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With a numerous train, made up from the fringe of the Madrid Court, with hired horsemen going before, and many servants behind, the retinue started away. Coming within five miles of the villa of Don John, word was sent that Rubens and his retinue awaited his embassy.
The General's lady was Madame Rubens, in black velvet made high round the neck, exceedingly warm, and with a mill-stone round her neck in the shape of a great ruff accurately dressed after a Dutch picture in the possession of the General, in which the hands were especially admired. They were just like the hands of the General's lady. Emily was Psyche.
The purchase of this pony was indeed one of my father's many kind thoughts for my welfare and amusement. My odd pilgrimage to the Rectory in search of change and society, and the pettish complaints of dulness and monotony at home which I had urged to account for my freak of "dropping in," had seemed to him not without a certain serious foundation. I was very well content to sit with Rubens at Mrs.
The greater portion of the famous house was built in the time of George II. It is an extensive and magnificent structure, and contains many art-treasures in its picture-gallery by Rembrandt, Rubens, Correggio, Teniers, Vandyke, Salvator Rosa, and others.
But as he walked about I could see that he kept looking to where Rubens and I played upon the grass, and at last he came and sat down near us. "Is that your dog?" he asked. "Yes he's my dog," I answered. "He seems very clever," said Sir Lionel. "Did you teach him all those tricks yourself?" "Very nearly all," said I. "Rubens, shake hands with Sir Lionel." "How do you know my name?" he asked.
He looked up; their eyes met. "Is it true is it true that there are pictures by Rubens in the Louvre?" asked the young man. The oddity of the question from such a being and the queer Normandy accent amused the girl, and she burst out laughing. She did not answer the question, but going over to a man seated at another table whispered to him. Then they both looked at the queer youth and laughed.
"Who is that?" asked the General's lady. "His Royal Highness," replied the General. "I am quite sure of it. I knew him directly by the pressure of his hand." The General's lady doubted it. General Rubens had no doubts about it. He went up to the black domino and wrote the royal letters in the mask's hand. These were denied, but the mask gave him a hint.
The distracted wife made her way alone from prison to prison, and finally, by bribing an official, found her husband was in an underground cell in the fortress at Dillenburg. It was a year before she was allowed to communicate with or see him. But Maria Rubens was a true diplomat. You move a man not by going to him direct, but by finding out who it is that has a rope tied to his foot.
I persuaded myself that this picture must be the most perfect of its kind; I could not tear myself away from it, and the impression it made on me was strong enough to make it ever present in my mind. We returned to Flanders to see the masterpieces of Rubens.
But on the other wall are the colors of the courts in which Rubens passed so many of his days, the dyes of tapestry, the sheen of jewels and velvet, the glaring crimson and yellow of royal displays; while the harmonies that he strikes out with his rapid and powerful hand are like those of the music of some great military band.
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