The cavalcade, having narrowly escaped shipwreck on the Libyan strand and landed at Genoa, are setting forth on their "Journey across the Apennines to Basel." Behind them is the sea; in the sky the great storm-clouds are passing away, and the rainbow shines out. Above the bay we discern the town, the point where now stands the Doria Palace and its gardens; the solemn churchmen journeying forward on their sedate mules. In the foreground rides Æneas and a youthful follower. The whole of the attention centres in the bright handsome figure of Æneas; our interest is at once bespoken on behalf of the gallant young adventurer going forth on his spirited white horse to seek his fortune. The young man on the bay horse beyond him, another layman among the throng of clerics and dignitaries, may be intended for his brother-secretary, Piero da Noceto. This is one of the most charming of the frescoes, full of movement and gaiety. Pintoricchio does not give much prominence to the "Conference at Basel," which was one of anti-Papal tendencies. In the next fresco we find the young Piccolomini on a "Mission to James I. of Scotland," to whom he was despatched by the Cardinal of Santa Croce, an able and influential man, into whose service he had entered in 1440, and who sent him to persuade the King of Scotland to cross the Border and to menace the King of England. His interview with James I. forms the subject of the second fresco. The King, in yellow robes, and the two supporters on either hand, in blue and green, are the most prominent figures, and form between them a sort of triangle, a symmetrical manner of composition which was just coming into favour. We have to look for the beautiful and graceful figure of Æneas as, full of dignity, he comes forward to the side of the King's throne--his gesture in telling the points of his message upon his fingers is that which Pintoricchio makes use of in "St. Catherine before the Philosophers"; but this is a much more natural and easy attitude. His dark red robe and violet mantle hang in simple and voluminous folds. With his flowing hair he might be a young St. John taken out of one of Perugino's pictures. The background here is very beautiful, seen through the airy row of cinque-cento arches, with the sunny little town in the distance reflected in the lake. In his memoirs, the young secretary has left us a most graphic description of his impressions of Scotland, of his journey north from Dover, of the comely blue-eyed women and scantily-clothed men, and comments on the singular kind of sulphurous stone which they burn instead of wood. He gives a vivid picture of these islands in the first half of the fifteenth century; but the painter had no knowledge to enable him to grasp it. He has apparently heard that Scotland was a land of lakes and mountains; but though the interview took place in mid-winter, he has made the trees in full leaf.