remaining spur out of seven hundred which lay scattered on the field after the day of Courtrai. In the same year _Henri Decaisne_ completed his "Belges Illustres." The famous past was supposed to give its blessing to the great present. The artist, who in Paris had painted portraits with success, had been esteemed there by Lamartine, and celebrated by Alfred de Musset in a brilliant article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, now gratified a long cherished desire of the Belgian national pride when he united the heroes of the land in an ideal gathering. Soon afterwards _Gallait_ and _Bièfve_ trod the stage of Belgian painting. In point of size their pictures surpassed all that that age, accustomed as it was to vast canvases, had yet witnessed. "The Abdication of Charles V" measured twenty feet; it was hung in the Salon Carré of the Louvre above Paul Veronese's "Marriage at Cana." An entire court of great ladies and gentlemen, clad in velvet and brocade, move in the gorgeous hall of state of a king's castle. The solemn moment is represented when Charles V, erect and dominating the entire assembly, cedes the government of his possessions to Philip: and here is a mine of profound criticism of the philosophy of history. This old man, with one foot in the grave, whose forceful head still bears, like a Caryatid, the heavy burden of empire, embodies the splendour, fame, and might of bygone days. Faltering, he steps down from the throne, as though hesitating at the last moment whether he should appoint as his successor this son whom he both loves and fears; and, lifting to heaven his tired, sunken eyes, he commends unto God the future of the realm. Philip, the only one in the assembly entirely clothed in black, who receives the gift of dominion with an icy coldness, is transformed by the able exegesis of the critics into the satanic demon conjuring up the powers of hell. The picture even gives a glimpse into the future. For as he speaks Charles leans his left hand upon the shoulder of another young man, William of Orange. This indicates that soon the nation will wrest their independence from the double-tongued Jesuitical policy of Philip. To the left of this central group, robed in velvet and silk, stand the ladies around Margaret, the sister of the Emperor; she, in the garb of a nun, sits in her chair as in a _prie-dieu_. To the right, near the throne, are pages and priests, and amidst them Egmont and Horn, standing aloof and silent, look upon the scene. "The Abdication" had a grand success. It confirmed the hopes which had been set on Gallait ever since the completion of his "Tasso," and it was proudly ranked amongst those works which did special honour to the young nation. Wappers saw himself eclipsed, and Louis Gallait took the lead. [Illustration: WAPPERS. THE DEATH OF COLUMBUS.]