Six Pocket Handkerchiefs.

Twelve Napkins.

Three Table Cloths.

Some Collars and Wristbands.

The preceding Inventory was made on the 25th and 26th of July, 1656.

* * * * *

_Free Translation of the Autograph Letter on the opposite page._

SIR,

It is, your Honour, with reluctance, that I am about to trouble
you with a letter, and that, because on applying to the receiver
Utenbogaert, (to whom I have entrusted the management of my money
matters,) as to how the treasurer Volberger acquits himself of the
yearly 4 per cent. interest, the said Utenbogaert, on Wednesday
last, replied,--that Volberger has every half year received the
interest on this annuity, and has done so up to the present time;
so that now, at the annuity office, more than 4000 florins being
owing, and this being the exact and true statement, I beg of you,
my kind-natured Sir, that the exact sum of money at my disposal may
be at once made clear, in order that I may at last receive the sum
of 1244 florins, long since due; as I shall always strive to
recompense such by reciprocal services, and with lasting friendship;
so that with my most cordial greetings, and the prayer that God may
long keep you in good health, and grant you bliss hereafter,

I remain,
Your Honour's
Obedient and devoted Servant,

REMBRANDT.

I am living on the Binnen Aemstel, at the Confectioner's.

10th Oct.

VAN SUYLYKEN, Esq.
Counsellor and Secretary to his Highness in the Hague.

_Per post._

We cannot reflect upon the foregoing Catalogue without regretting that
Rembrandt, in his old age, should have, like our own Milton,

"Fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues."

The troubles existing at that time pervaded the whole of Europe, and
works, both of poetry and painting, produced little emolument to the
possessors; consequently the whole of this rich assemblage of works of
art, the accumulation of years, fell a sacrifice to the hammer of the
auctioneer, producing little more than four thousand nine hundred
guilders. By its list, however, we are enabled to refute the assertion
of many of his biographers, that he neglected the antique, and the works
of the great masters of the Italian school, the catalogue including
casts from ancient sculpture, and draw