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petiit et vblttit fieri . " His confidence in tbe paintera of his country-was slight , as we know from his efforts to obtain a good portrait of himself . He first tried Foucquet , a quaint old imitator of the Flemings , who failed . The task was then entrusted to a sculptor , who also failed . Michel Colombe was set aside as well as Foucquet , and Colin d'Amiens was chosen . " Mestre Colin , " says Gaignieies , addressing an order from his master to the Aniiens painter , " you must make the poitraiture of our sire the king ; that is to say , you shall show him kneeling on a flag and his dog near him ; let him have his hat between his liands , and let his hands be joined in prayer , and his sword be hanging by his side . Let his cornet hang behind his shoulders , showing both its ends . You must let iiua have , besides , his feet in buskins and not in hosen : all this as honestly as is possible . Let him be dressed as a huntsman , with th 3 finest face that you can give him , so as he shall be both young and plump , the nose a little long and somewhat higl ) , as you well know , and you must not make him bald . Your order , therefore , must be this : —
The nose aquiline ; The hair a little long behind ; The collar somewhat low ; The order very long , and St . Michael well made out . Item , the cornet scarfwise ; The sword a little short , in fashion of arms-Item , the thumbs erect , and the hat well down . " Is not this pitiable ? Trbm anotuer part of the work we transcribe the legend which was destined to remind the burghers of Brussels that their town-hall was the hall of justice . Van der Weyden had to illustrate the legend : — " Herkenbald the magnificent , the powerful and illustrious , excepted no one-when he sat in judgment ; and ever tried , with equal justice , the cause of rich or poor , of a relative or a stranger .
. " Whilst recumbent on his couch one day , he heard . a tumult in a neighbouring apartment , the piercing shrieks of a woman being most audible . Inquiring the cause , the truth at first was hidden from him . But at length , one more frightened than the rest confessed . ' I will answer , lord ; your sister ' s son , who is feared and honoured second only to yourself , is pressing a girl against her will , and hence the clamour . ' Hearing this , and satisfied with its truth , the elder ordered his nephew , who was dear to him , to be instantly hung . But the seneschal , to whom the order was transmitted , feigned obedience , and set the culprit free , charging him to seek a hiding-place ; then , proceeding to Herkenbald , declared the sentence to have been carried out . On the fifth day , however , the youth , thinking that his uncle had forgotten his offence , came into his open door . The judge , on seeing him , beckoned him with kindly words ; and seizing him by the hair , and with a knife in his right hand , severed the head from the body . la his zeal for justice he killed him . Herkenbald then perceived that his health was failing ; and sending for his bishop , confessed to him all his sins , with many tears , and great contrition ; omitting , however , the act by which he had
deprived his nephew of life a few days before ; upon which the bishop said : ' Wherefore dost thou conceal the homicide by which thou didst deprive thy nephew of his life ? ' The old judge retorted : * I consider this no sin , nor that it is a crime to be remitted by Heaven . ' On which the bishop replied : ' Confess this crime , and God will take compassion on tbee ; else canst thou not partake of the Sacrament of the Lord . ' But the noble man said to him :. ' * I take God to witness that no hatred , but zeal fo r justice made me kill my nephew , who was dear to me ; and though thou deniest me the viaticum on . that account , I hope to have communion by the Spirit . ' Hearing this , the bishop then retired , without administering to the dying man the consolations of religion . Being soon recalled , however , the judge then said to him : ' See if the Sacrament of the body of Christ be in its resting-place ; ' and when it appeared that it was not in the open pyx , the sick man subjoined : ' Behold that which thou broughtest with thee and deniedst me hath not been refused ; and then he showed him openly , before all , the host , which he held in his mouth and between his teeth ; which , when the bishop saw , magnifying God for so great a miracle , he no longer doubted that it had taken place as the reward of justice . "
Many curious details will be found in this volume , some of them such as would tempt us into comment were our limits wider ; such , for example , as tlie remarkable fact that painting was a guild in the Netherlands ; young aspirants were bound ' apprentices to painting as to any ordinary trade ; by this close corporation the secrets of the art were jealously preserved , and the secret of oil-painting was withheld from the Italians till Antonello came to Bruges , and Van der Weyden went to Italy .
