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of faith and conscience which illuminated these dungeons, and which enabled frail humanity to bear these inflictions without flinching.”
She always wanted to see the torture chambers.
She listened to all the detailed explanations and looked at all the dreadful instruments, buoyed up by the thought of the splendors she speaks of, when mere shrinking flesh-and-blood creatures like her companion, who only thought of the poor tortured bodies, could not bear the strain of it.
From The Hague they went to Amsterdam, where they “worked hard at seeing the rich museum, which contains some of the largest and best of Rembrandt's pictures, and much else of interest” ; thence to Antwerp.
Here she writes:--
“To the Museum, where saw the glorious Rubens and Van Dycks, together with the Quentin Matsys triptych.
Went to the Cathedral, and saw the dear Rubens pictures — my Christ in the Elevation of the Cross seemed to me as wonderful as ever.
The face asks, ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’
but seems also to reflect the answer, from the very countenance of the Father.
Education of the Virgin by Rubensangels hold a garland above the studious head of the young Madonna.
This would be a good picture for Vassar.”
“Sunday, July 29. Up betimes — to high mass at the Cathedral.
Had a seat near the Descent, and saw it better than ever before.
Could not see the Elevation so well, but feasted my eyes on both.
Went later to the church of St. Paul where Rubens's Flagellation ”
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York. 1916.
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