of the work has embroidered St. Martin's red mitre with
the figure of St. Nicholas. There is one other striking circumstance
about St. Martin; and that is that, although he is in the Virgin's
presence, he wears the violet chasuble of an Intercessor. The chasuble
is lined with red, and it and the rich vestments, on which scenes of
the Passion are displayed, are the patient verisimilitude of ancient
vestments. In St. Martin's gloved left hand is his crozier and the right
glove, which he has drawn off to bestow his alms.

Opposite to him stands the patron-saint of Solothurn,--St. Ursus, a
hero of the Theban legend,--dressed from head to foot in a suit of
magnificently painted armour. His left hand grasps his sword-hilt; his
right supports the great red flag with its white cross. Nor is that flag
of the year 1522 the least interesting detail of this work. With the
crimson reflections of the flag streaking the cold gleams of his
glittering armour, his stern dark face and the white plumes tossing
to his shoulder, St. Ursus is a figure that may well leave historical
accuracy to pedants. Below his foot are the initials H.H., and the date,
1522; as if cut into the stone.

This work was commissioned by Hans Gerster, for many years Town
Archivist of Basel, in which capacity he had to convey important state
papers to other councils with which that of Basel had negotiations. From
this it came about that from the year when Basel entered the Swiss
Confederation, in 1501, Gerster was almost as much at home in the "City
of Ambassadors" as in his own, and the Dean or _Probst_ of the Solothurn
Cathedral--the "Cathedral of St. Ursus and St. Victor"--became not only
his spiritual director, but one of his most intimate friends. Many
circumstances which cannot be given here make it pretty evident that in
1522 Gerster, probably under the advice of the Probst, the Coadjutor
Nicholas von Diesbach, made this picture an _expiatory_ offering for
some secret sin of grave proportions. There are hints that point to
treachery to the Basel troops, in the Imperial interests, sympathy with
which finally cost him, as well as his friend Meyer zum Hasen, his
official position. Gerster himself was not a native of Basel, although
his wife, Barbara Guldenknopf, was.

Be this as it may, it is apparently in direct connection with this
confessed sin that "the sinner's saint," St. Martin of Tours, is chosen
as Intercessor for Gerster, wearing the prescribed chas