At times he
would not let a picture go unless it had been covered with gold, as the
price of it. With all this wealth, the house of the famous painter bore
a poverty-stricken look, which was copied in the person of Rembrandt
himself.
Just before the end, when he felt himself seized by his death-sickness,
Paul one day called his sister to his bedside, and, commanding her to
raise a trapdoor in the floor of his bedroom, showed her his hoard of
gold. He then begged, as his last request, that he should be buried
privately, and that neither his son, nor indeed any one, should know
that he died rich. Louise was to have everything, and the graceless son
nothing.
[Sidenote: Louise's Refusal]
Great was his anger when his sister declared she should not keep the
gold, but would take care that it passed into the hands of those who
would know how to use it properly. Louise was firm, and Rembrandt was
powerless to do more than toss about in his distress. But gradually,
under the gentle admonitions of his sister, the artist's vision seemed
to expand, and before his death he was enabled to see where and how he
had made shipwreck of his happiness. Thanks to the ministrations of his
sister, his end was a peaceful one, and he died blessing her for all her
devotion to him.
Louise's own useful and devoted life was now near its close.
After winding up the affairs of her brother, she undertook to pay a
visit to her sister, who had fallen ill.
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