Eyck. He had also a particular fancy for giants, dwarfs, and Turks; these last he had ever about him, turbaned, and blazing with jewels. His agents inveigled them from Istamboul with fair promises: but the moment he had got them he baptised them by brute force in a large tub; and, this done, let them squat with their faces towards Mecca, and invoke Mahound as much as they pleased, laughing in his sleeve at their simplicity in fancying they were still infidels. He had lions in cages, and fleet leopards trained by orientals to run down hares and deer. In short, he relished all rarities, except hum-drum 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 receiving their specimens and sending them with due care to Rotterdam at the expense of their several burghs. When this was cried by the bellman through the streets of Tergou, a thousand mouths opened, and one heart beat—Gerard’s. He told his family he should try for two of those prizes. They stared in silence, for their breath was gone at his conceit and audacity: but one horrid laugh exploded on the floor like a petard. Gerard looked down, and there was the dwarf, whose very whisper was a bassoon, slit and fanged from ear to ear at his expense, and laughing like a lion. Nature relenting at having made Giles so small, had given him as a set-oil" the biggest voice on record. He was like those stunted wide-mouthed pieces of ordnance we see on fortifications; they are more like a flower-pot than a cannon; but ods tympana how they bellow!
Gerard turned red with anger, the more so as the others began to titter. White Catherine saw, and a pink tinge just perceptible came to her cheek. She said softly,” Why do you laugh? Is it because he is our brother you think he cannot be capable. Yes, Gerard, try with the rest. Many say you are skilful; and mother and I will pray the Virgin to guide your hand."
“Thank you, little Kate. You shall pray to our Lady, and our mother shall buy vellum and the colours to illuminate with.”
“What will they cost?”
“Two gold crowns" (about three shillings and fourpence English money).
“What?” screamed the housewife; “when the bushel of rye costs but a grout! What! me spend a month’s meal and meat and fire on such vanity as that: the lightning from Heaven would fall on me, and my children would all be beggars.”
“Mother!” sighed little Catherine, imploringly.
“Oh! it is in vain, Kate," said Gerard, with a sigh. “I shall have to give it up, or ask the dame Van Eyck. She would give it me, but I think shame to be for ever taking from her."
“It is not her affair," said Catherine, very sharply; “what has she to do coming between me and my son?” And she left the room with a red face. Little Catherine smiled. Presently the housewife returned with a gracious, affectionate air, and the two little gold pieces in her hand.
“There, sweetheart," said she, "you won’t have to trouble dame or demoiselle for two paltry crowns."
But on this Gerard fell a thinking how he could spare her purse.
“One will do, mother. monks to let me send my copy of their ‘Terence:’ it is on snowy vellum, and I can write no better: so then I shall only need six sheets of vellum for my borders and miniatures, and gold for my ground, and prime colours—one crown will do.”
“Never spoil the ship for want of a bit of tar, Gerard,” said this changeable mother. But she added, “Well, there, I will put the crown in my 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 with a knife for so many drops of blood. You will be sure to want it, Gerard. The house is never built for less than the builder counted on."
Sure enough, when the time came, Gerard longed to go to Rotterdam and see the Duke, and above all to see the work of his competitors, and so get a lesson from defeat. And the crown came out of the housewife’s pocket with a very good grace. Gerard would soon be a priest. It seemed hard if he might not enjoy the world a little before separating himself from it for life.
The day before he went, Margaret Van Eyck asked him to take a letter for her, and when he came to look at it, somewhat to his surprise he found it was addressed to the Princess Marie, at the Stadthouse, in Rotterdam.
The day before the prizes were to be distributed, Gerard started for Rotterdam thus equipped; he had a doublet of silver-grey cloth with sleeves, and a jerkin of the same over it, but without sleeves. From his waist to his heels he was clad in a pair of tight-fitting buckskin hose fastened by laces (called points) to his doublet. His shoes were pointed, in moderation, and secured by a strap that passed under the hollow of the foot. On his head and the back of his neck he wore his flowing hair, and pinned to his back between his shoulders was his hat: it was further secured by a purple silk ribbon little Kate had passed round him from the sides of the hat, and knotted neatly on his breast; below 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 were 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 full 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 our illuminator was wont to. The old man wore a gown, and a fur tippet, and a