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LETTERS FROM HEAD-QUARTERS . Letters from Head- Quarters ; or , the Realities of the War in the Crimea . By an Officer on the Stan ? . 2 vola . With a Portrait of Lord Raglan and Plans . Murray . These are two volumes of letters addressed from the Crimea to friends of the author in England . The position of the author at head-quarters gave liini great opportunities of acquiring sound information . He stood in an intimate relation to the commander-in-chief , and necessarily became aware of matters that were concealed from the public and the general correspondents of the camp , both lay and military . It is , therefore , for that kiiuLof secret information which vre should look in these volumes ; and in that information the Staff Officer hopes we shall find facts that refute many , if not all , of the accusations showered upon Lord Raglan in 1854-55 . The purpose of publication is a fair one . It would , however , we conceive , have
certainly be ready by the 8 th of this month ( August ) . Lord Ka ^ n O * Z he thought the 14 th ( to-day ) the earliest period at which he co ^ f De £ ? pared . A fewdays ago the Marshal sent to say that he must have ten £ longer , and said that their arrangements could not be completed irntli * P 20 th instant . Yesterday , " that is , on the day named by tile SS li ^ f " it was officially reported to Lord Ra glan that everything was re ° dvfovlw embarkation o £ the English ^ roops . 'V So mud / for VonipSde * nd superior administration . In the meantime came the cholera Ther ' strong opinion that we suffered more than the French from that v ' ,- ;? « .- What says our Staff Officer , writing on the 6 th of September ? -l The French ( I was told l > y one of their officers high on the staff ) have lo 11 7000 men dead of cholera and fever , and have at this moment from 12 000 to 1- " ^ ii men in their various hospitals . This number of sick men require upwards ot ' ° 4 onr ! effective men as extra hospital orderlies and camp guards and cooks' &c &c < s ti their army is probably 25 , 000 , men less than on its leaving France . Tlie ' l ' n n have lost under 700 men altogether , and we have at the present time in our va ?' hospitals 1000 men under medical treatment ; but I . am . glad to say many of the but slight cases . For instance , a week ago , wo had 2400 men iu hospital an . 1 «; , ?? that period 500 have returned to their duty . 1 ^ i , ami since
And what is more remarkable , the greater , part of this loss was incurred hi that expedition to the Dobrudscha which was so utterl y useless from any point of view . Marshal St . Arriaud was a brilliant but flighty soldier , lie sadlv wanted persistence and punctuality . In July he was for the expedition but in the middle of August he seems to Lave altered his mind . " The following are said to be the opinions of the ' chiefs , ' " writes the Staff Oflicer oii the 14 th of August . " Lord Ragliin , Sir George Brown , Sir Edmund Lyons , Admiral Bruat , for ; Marshal St . Arnaud , Admirals Dundas and Hamelin , against it . " Nor had the vacillation ceased , even when the troops had put to sea . On the 8 th of September , Marshal St . Arriaud proposed to adopt that plan which afterwards became known as the Emperor ' s , namely to land at Kaffa , seize Arabat andKertch , and if a march on Sebastopol were impracticable , to winter at Kafla . Of course the adoption of such a plan was then out of the question ; Lord Raglan prevailed , and the expedition , landed in the Crimea .
" French losses" is another topic on which much ignorance has prevailed . Some people have appeared to believe that the losses of the French before Sebastopol in the winter of 1854-55 were comparatively fewer than Our own . I took the trouble yesterday [ January 22 ] to make inquiries of two or three officers high in the Etat-rnajor ; one told me they [ the French ] had about 23 , 000 non-eft ' ective men a month ago , but that he believed it had since increased . Another said that last -week they had 27 , 000 men sick in the army in the East ; and the third ' stated that they had 7000 men in the ' ¦ field hospitals in the Crimea , and about ICjOOO in tlieir different hospitals in Turkey . It is a well-known fact that the French always make out their sick in as small numbers as they possibly can , so , if one takes the medium of their statements , one may fairly put theTrench sick at upvrards of 24 , 000 men . ' ¦ . ¦ - . - ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ .. ' ¦ \ ' v ¦ ; : ¦¦ ' . •¦ ' , . . ' . ¦' . .. ' ¦ ¦ On the 12 th of February , he writes : — I may mention to yon what was told me yesterday by a staff officer attached to the French head-quarters , to show von that the losses of our allies in sick have been in
proportion as great as our own . He saul that 117 , 000 men of all ranks have left France and Algeria to form the army of the East since March , 1854 ; and that they havenow only 84 , 000 , and of these upwards of 7000 are sick in the Crimea . On another point the administration of the two armies comes into contrast . Here is a paragraph from a letter dated March 17 , 18 J 5 : — A very large number of men are now hutted ; upwards of 700 of these vooilen residences have been brought up to camp and erected . They vould be capable of holding some 17 , 500 men , but , as many of these huts are used as hospitals , to any nothing of those for officers and regimental stores , probably not more than 11 , 000 men of the English army have a roof over tlieir heads . An omccr of the Kta ' t-nwjor told me two days ago that , according to their last return , the French had 270 liut . s erected , iv-hicli , as they crowd them rather more than we do , would be capable of Iiol < liiig 7000 men : however , not more than half of their huts are employed as slicker for tlie men , so in any being used for the Etat-major and the military oflicers at thi-ir iMerent head-quarters .
