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nor paused again until he stood at the door of the interdicted dwelling. Giotto looked to the right and to the lett, but no foot-fall was to be heard-no sound but the gentle murmur of the river, No extraordinary precautions had been taken to secure the unhallowed studio of Malfeo against the intrusion of the curious; it was deemed sufficiently guarded by the prohibition of the church. Giotto found no difficulty, therefore, in removing the impediments that opposed his entrance, and the next moment he stood upon the spot from which Malfeo had fled a maniac. The room was darkened by a thick curtain that hung before the window. For an instant a shade of fear crossed the mind of Giotto; two only had ever looked upon the picture-one had lost his reason, the other had never smiled again; and a century had elapsed since the silence of that room had been broken by a living footstep. Such reflections were but trausient. Giotto grasped the curtain, which, moth-eaten and decayed, fell at his touch, and the moonlight, with almost a supernatural brightness, streamed through the window, and fell upon the countenance of the Spouse of Satan!

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Giotto walked pensively through the silent streets of Pisa. He passed the Campo Santo, but he did not pause to mark the effect of the moonlight upon the white and black marble sarcophagi; nor did he look upwards to the Camponile, leaning against the midnight sky. He passed the marble bridge, and along the Lung Arno, but he noticed neither the dimpling river, nor the moonlit palaces; and, having entered his studio, he passed hurriedly through it, and, throwing him self npon his bed, dreamt that as he turned away from Malfeo's picture, a dark figure rose between him and the door; and while he stood trembling, fearful alike of advancing or retreating, the figure glided on one side, saying, "I engage you to paint another such for me." The same night that Giotto visited the studio of Malfeo, a fire broke out in that quarter of the city, and burnt to the ground the in terdicted dwelling, and all that it con tained, to the no small satisfaction of the inhabitants of Pisa, who were in future saved the inconvenience of repeating an "Ave" at unseasonable times.

And now that Giotto had accomplished his object in seeking the studio of Malfeo, was he better prepared to execute the commission of Count Peruzzi? Giotto was as distant from the accomplishment of his task as ever. He had indeed SEEN, and he REMEMBERED; but far from at. tempting to embody his recollections on

canvass, his object seemed to be to efface them; for now he sat from morning until night gazing upon the beautiful counte nances that surrounded him, apparently forgetful that he had a commission to execute, or that his profession was that of a painter. It was late on the evening following the midnight perambulation of Giotto, that, while sitting in his studio, recreating his mind with one of the enter taining stories of Boccaccio, that a stranger was announced. Giotto was not unaccustomed to intrusion, even at so late an hour as this; and without any feeling of surprise, he hastened to receive the visitor with his usual courtesy. The face of the stranger was unknown to him; it was handsome, but wore a very peculiar and unpleasant expression; but as Giotto well knew that all mankind are not fitted to make agreeable portraits, he begged the stranger to be seated, and requested to know if it was as an artist he was indebted for the honour of a visit.

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"Signor Giotto," said the stranger, no man in Tuscany enjoys so high a reputation as yourself in the delineation of female beauty."

The artist, who, at the first sound of the stranger's voice, had slightly started, from some indistinct recollection of having heard it before, bowed in return for the compliment paid to his talents.

"The commission with which I am honoured," continued the stranger, "is one of great importance; but I have not hesitated for a moment as to the artist who is the most worthy of executing it; there is no one but the Signor Giotto to whom it would be safe to intrust the depicting of female charms." Giotto who had felt some apprehension lest the stranger's commission might be similar to that of the Count Peruzzi, was now relieved, and begged to be informed if the picture required was a portrait or a composition.

"In your hands," said the stranger, "it will be a composition; what it may be when finished imports little." As the stranger spoke thus, Giotto remarked that the peculiar expression of his countenance became more marked; nor could he com prehend how the picture, if a composition in his hands, could be any thing different when finished: but upon this seeming contradiction, he made no comment, and only requested more particular instructions from the stranger.

"The painting of which I stand in need," said the stranger, "will require the exercise of all your talents. I require the production of perfect beauty-can you promise this?"

