or this much-hated man, who daily visited the Queen when
she was suffering from smallpox. In her many illnesses he was tenderly
devoted to her, and when we remember the miseries of royal ladies whose
children are girls, we almost love Philip for comforting Isabella when
her first baby was not a son. Philip declared himself better pleased
that she had given him a daughter, and made the declaration good by
devotion to this child so long as he lived.

Isabella, in a letter to her mother, wrote: "But for the happiness I have
of seeing the King every day I should find this court the dullest in the
world. I assure you, however, madame, that I have so kind a husband that
even did I deem this place a hundredfold more wearisome I should not
complain."

While Sofonisba was overwhelmed with commissions in Spain, her sisters
were far from idle in Cremona. Europa sent pictures to Madrid which were
purchased for private collections, and a picture by Lucia is now in the
Gallery of the Queen at Madrid.

When the time for Sofonisba's marriage came she was sorry to leave her
"second home," as she called Madrid, and as Don Fabrizio lived but a
short time, the King urged her return to Spain; but her desire to be once
more with her family impelled her to return to Italy.

The ship on which she sailed from Sicily was commanded by one of the
Lomellini, a noble family of Genoa, with whom Sofonisba fell so
desperately in love that she offered him her hand--which, says her
biographer, "he accepted like a generous man." Does this mean that she
had been ungenerous in depriving him of the privilege of asking for what
she so freely bestowed?

In Genoa she devotedly pursued her art and won new honors, while she was
not forgotten in Madrid. Presents were sent her on her second marriage,
and later the Infanta Clara Eugenia and other Spaniards of exalted rank
visited her in Genoa. Her palace became a centre of attraction to
Genoese artists and men of letters, while many strangers of note sought
her acquaintance. She contributed largely to the restoration of art and
literature to the importance that had been accorded them in the most
brilliant days of Genoese power.

We have not space to recount all the honors conferred on Sofonisba, both
as a woman and an artist. She lived to an extreme old age, and, although
she lost her sight, her intellect was undimmed by time or blindness.
Vandyck, who was frequently her guest, more than once declared that he