special permission, and not without our knowledge, to foreign gentlemen in France, England, Milan, and the Netherlands. Yet on such journeys, he may not remain craftily abroad, but on each occasion he shall do his business in the speediest manner, and repair home without delay and be serviceable to us, as we have before said, and as he has promised. “In conclusion, when the oft-mentioned Holbein has paid the debt of nature according to the will of God, and has departed from this valley of tears, then shall this warrant, pension, and present letter be at an end, and we and our descendants therefore are not pledged to give aught to anyone. All upright, honourable, and with integrity. This letter, signed with our official seal, we have given into the hand of the oft-mentioned Holbein as a true document. Wednesday the sixteenth day of October, anno xxxviii.”[334] Footnote 334: Woltmann, i. pp. 458-9. English translation, pp. 430-1. * * * * * [Sidenote: DEATH AND WILL OF SIGMUND HOLBEIN] This document shows very clearly that though the civic authorities of Basel were anxious to retain Holbein in their service, they were doubtful whether they would be able to find much work for him except in the direction of an occasional wall-painting or decoration of a house-front; and his talents, they acknowledged, were too great to be devoted to nothing but the covering of “old walls and houses” with designs. They, therefore, made many concessions, which would enable him to pursue his art with almost the same freedom he had hitherto enjoyed. In spite of the liberality of the terms, however, the document remained, as far as Holbein was concerned, a dead letter throughout the five remaining years of his life; at least, no evidence has so far been discovered to show that he ever visited Basel again, though, as suggested in an earlier chapter,[335] he may have done so about the year 1541. Whether his wife received the pension of 40 gulden for the first two years is not known. There is no mention of it in the Council’s accounts, but Woltmann suggests that it may have been given, as was often the case with pensions of this kind, out of the monastery revenues. Footnote 335: See p. 63.