It was the misfortune of the expedition to the Crimea that it began upon a design which totally failed—the capture of Sebastopol by a covp domain . The sufferings of the English troops in 1854-55 may be in a great measure traced to the total change in the character of the operations at the moment when it was resolved to winter in the Crimea , and permanently to hold a position with men and means really inadequate to the . tiifk except at a great sacrifice of life . But the alternative was a shameful abandonment of tlie enterprise , probably at even a greater loss of life than that incurred by holding the plateau during tlie winter with a handful of men . It was not , however , until the last moment that Lord Raglan consented to believe that they had failed . He was more willing to assume responsibility than bis colleagues ; he was really more prompt than they . Here is sin instance from tlie battle of the Alma : —
Shortly after on these heights Lord Itnglmv mot Marshal St . Arnaud , when 1 , after mutual congratulations , Lord Uaglan wished very much that some pursuit should bo made of the retreating Itussian army , lie offered our cavalry , and I think two or three batteries of artillery , but said the infantry had suffered so much that they could not well advanco without weakening too much the English force . Marshal St . Arnaud replied that ho could send 110 infantry , and tliat his artillery had exhausted their ammunition : indeed he appeared to think that quite enough had been done . Lord liaglan saw that there was no lielp for it , and therefore much nyainst hi * "will K up the pursuit . The French had upwards of 12 , 000 men who had never bm'ii engaged , besides the division of Turks ( G 000 men ); -whereas wo had only the 3 rd Division _ « ntl a portion of tho 4 th , in all perhaps 7000 men , that had not taken a part in the aetiQii ; in fact , not more than aufltcicnt for the immediate necessities of the camp . The next day , when to strike an effectual blow the whole army must have moved , Marshal St . Arnaud proposed an advance .
To this , however , Lord Kaglan would not listen ; he said ho had nearly 0000 wounded English and lluasians , and tlmt , n * we > vcio over Unco milci * from the sen , it was quite impossible to move them all on board ship under two dny . s . Tho mardhiil said he had lost over 1200 111011 hors < h combat ., and out of that niunhor 1000 wounded hud already been moved on bourd ship , or would be so by the evening . I say , that is what tho marHhul said ; but everybody cIho said it was a great exaggeration . I know General Foroy , who went over the whole of their field of buttle , put tholr loas at between 700 and 800 nt the outside ; but ho nlao added , that since leaving Kalamita Bay they had lost nearl y 800 men doud from cholera ; and it vtaa stated ,
been more effectually answered , if the writer , instead of publishing letters that necessarily contain a host of trivialities , had written an original' work from the authentic data that must be within his reach ? In that case tho book would have been half the size , the viadication of Lord Raglan relieved from the insignificant details that overlay it now ; and the author would hnye made a contribution to military history . As it is , tho Staff Oflicer has onl y made an addition to the materials—a valuable addition , it is truewhich are accumulating for the use of the historian of the war . One of the prevailing ideas in 1854-55 was , that the French were our HUpenoTs mall but actual fighting—that their arrangements were better , luoir military skill greater , that in promptness they far surpassed the British , nndsoon . What are the facts ? Why , until the 7 th June , 1855 , when rehssier carried the Mamelon , the operations of the French were comparat vely a aeries of failures and shortcomings . Neither their militnry skillnor
, tlieir adnunistration , nor their promptness were equal to ours . These assertions , we admit require proofs . Very good . What was tho state of things in Bulgaria , on the eve of tho Crimean expedition ? That expedition was resolved upon at the end of July . » Tho French said they would ,
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1240 THE LEADER . TNQV . 858 , Baotbh *^
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1856, page 1240, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2173/page/16/
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