, went into the little coffer with steel bands and florid key. They denied themselves in turn the humblest luxuries, and then, catching one another's looks, smiled; perhaps with a greater joy than self-indulgence has to bestow. And so in three years more they had gleaned enough to se

er marble face and violet eyes and long silky lashes: and fretful or repining word never came from her lips. The unwilling ones were Sybrandt, the youngest, a ne'er-do-weel, too much in love with play to work, and Cornelis, the eldest, who had made calculations, and stuck to the hearth, waiting for dead men's shoes. Almost worn out by their repeated efforts, and above all dispirited by the moral and physical infirmities of those th

for him: and he carried ever a tinder-box and brimstone matches, and begged ends of candles of the neighbors, which he lighted at unreasonable hours-ay, even at eight of the clock at night in winter, when the very burgomaster was abed. Endured at home, his practices were encouraged by the monks of a neighboring convent. They had taught him penmanship, and continued to teach him, until one day they discovered, in the middle of a lesson, that he was teaching them. They pointed this out to him in a merry way: he hung his head and blushed: he had suspected as much himself, but mistrusted his judgment in so delicate a matter. "But, my

e had made several trials at illuminating, but h

by her own hand, that seemed to him unapproachable: but if the artist overpowered him, the woman kept his heart up. She and Reicht soon turned him inside out like a glove: among other things, they drew from him what the good monks had failed to hit upon, the reason why he did not illuminate, viz., that he could not afford the gold, the blue, and the red, but only the cheap earths; and that he was afraid to ask his mother to buy the choice colours, and was sure he should ask her in vain. Then Margaret Van Eyck gave him a little brush-gold, and some vermilion, and ultramarine, and a piece of good vellum to lay them on. He almost adored her. As he left the house Reicht ran after him with a

im when dragged to dinner in the middle of an initial G; but once seated showed great social qualities: likewise a gay humour, that had hitherto but peeped in him, shone ou

ite copies from two of their choicest MSS., viz., the life of their fo

urg, and Brabant, Earl of Holland and Zealand, Lord of Friesland, Count o

, and fleet leopards trained by Orientals to run down hares and deer. In short, he relished all rarities except the humdrum virtues. For anything singularly pretty, or diabolically ugly, this was your customer. The best of him was, he was open-handed to the poor; and the next best was, he fostered the arts in earnest: whereof he now gave a signal proof. He offered prizes for the best specimens of "orfèvrerie" in two kinds, religious and secular; item for the best paintings in white of egg, oils and tempera; these to be on panel, silk, or metal, as the artists chose: item for the best transparent painting on glass: item for the best illuminating and border painting on vellum: item for the fairest writing on vellum. The burgomasters of the several towns were commanded to aid all the poorer competitors by receivin

on her cheek. She said softly, "Why do you laugh? Is it because he is our brother you think he cannot be capable?

o our Lady, and our mother shall buy me v

they cost

t three shillings and f

hat! me spend a month's meal and meat and fire on such vanity as that: the l

d little Cather

l have to give it up, or ask the dame Van Eyck. She would gi

and my son?" And she left the room with a red face. Little Catherine smiled. Presently the

ou won't have to trouble dame or

ll a-thinking how he

is on snowy vellum, and I can write no better: so then I shall only need six sheets of vellu

y pocket. That won't be like putting it back in the box. Going to the box to take out instead of putting in, it is like going to my heart w

mpetitors, and so get a lesson from defeat. And the crown came out of the housewife's pocket with a very good grace. Gerard

r for her, and when he came to look at it, to his surprise he found i

low his hat, attached to the upper rim of his broad waist-belt, was his leathern wallet. When he got within a league of Rotterdam he was pretty tired, but he soon fell in with a pair that was more so. He found an old man sitting by the roadside quite worn out, and a comely young woman holding his hand, with a face brimful of concern. The country people trudged by and noticed nothing amiss: but Gerard, as he passed drew conclusions. Even dress tells a tale to those who study it so closely as he did, being an illuminator. The old man wore a gown, and a fur tippet, and a velvet cap, sure signs of dignity: but the triangular purse at his girdle was lean, the gown rusty, the fur worn, sure signs of pove

fear you

replied the old man; "an

ashamed, and with much reserve in her manner said, that it was her fault; she had und

"it is not the distance, it

ender concern, but took that opportunity of

his everlasting tinder-box; lighted a match, then a candle end, then the sticks; and put his iron flask on it. Then down he went on his stomach and took a good blow: then looking up, he saw the girl's face had thawed, and she was looking down at h

ousings, an old man redolent of wealth. The purse at his girdle

ng by a fire of sticks, the smile died out of his face, and he wore a strange look of pain and uneasiness. He reined in his mule. "Why, Peter,-Margaret-" said he almost fiercely, "what mummery is this!" Peter was going to answer, but Margaret interposed hastily, and said: "My father was exhausted

took his hand out of his purse. "Oh," said he bitterly, "I am not wanted:" and went slowly on, casting a long look of suspicion on Margaret, and hostility on Gerard, that was not very intelligible. However, there was something about it that Margaret could read enough to blush at, and

se, belonged not to Ghysbrecht Van Swieten, but to that faded old man and that comely girl, who sat by the road-side fire to be fed by a stranger. They did not know this, but Ghysbrecht knew it

eartless roguery. It seemed a safe one. It had hitherto proved a safe one, though he had never felt safe. To-day he has see

ds are at hi