The church itself is dedicated to St. Romoald, whose body, enclosed in a suitable shrine, is deposited upon the high altar. In the choir, a chapter of the Golden Fleece was held in 1491, at which Henry VII of England was invested with the insignia of the order. In the curtain wall of the choir, to the left of the altar, there is rather an interesting monument of the family of the Bertholdi, a powerful house, who in the thirteenth century, having been entrusted with the office of “Protector” of Malines, by the Prince Bishop of Liege, to whose dominion it was attached, succeeded in making themselves independent of their Sovereign, and for some generations, held absolute authority as Lords of Malines. The inscription on their tomb is quaint and poetical:--“_Trium Betholdorum, qui sæculo decimo tertio Mechliniæ dominarunt hic ultima domus._” There are numbers of other marble monuments of ancient Archbishops and prelates of Mechlin, but none of them so interesting as this. There is a curious series of old paintings, illustrative of the actions of St. Romoald, which are attributed to Van Eyck, and are, at all events, referable to his period and school; an inscription relates, that in the sixteenth century they were hidden, to elude the fury of the Iconoclasts; and another records their second removal in 1794 or 5, “tempore perturbationis Gallorum,” to escape the equally formidable insanity of the French revolutionists. This church has, also, a magnificent picture of the Crucifixion by Vandyke; but, however astonishing in its vigorous excellence, and in the conception of its individual parts, its comparison, as a whole, with that of Rubens’ Descent from the Cross, or his painting of the same subject in the Museum at Antwerp, will sufficiently exhibit the superiority of the latter in the art of composition. Like a perfect drama, into which no character is admitted, that does not contribute to heighten the denouement, there is no figure or expression in Rubens’ picture, that has not an immediate reference to the main action of the moment, and that does not conspire to concentrate all the interest in one simultaneous movement. In Vandyke’s Crucifixion, however, the three crosses form three distinct episodes, each tells a separate story, and thus divides the interest of the subject, instead of working it up into one overpowering sensation, as Rubens does. But, on the other hand, this splendid picture exhibits all Vandyke’s masterly powers of individuality and detail, every figure is a study, and above all, the beautiful Magdalene at the foot of the Cross, is one of the most lovely conceptions that has ever been embodied upon canvass. Sir Joshua Reynolds says “this may be justly considered one of the first pictures in the world, and gives the highest idea of the genius of Vandyke.” The agony of the dying thief may be strongly suspected of being suggested by Rubens. The Cathedral possesses one of the very finest carved