"Perhaps," said Giotto, rising, and

raising the lamp which stood upon the table towards the walls of the studio, perhaps something may be found here that will spare me the exercise of imagination. I have here a gallery of beauty, where you may possibly discover the perfection which you search after ;" and the stranger rising, followed the artist round the gallery, as he held the lamp towards the portraits which they successively reached.

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Here," said Giotto, advancing and holding the light in different positious, before a charming picture; "here is the portrait of the most celebrated beauty of Pisa, the heiress of the house of Lanfranducci; or how like you this, the portrait of the Marchese di Palvolo; you will admit that they are both beautiful?"

"They are both beautiful," said the stranger, "but the beauty of the one is too youthful, of the other too mature; besides, I do not find perfection in either." Giotto thought the stranger's taste somewhat fastidious, and he passed on to another. "Perhaps," said he, again, pausing, this may please you better; it is the portrait of the Signora Albaccini, who has turned the heads of all Florence. Those eyes, signor, cannot be outdone."

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Still the stranger was not quite satisfied; and after having made the entire survey of Giotto's gallery, the painter and the stranger again seated themselves; and the latter turning to the artist, said, "I readily admit Signor Giotto, that your studio contains some choice specimens of female beauty, and yet I am not entirely satisfied with any of them; in all I find a want of unity. But you can be at no loss, Signor Giotto, with so many excellent models before you, to compose such a picture as will suit me; and as the price of the picture is no object with me, I am willing to pay for a fancy in which you must indulge me. Look ye, Signor," continued the stranger rising and lifting the lamp, “I am satisfied with this mouth pointing to one portrait," and with those eyes," pointing to another; " and the shape of this countenance pleases me; and in that I like the hair and the forehead; and here the nose and chin are unexceptionable. Now Signor Giotto, you have nothing to do but to compose your picture of these features, and I'll engage for its success."

It was in vain that Giot'o assured the stranger, that such a composition would be an entire failure; and that far from possessing the unity required, the production would be monstrous, "and besides," added Giotto, "long habit and the study of the living countenance, will insensibly lead me to modify the features

so as to preserve some unity, and thus it will be impossible for me implicitly to follow your instructions." But this diffi culty the stranger obviated, by suggesting to Giotto, that the moment one feature was finished it might be covered, so that it should form no guide in the formation of the next; und the stranger further stipu lated, that the covering should not be removed until he came to claim the picture. In short, so pressing was the stranger, and so liberal his offers of remuneration, that Giotto who was naturally avaricious, consented to try the experiment; and the stranger took his leave, promising to return at the end of fourteen days. The very next Giotto began his task; aud although he anticipated nothing but disap→ pointment from the experiment, he worked in precise agreement with the instructions of his employer; beginning with the upper part of the face, finishing one feature before beginning another, and constantly covering the countenance as he worked downwards; and thus the picture advanced towards its completion, and the day approached when he might expect the stranger to come and claim it. Let it not be supposed that during all this time, the mid-night walk and the studio of Malfeo were unremembered by Giotto! No! he tried to efface the recollection of them, but he tried in vain; and even while the most charming conceptions of beauty were present with him, the moonlight streamed through the window upon Malfeo's unhallowed picture. It was now the thirteenth evening since that upon which Giotto had undertaken the com→ mission; the painting was finished, a black silk veil shrouded the countenance, and the painter of Pisa, according to promise waited the arrival of the stranger before removing it. Fatigued with the labours of the day, he had fallen asleep in his studio, and had just been visited by the same dream he dreamt on the night he returned from his unlawful visit, when he was awoke by the midnight hour chiming on the cathedral clock. The lamp had gone out, and the moon shone brightly into his studio, and opposite to the window stood the picture he had finished, shrouded by the black veil. "What hinders me,' said Giotto to himself, "from removing that veil, and ascertaining the result of the stranger's experiment?" And Giotto rose and approached the picture, and withdrew the veil, and the moonlight streaming through the window, fell upon the countenance of "the Spouse of Satan!"

