most unmercifully with the Mahl-stick. The maiden disappeared from the window with a cry of terror, and Jan slipped down like lightning. Three days after he was on the road to Leyden, to the celebrated master, Lucas, where his father had sent him to finish his apprenticeship. Still, on the evening before his departure he managed very cleverly to obtain the promised kiss from Susanne's rosy lips while she was at the fountain, and on this occasion probably found time to whisper all sorts of consolation in her ear, for the maiden next morning was of good cheer, though her eyes were swollen, and did not let her head droop.

But now cloud followed close on cloud. Gerhards's eyes began to grow bad, and his strength deserted him. Still he worked with greater perseverance than ever. manner which startled the poor child. In vain were her earnest prayers that he would spare himself. He grew excited and savage when she spoke about his failing sight. "Leave me! I know what I am about," was his usual reply, and he went on illuminating with renewed zeal. The spring, it is true, brought its gentle remedy in the glorious verdure and foliage; his weak eyes were strengthened by it, but the hot summer came, and the sharp lights of autumn produced fresh pain. But Gerhards never complained. He went on patiently from one day to the other, from autumn to winter, and from winter to spring. But table and stool drew closer to the window, his pale face was bowed still more closely to his work; more and more carefully did he hide the pictures from his daughter, until, at length, concealment was no longer possible; the monks sent back his illuminated saints with a stern reproof, and threatened not to give him any more work if he again illuminated while in a state of intoxication. Gerhards now broke down: with trembling hands he speechlessly pushed the pictures across to his daughter. Susanne saw what she had not expected. The poor painter's brush had no longer been able to retain the outlines, and the colours were mixed in utter confusion. The saints wore without a blush green and violet beards, while the Magdalens and Katharines had their checks painted blue. Susanne wept hot tears of agony.

There was a hastiness and restlessness in his

"Do not cry," the father said, desperately, and tore the pictures from her hands; "help me, rather! help me, for just a month, look ye; by that time my eyes will be well; I know it, I feel certain of it. Then I will work with double energy. One more year and we shall have enough money."

And when she threw her arms round his neck, and looked ingly, he said, harshly, with his mouth glued to her ear,

up, question

"Now I will tell you why I want to work! We must go to Nüremberg, and it is a very great distance. But he will take me as his scholar, believe me, and then all our suffering will be at an end. See, that is what keeps me alive and at work. And you'll go with me, for you, too, must see his glorious face."

After a lengthened pause, she whispered,

"Shall we go through Leyden, father ?"

He nodded, as if in a dream. Then she fell on his breast with a cry of joy, and from that hour a gleam of happiness never again quitted her face. And she helped him honestly, while he sat silent in the corner, shading his eyes with his hand, and was so industrious that Gerhards

often had to compel her to leave off work, and the brothers all praised her pictures. But she helped him not only for a month, month on month grew into a year, and the past year was again followed by another, for time did not stand still. Gerhards seemed scarcely to notice it. With the greed of a miser he counted over their scanty savings, and shouted with joy when a trifle was added to them. With glowing cheeks and tear-filled eyes he exclaimed, one day,

"If one could only paint a picture like Quentin Matsys, and find a purchaser for it! Then we could start for the promised city next spring." "Next spring go to Leyden-to Nüremberg, I mean," Susanne said, hurriedly, and laid her pencil down to draw a deep breath of delight.

The father's words fell on a fruitful soil, and a fair flower was to spring from thence. A clean piece of parchment now lay continually among the pictures of saints, and she began to work upon it with great industry. A thousand times was she obliged to cover it when Gerhards came up to see how she was getting on with her work; for days she was forced to lay it aside, for the monks of St. Sebaldus were pressing her, or the pious Ursulines sent in fresh orders, for the fame of her pictures had spread through all Antwerp. Still, she worked on indefatigably, day after day, while the roses were fading from her cheek. At length the labour of love was ended on the 1st of May, and the picture which was to impart felicity to her father was finished. With a smile of delight she went up to Gerhards at early morn, and, bending over him with a tender kiss, asked:

"Do you believe this picture will find a purchaser ?" And she placed the picture in his hands.

