or, The Silver Skates "209

bells, seemed to have been
borrowed from some other
building, and hastily clapped
on as a finishing touch.
Ascending the grand stair-
case, the boys soon found
themselves in a rather gloomy
apartment, containing the mas-
terpiece of Lucas van Leyden,
or Hugens, a Dutch artist,
born nearly four hundred years
ago, who painted quite clev-

 

erly when he was ten years A TRIPTYCH.

of age, and became distin-

guished in art when only fifteen. This picture, called the
“Last Judgment,” considering the remote age in which it was
painted, is truly a remarkable production. The boys, however,
were less interested in tracing out the merits of the work than
they were in the fact of its being a triptych ; that is, painted
on three divisions, — the two outer ones swung on hinges so
as to close, when required, over the main portion.

The historical pictures by Harel de Moor, and other famous
Dutch artists, interested them for a while; and Ben had
to be almost pulled away from the dingy old portrait of
Van der Werf.

The Town Hall, as well as the Egyptian Museum, is on
the Breedstraat, the longest and finest street in Leyden. It
has no canal running through it; and the houses, painted in
every variety of color, have a picturesque effect as they stand
with their gable-ends to the street. Some are very tall, with
half of their height in their step-like roofs; others crouch

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