In the absence of positive evidence it may surely be allowed to substitute probable conjecture; and as it cannot be clearly proved that Holbein painted a Dance of Death at Basle, may not the before-mentioned verses of Borbonius refer to his painting at Whitehall, and which the poet must himself have seen? It is no objection that Borbonius remained a year only in England, when his portrait was painted by his friend Holbein in 1535, or that the verses did not make their appearance till 1538, for they seem rather to fix the date of the painting, if really belonging to it, between those years; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Borbonius would hold some intercourse with the painter, even after leaving England, as is indeed apparent from other compliments bestowed on him in his Nugæ, the contents of which are by no means chronologically arranged, and many of the poems known to have been written long before their publication. The lines in question might have been written any where, and at any time, and this may be very safely stated until the real time in which the Whitehall painting was made shall be ascertained. In one of Vanderdort's manuscript catalogues of the pictures and rarities transported from St. James's to Whitehall, and placed there in the newly erected cabinet room of Charles I. and in which several works by Holbein are mentioned, there is the following article: "A little piece where Death with a green garland about his head, stretching both his arms to apprehend a Pilate in the habit of one of the spiritual Prince Electors of Germany. Copied by Isaac Oliver from Holbein."[130] There cannot be a doubt that this refers to the subject of the Elector, as painted by Holbein in the Dance of Death at Whitehall, proving at the same time the identity of the painting with the wood-cuts, whatever may be the inference. Sandrart, after noticing a remarkable portrait of Henry VIII. at Whitehall, states, that "there yet remains in that palace _another work_ by Holbein that constitutes him the Apelles of the time."[131] This is certainly very like an allusion to a Dance of Death. It is by no means improbable that Mathew Prior may have alluded to Holbein's painting at Whitehall, as it is not likely that he would be acquainted with any other. Our term of life depends not on our deed, Before our birth our funeral was decreed, Nor aw'd by foresight, nor misled by chance, Imperious death directs the ebon lance, Peoples great Henry's tombs, and leads up Holbein's Dance. _Ode to the Memory of George Villiers._ CHAPTER X. _Other Dances of Death._ Having thus disposed of the two most ancient and important works on the subject in question, others of a similar nature, but with designs altogether different, and introduced into various books, remain to be noticed, and such are the following: