The complete success with which he overcame the deficiency that M. Malou had observed in 1831, and the curious mastery of the various dialects which his singularly exquisite perception of the minutest peculiarities of language enabled him to acquire, are attested by another witness of the same period, Father Van Calven of the same city. “On the 6th February, 1841,” he writes, “the Cardinal, who was no less kind and affable than learned, administered the first communion to my cousin, Leo van Oockerout, who was then with his friends in Rome. Being a Belgian, a friend, and a relative, I was invited to be present at the ceremony, which took place in the Church of S. Peter, over the tomb of SS. Peter and Paul. Cardinal Mezzofanti celebrated the Holy Sacrifice; and after the Gospel, or perhaps immediately before the child’s communion, he made a little discourse in French, in reference to the beautiful occasion which had drawn us together. This little discourse, which was very simple, was in excellent French. After the ceremony was over, he called us all into the sacristy, and there we had a conversation in Flemish. His eminence distinguished the different dialects of our Belgian provinces perfectly. Thus I remember distinctly that he said to us: ‘I learned Flemish from a native of Brabant, and this is the way I pronounce the word; but, you from Flanders, pronounce it thus.’—I forget what was the word about which there was question; but at any rate, the Cardinal was quite correct in his observation.” The same curiously delicate power of “discriminating the various dialects of the language, and of distinguishing by their accents, the inhabitants of the various provinces of Belgium,” are attested by another member of the same society, Father Legrelle. On the eve of this gentleman’s return to Belgium, he asked the Cardinal to be so good as to write his name in his _Album de Voyage_. On the very instant, and in F. Legrelle’s presence, his Eminence penned these Flemish verses, which he gave to M. Legrelle as a souvenir:— God wept, en wyst den weg tot de volkomenheid; Hoort zyne stem, myn Vriend, de stemme der waerheid.[455] One of M. Legrelle’s companions, M. Leon Wilde, a native of Holland, and now a member of the Jesuit Society at Katwick, bears the same testimony to the facility and elegance with which the Cardinal spoke Dutch. M. Wilde also mentions his having written some verses in that language. But a “Tour to Rome”[456] by a Dutch professor, Dr. Wap, published at Breda, in 1839, contains so full and so interesting a notice of the great linguist, in reference to this department of his accomplishment, that, without referring further to M. Wilde’s letter, I shall content myself with translating the most important passages of Dr. Wap’s account of his visit. The author, then a professor in the military college of Breda, is now resident at Utrecht.