The full light of day fell upon the picture. It was an exquisitely finished head of the Saviour. What a beam of sunshine swept across the old man's sunken face! What drove the tears into his weak eyes and caused his lips to tremble? Why did his thin hands raise the picture so high to the light? It was a long time ere Gerhards could find words, but when his child knelt before him in strange confusion, he whispered, with a glorious smile,

"You have fixed his face upon this parchment. It was not in vain, then, that I spoke to you about him. It is he whom you have painted, and he will yet be my Saviour. Go, go-carry the picture to Quentin Matsys: he will find you a purchaser; show it to him, that he may see you have become a painter without his help. Hasten, hasten, my child, and then we will go to Nüremberg. But take the picture away at once, or I shall not be able to let it go from me!"

There was a strange commotion perceptible at this time in the streets of Antwerp. People of all classes were standing about in groups and talking with great animation. The girls at the fountain could find no end to their gossip; in all the painting-rooms the scholars were restless and excited, for the news had arrived from Ghent that the renowned master, Albrecht Dürer, of Nüremberg, on his tour through the Netherlands, intended to honour Antwerp with a visit, and was expected to arrive tomorrow, perhaps to-day. Some went so far as to assert that he was already in the city, and with him the great master, Lucas, of Leyden, and his lovely wife. Susanne Gerhards, who never purposely avoided an hour's chatter with her companions at the fountain, tripped along this day un

heeding the disturbances in the streets, bearing the picture in her hands, to Master Matsys's house, which she had not entered for so many years. Her young heart beat so violently that she could hardly draw breath, and her cheeks glowed as she tapped at the heavy door with timid fingers. Quentin Matsys, himself, opened it to her, and straightway stretched out his arms and folded her to his breast.

"I knew you would come again some time or another," he said, warmly, and drew the maiden in. "But what brings you to your old friend?-for must mean to visit him, as the young one is far away. Has your father, the strange old fellow, changed his mind ?"

you

"Oh, do not speak of him!" she said, mournfully; and her eyes filled with tears. "I'll tell you about him presently. But, now, look at this picture I have painted, and find me a purchaser, for I am bound to sell it to-day, dear master."

"Child! did you really paint this picture-all by yourself?" said Matsys, gazing at it with delighted amazement. "Why, Jan must have been a better master than I ever thought him."

This name from these lips suddenly removed a load from the maiden's heart. With burning tears she threw her arms round the neck of the father of her well-beloved, and confessed all to him-the grief and hope of her young heart-confessed to him, as to a priest; nor did she conceal the blind man's desire to go to Nüremberg. Ah, it was such a blessing to be able to lay bare her heart at last!

"His feet wish to go whither his thoughts ever turn," she concluded, "and I will accompany him. His poor eyes will only be able to recognise one thing: the form of the man who once appeared to him in a golden halo at Master Wohlgemuth's workshop-that young scholar Albrecht Dürer, who, it is said, has now become a great master. Even when I laid my little picture on his knees, he only noticed his face in that of the Saviour. Oh! believe me, he will not know peace until that countenance once more beams before him. Find me a purchaser, master!"

"Leave the picture with me; I will find you a purchaser, in whose hands you will be glad to see it. And now be consoled: do not cry your pretty eyes out, for Jan would be very angry at that."

And then he drew the maiden once more to his side and spoke long and confidentially with her. When Susanne left the painting-room, she hopped like a bird over the stones, and her eyes sparkled, and her voice sounded more tender and cheerful than ever when she told her father where she had been, and what hopes she had brought back with her.

Early in the afternoon Matsys came in, and brought the delighted girl a bright gold florin for the drawing, which an artistic Nüremberger had seen at his house, and desired to buy. The illuminator bade him good day, just as if he had only left him yesterday, but the master shook his head at the sight of Gerhards's sunken cheeks, and regarded with much emotion the thin hand that lay so burningly in his own. Then he asked kindly if he might be allowed to bring the Nüremberger with him in the evening, for he could tell them much about the glorious city and Albrecht Dürer. How Gerhards's eyes sparkled! how his breast rose and expanded! how he passed his hands repeatedly across his eyes, as if striving to tear away a veil !

"Bring him!" he then said, hurriedly; "any one coming from Nüremberg is most welcome to me, were he a beggar. Or shall I go to him? Oh! I can find the way through the streets-my eyes are clearer than ever. I almost believe I could paint again."

