as a woodenness foreign to his compositions, and much of
the painting is by an evidently inferior hand. But good judges hold some
of the heads to be undoubtedly his work.

However this may be, with the autumn of 1543 Holbein's life came to a
sudden close. Van Mander, wrong as to the date by eleven years which
have fathered a host of spurious _Holbeins_ on the Histories of Art, is
apparently right as to the cause of death--"the Plague." By the great
discovery of Hans Holbein's Will, found by Mr. Black in 1861 among the
archives of St. Paul's Cathedral, it is proved that the painter made his
Will on October 7th, and must have died between this and November 29th,
1543, when administration was granted to one of his executors (the other
would seem to have perished, meanwhile, from the same epidemic). This
surviving executor was an old friend of the artist, whose portrait,
in the Windsor Gallery, he had painted eleven years before--Hans of
Antwerp, a master-goldsmith of the Steelyard.

The Will bears about it evident signs of having been made in great haste
and mental disturbance. But it accomplished all that Holbein probably
had at heart; that is, the ensuring that whatsoever moneys could be
collected from his accounts, or by the sale of "all my goodes and also
my horse," should first be applied to clear a couple of specified debts,
and the rest be managed for the sole benefit of "my two chylder which
be at nurse." From the very fact that nothing as to the identity or
whereabouts of these babies is mentioned, it is clear that Holbein
relied on the verbal instructions which he had given to his trusted
friends and to their complete understanding of all the circumstances as
well as of his wishes. He was only concerned, apparently, that such
small means as could thus be saved for them should not be permitted to
pass to his legal heirs.

No other heirs are mentioned; no other legacy is made. From the Will
alone one who did not know otherwise would suppose that he had no
other family or relatives in existence. The Plague left no man in its
neighbourhood much leisure for explanations. Stowe records that the one
of that autumn was such "a great death" that the Law Courts had to be
transferred to St. Albans. But two things seem to speak in this curt
document. First, that by the transference of his uncle Sigmund's little
fortune to Franz Schmidt (as trustee for Elsbeth and the children of her
marriage with Holbein), which the archiv