e baptismal font the names of
these apostles.

Having been absent from his native country eight years, he was summoned
home by the repeated illness of his mother; but, though he hastened with
all speed, he did not reach Antwerp in time to afford his beloved parent
the consolations of his presence and affections. The loss of her
affected him deeply; and he intended, when he had arranged his private
affairs, to go and reside in Italy; but the Archduke Albert and the
Infanta Isabella exerted their interest to retain him in Flanders, and
in their service. He consequently established himself at Antwerp, where
he married his first wife, Elizabeth Brants, and built a magnificent
house, with a saloon in form of a rotunda, which he enriched with
antique statues, busts, vases, and pictures, by the most celebrated
masters; and here, surrounded by works of art, he carried, (says his
biographer,) into execution those numberless productions of his prolific
and rich invention, which once adorned his native country, but now are
become the spoil of war, and the tokens of conquest and ambition,
shining with equal lustre among super-eminent productions of painting in
the gallery of the Louvre.

The whole of the paintings, except two, which adorn the gallery of the
Luxembourg, were executed at Antwerp, by Rubens, for Mary de Medici.

He died in the year 1640, at the age of 63; and was buried, with
extraordinary pomp, in the church of St. James, at Antwerp, under the
altar of his private chapel, which he had previously decorated with a
very fine picture.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

The Public Journals.

* * * * *

ADVENTURE WITH A SHARK.

(_Abridged from Tom Cringle's Log, in Blackwood's Magazine._)

During the night we stood off and on under easy sail, and next morning,
when the day broke, with a strong breeze and a fresh shower, we were
about two miles of the Moro Castle, at the entrance of Santiago de Cuba.

The fresh green shores of this glorious island lay before us, fringed
with white surf, as the everlasting ocean in its approach to it
gradually changed its dark blue colour, as the water shoaled, into a
bright, joyous green under the blazing sun, as if in sympathy with the
genius of the fair land, before it tumbled at his feet its gently
swelling billows, in shaking thunders on the reefs and rocky face of the
coast, against which they were driven up in clouds