The twilight fell slowly over the scene. Susanne was seated at her father's knees: her heart was wondrous light and happy, for she had never known her father so kind and cheerful, nor seen so gentle a flush on his cheek. He, usually so reserved, talked incessantly. He was mentally again in Nüremberg: he described to his daughter the quaint streets and gabled houses, the many stately bridges, spoke of the Lorenz church and St. Sebaldus, and of the glorious fountain in the market-place. He saw himself once again in his grandfather's forge, and reproduced to his daughter the revered image of the old armourer as it lived and moved. So hearty was his laugh, so loud his voice, that they could not hear steps on the stairs, or some one raise the latch and walk quietly in. "As you did not come to me, I must fain visit you," a marvellously gentle voice was heard saying; and a tall, stately person offered his hand in greeting to Gerhards. There was a shriek, and Gerhards lay on the breast of Albrecht Dürer.

When Susanne stooped that night to kiss her father, who lay exhausted, but smiling benignantly, on his couch, she whispered to him in great excitement: "Now I first begin to understand your longing for that countenance, father. I really believe I could go to Nüremberg, or further, for one glance from those eyes; and yet I love Jan so dearly, as you now know."

"He bought your Saviour, child," Gerhards muttered, "and asked after your master. I was your master-I alone-and now I shall become -his scholar!"

With these words he gently closed his eyes. The next morning they were closed for ever to this world. The poor illuminator had gone to the angels who were to restore him to his brilliant vision, and he awaited among them his master-Albrecht Dürer.

Little Susanne, who soon after became the happy wife of Jan Matsys, and a distinguished artist in the bargain, has been rendered immortal by a couple of lines. They are to be found in the Journal of Master Dürer (1521), which has fortunately been handed down to us, and run as follows: "Master Gerhardts, illuminist in Antwerp, has a daughter about eighteen years old; her name is Susanna, and she has illuminated a parchment of a Saviour's head, for which I gave a florin. It is a great marvel that a woman could do so much !"

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

It is impossible not to feel that Providence has sown the tempting golden bait broadcast in the river valleys of certain neglected regions to allure civilisation to them. How long would the interior of South America have remained unknown but for the auri sacra fames? Botany Bay, whose very name proclaims its charms, had to be populated at first by convicts; and how slowly did emigration progress in New South Wales and Victoria until the golden harvest claimed its multitudinous reapers! The splendid bay of San Francisco and the promising lands that surround it remained unpeopled till the same attraction presented itself there. Now, after nigh a century of disgraceful monopoly by the Hudson's Bay Company, who would neither cultivate nor civilise, nor in any way ameliorate the condition of the country or of its inhabitants themselves, nor allow others to do so, the discovery of gold on the Frazer and Columbia Rivers has anticipated the dormant energies of the British government, who had justly doomed so unnatural a state of things to an ignoble end, and awakened the glad sound of the Anglo-Saxon idiom in the woods and on the waters of what is now designated as "British Columbia." There the most varied and contrasted configuration of mountain and rock, of prairie and meadow, of lake and river, have long awaited the coming of man in vain. The humming-bird has flitted by, and the cactus has bloomed for ages in a climate which combines all the excellences of our own, with a milder winter and a more genial summer, unseen by civilised beings. A soil covered with vegetable riches and yearning for the plough, rivers and lakes teeming with fish and fowl, primeval forests groaning beneath the weight of timber, mountain rocks glittering with mineral wealth, have all been tabooed for the sake of a few avaricious dealers in the skins of persecuted racoons, martens, and squirrels.

Happily this disreputable state of things has gone by now. Providence has been more considerate than man. He has, by placing the irresistible allurement of gold within reach of the first rude and adventurous pioneers of civilisation, ensured the gradual but certain population of one of the finest and most promising regions in the world. We may regret now that the glorious Columbia discovered by the Spaniard Quadra in 1775, and navigated by Vancouver's lieutenant, was ceded to American menace. There can be no doubt, as shown in Dr. Travers Twiss's able work on the Oregon question, that Sir Francis Drake attained the parallel of 48 deg., and is consequently entitled to be regarded as the discoverer of that territory, which, until ceded to the United States by Feb.-VOL. CXV. NO. CCCCLVII.

K