Belisarius

When the sale of Colonel Newcome’s effects took place, a friend of the family bought in for a few shillings those two swords which had hung, as we have said, in the good man’s chamber¹, and for which no single broker² present had the heart to bid. The head of Clive’s father, painted by himself, which had always kept its place in the young man’s studio, together with a lot of his oil-sketchings, easels, and painting apparatus⁴, were purchased by the faithful J. J., who kept them until his friend should return to London and reclaim⁵ them, and who showed the most generous solicitude⁶ in Clive’s behalf. J. J. was elected of the Royal Academy this year, and Clive, it was evident, was working hard at the profession which he had always loved; for he sent over three pictures to the Academy, and I never knew man more mortified⁷ than the affectionate J. J., when two of these unlucky pieces were rejected by the committee for the year. One pretty little piece, called “The Stranded⁸ Boat,” got a fair place on the Exhibition walls, and, you may be sure, was loudly praised by a certain critic in the Pall⁹ Mall Gazette. The picture was sold on the first day of the exhibition at the price of twenty-five pounds, which the artist demanded; and when the kind J. J. wrote to inform his friend of this satisfactory circumstance, and to say that he held the money at Clive’s disposal, the latter replied with many expressions of sincere gratitude¹⁰, at the same time begging him directly to forward the money, with our old friend Thomas Newcome’s love, to Mrs. Sarah Mason, at Newcome. But J. J. never informed his friend that he himself was the purchaser of the picture; nor was Clive made acquainted with the fact until some time afterwards, when he found it hanging in Ridley’s studio.

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