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Now whether it was that the beautiful features of which Giotto composed his pieture did really form when united, the

countenance delineated by Malfeo, and that in the commission of the stranger there was some hidden mystery; or whether the strong impression upon Giotto's mind had directed the movements of his pencil, and thus produced the likeness, and the stranger was only a fastidious and fanciful man; or whether having withdrawn the veil the moment after Malfeo's unhallowed picture had been presented to him in a vision, he believed that he saw a resemblance to it in his own, nowhere appears. All that is known further of Giotto is, that he spent the remainder of his days in a religious house, and that he always persisted in averring that he had seen in his own picture that countenance which he had once looked upon, and should remember for ever.

KING WILLIAM IV.

KING WILLIAM IV. is the third son of George III, and was born August, 1765. As it was the design of George III. to make his sons serviceable to their country, Prince William Henry was intended from an early age for the navy; which service he entered at fourteen years old, at the close of the American war, but for tunately in time to be present in the great battle fought by Rodney against the Spanish fleet under Langara. The ship in which he was midshipman was the Prince George, of ninety-eight guns, so nained in honour of the Prince of Wales, and bearing the flag of Admiral Digby.

After the victory over the Spaniards, the prince's ship was employed in pursuing the remnants of the enemy's naval force in the West Indies. The Prince George was fortunate in meeting a French convoy, escorted by a ship of the line and some smaller vessels of war. The fighting ships were captured, and the convoy dispersed or taken. His royal highness was still a midshipman, for it was the especial order of the king that he should go through the gradations of service like any other officer. And this circumstance gave rise to a striking and natural remark of the Spanish admiral. Langara, at the close of the action, went on board Rodney's ship, and when he expressed a desire of returning to his own, he was waited on by the little midshipman, hat-in-hand, to tell him that the boat was ready. Rodney introduced the boy, mentioning his rank on which Langara lifted up his eyes, exclaiming, that England might well be irresistible at sea, when the son of her king was thus content to go through the hum blest rank of her service!

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The royal family were, in general, large formed and athletic figures. The Duke of Clarence was under their stature, but his frame was compact, and appeared to be so much fitted for the hardships of a naval life, that it was probably one of the king's inducements to select him for the sea. Various anecdotes are told of his personal hardihood and spirit, and peculiarly of his taking his full share in the common privations and rough work of the midshipman's life, without any reserve on account of his personal rank. The story of his quarrel with his fellow-midshipmau, since Captain Sturt, is one of the instances. From some accident, the two boys disagreed on the deck; when Sturt roundly told the prince, that "but for his being a prince, he would give him a threshing." The Brunswick blood was up in arms at once the boy pulled off his jacket, which had some distinguishing ornament of lace on its collar. "You will give me a threshing?" said he, flinging the jacket from him. "There goes the prince; now try!" The combatants fell to without delay, and fought, till some of the officers, not altogether approving of this style of affairs of honour, separated them; sonie blood being lost on the occasion, but no honour! and the warriors becoming, of course, greater friends than ever. During bis stay in the West Indies, his royal highness made himself popular by his good humour and absence of the pride of rank.

The prince after serving the regular time in each rank, received his flag in 1790, as rear admiral of the blue; a more rapid promotion of course than can be expected to fall to the lot of naval officers in general, but still not violating the regulations of the navy. He had about a year and a half earlier been made Duke of Clarence, and St. Andrew's, and Earl of Munster, thus taking a title from each quarter of the British Isles.

From this period his royal highness had no command, a neglect against which he very frequently and strongly remonstrated. The ground of ministerial objection was never declared; and whether it was from an unwillingness to hazard a prince, who from the determined celibacy, as it was then supposed of the Prince of Wales; and the casualties that might threaten the life of the Duke of York, then commencing his military service; might be presumed destined to succeed to the throne, a conjecture to which the fact has given testimony: or whether the objection might arise from the fear of royal etiquette embarrassing the conduct of a fleet; or from a dread of the duke's inexperience in command on a large scale, where the loss of a battle might lay open the shores

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