other. The life in the country was a great delight to him; he played
games, listened to fairy tales from the poet Andersen, or to music from
the young girls of the house, all with equal pleasure; and if he were
allowed to have his mornings for work he would spend the rest of the day
in the woods or pay visits, and was perfectly happy in this succession
of labor and leisure.

Baroness Stampe did not stop at one trick upon the old artist, for she
found it more easy to gain a point in this way than by argument. He had
promised to execute a statue of Christian IV. for Christian VIII., the
reigning king; he put it off until the king was impatient. One day, when
he had gone for a walk, the baroness went to the studio and began a
sketch in clay as well as she could. When Thorwaldsen returned he asked
what she was doing, and she answered, "I am making the statue of the
king. Since you will not do it, and I have pledged my word, I must do it
myself." The artist laughed, and began to criticise her work; she
insisted it was all right, and at last said, "Do it better, then,
yourself; you make fun of me; I defy you to find anything to change in
my work." Thorwaldsen was thus led on to correct the model, and when
once he had begun he finished it.

It would be impossible to give any account here of the numerous
incidents in the later years of the life of this sculptor; of the honors
he received, of the many works he was consulted about and asked to do,
of the visits he paid and received from persons of note; few lives are
as full as was his, and the detailed accounts of it are very
interesting.

He had always desired to go again to Rome, and in 1841, when the Baron
von Stampe decided to go there with his family, Thorwaldsen travelled
with them. They went through Germany, and were everywhere received as
honorably as if he were a royal person: he was invited to visit royal
families; court carriages were at his service; Mendelssohn gave a
musical _fete_ for him; in all the great cities he was shown the places
and objects worthy of his attention; poets and orators paid him respect,
and nothing that could be done to show appreciation of his genius and
his works was omitted.

In Rome it was the same; he remained there almost a year, and upon his
arrival at Copenhagen, in October, 1842, he experienced the crowning
glory of his life. During his absence the Thorwaldsen Museum had been
completed, and here, the day after he reached home, h