nights with his friend in the most joyous manner at a tavern, he was returning home very late one evening from his company, when he fell into a common sewer, which had been left open in order to cleanse it, where he must have perished, had not a cobler and his wife, who were in a neighbouring stall, heard his cries, and instantly ran to his relief; having extricated him, although they were total strangers to him, they took care of him for the night, and treated him with all the kindness in their power: the next morning their guest returned to his lodgings, strongly impressed with the humanity and hospitality of his new friends, whom he resolved to reward in a manner worthy of their conduct; and accordingly having painted a picture in his best manner, he returned to his preservers and presented them with it, telling them it was the production of a person whose life they had preserved, and directed them to go and offer it to his friend and patron Cornelius Plaats, who would give the full value for it. The woman, unacquainted with the real value of the present, expected only a moderate gratuity for the picture, and was overwhelmed with surprise when the liberal purchaser paid her eight hundred florins for it. The grand Duke of Tuscany offered three thousand florins for a picture of Mieres, representing a lady fainting, and a physician relieving her. Francis Mieres left two sons and a grandson, all of whom were distinguished artists. John Van Goyen the father-in-law of Jan Steen, was also an artist of great celebrity: he painted a great number of pictures, and his execution was marvellously rapid, of which the following curious anecdote is recorded as a memorable instance: Hoogstraten relates that Van Goyen, Knipbergen, and Parcelles, had agreed each to paint a picture in one day, in the presence of several other artists, their friends, to whose judgment was left the disposal of a considerable sum of money subscribed for that purpose by the contending artists, to be bestowed upon the person who produced the best picture within that period. As soon as Van Goyen took the pencil, without making any previous sketch, he first laid on the light colour of the sky, then he rubbed on several different shades of brown, next masses of light on the foreground in several spots; out of this chaos, he produced trees, buildings, water, distant hills, vessels lying before a sea-port, and boats filled with figures, with almost magical celerity, and exquisite spirit, and finished the whole within the limited time, to the astonishment of the beholders. Knipbergen proceeded with his work in quite a different manner, for instead of beginning to colour his canvass he sketched on his palette the design he had formed in his imagination, and took much pains to give it all imaginable correctness, every rock, tree, waterfall, and other object, was disposed in the manner it was intended to be finished in the painting, and he attempted nothing more