h figure of the scholar
stands in cap and gown, with one hand resting lightly on the bust of
the god Terminus (the god of immovable boundary lines, significantly
conjoined to Erasmus's chosen motto: _Concedo nulli_) and the other
calling attention to this significant emblem of fixed convictions. Not
even the Louvre oil painting expresses the whole Erasmus quite so
completely or so nobly as this little drawing of the man whom Holbein
had loved and revered for twenty years; and to whom he owed, in the
first place, the splendid opportunities of his career in England.

And as he drew it, what ghosts of his own Past must have clustered
around the lean little figure! What echoes and visions! The Rhine, the
gardens, the clang of the press, the Fischmarkt, the friendly smiles at
Froben's and Meyer's firesides; his marriage; the stars and dews and
perfume of all his dreams in the years--those matchless years of a man's
young manhood--when he had walked with angels as well as peasants, had
seen the Way of the Cross, the Christ in the Grave, and the Risen Lord
even more clearly than the faces of flesh and blood. _Eheu fugaces!_
"God help thee, Elia, how art thou sophisticated."

* * * * *

Ah, well! Those years, and the darker, sadder years that had led far
from them, were now like his oldest friends--dead and buried. The
Holbein of 1537 was painting the King of England on the wall of his
Privy Chamber. There was a place for honest pride as well as for honest
regret in his thoughts.

This painting perished with the palace in the fire of 1698. Charles
II., however, had a small copy of it made by Leemput. And a portion of
Holbein's original cartoon (Plate 31) in chalk and Indian ink, is in
the possession of the Duke of Devonshire--the face much washed out by
cleaning, and the outline pricked for transferring to the wall. The
figures are life-size, but Walpole has already noticed how the massive
proportions and solidly-planted pose of the King heighten the illusion
of a Colossus. Behind him stands the admirably contrasted figure of
Henry VII. The whole composition consisted of four portraits; Queen
Jane Seymour opposite her husband, and the King's mother opposite to,
and on a level with, Henry VII., who stands on the elevation of the
background.

Illustration: PLATE 31
KING HENRY VIII AND HIS FATHER
(_Fragment of Cartoon used for the Whitehall Wall-Painting_)
_Duke of Devonshire's Collecti