its splendid architecture, gem-like color, | been removed, it was submitted to comand wonderful composition, was painted petent judges, who pronounced it to be while Veronese was detained by an acci- by Michael Angelo. This caused a dent at the Pisani Villa at Este. Hav- great sensation; and a law-suit was ining left it behind him there, he sent stituted against Mr. Macpherson for the word that he had left wherewithal to recovery of the picture, a suit which defray the expense of his entertain- ultimately ended in his favor. He rement; and his words were more than moved the picture to England, and sold verified. The picture, whose golden it to the National Gallery for £2,000. tones Smetham, the artist, so much ad- The facts connected with the acquisi.mired, turned to gold afterwards. The tion, in 1881, of the "Crucifixion," by Pisani family sold it to the National Niccolo Alunno (1107) are similar. That Gallery, in 1857, for £13,650. Vero- picture was once in the convent of Sta. nese's lavishness in giving away his Chiara at Aquila. On the suppression masterpieces was almost equalled by of the convent it became the property our own Gainsborough, who gave his of the State; but, by the archbishop's "Parish Clerk" (760) to a carrier who orders, it was secreted. On his death, had conveyed his pictures from Bath to some years later, it was conveyed to the Royal Academy. Sodoma, the Lom- the house of one of the canons of the bard, often met his many liabilities by cathedral, by whom it was sold to a a hastily dashed-off picture. For quick- dealer in Lome. The dealer did well ness of execution, none can excel by it. He had bought it for £260; he Landseer's "Sleeping Bloodhound" sold it (with another small picture), to (603) and "Spaniels " (409). The one our National Gallery, for £1,200. The was painted from a dead animal, in Italian government instituted a prosethree days; the other, in less than two. cution for theft, subsequently dropped The wanderings and vicissitudes of in favor of civil proceedings for damcelebrated pictures have been many ages against all the persons concerned indeed. From those of Sodoma's "Madonna and Child" (1144), probably painted to pay a racing debt, to those of Wilkie's "Village Festival" (122), distrained for the rent of its exhibition, they have been of all kinds. The celebrated Van Eyck, "Jan Arnolfini and his Wife" (186), painted five hundred years ago, has had an eventful history. At one time a barber-surgeon at Bruges presented it to the queen-regent of the Netherlands, who valued it so highly that she pensioned him in consideration of the gift. At another, it must have passed again into humbler hands; for General Hay found it in the room at Brussels to which he was taken in 1815 to recover from the battle of Waterloo. The story of Michael Angelo's "Entombment" is curious. It was once in the gallery of Cardinal Fesch, which was sold and dispersed after the cardi- Pictures sometimes change in value nal's death. Being in a neglected con- not quite so advantageously. The dition and unfinished, it attracted little pseudo - Rembrandt called "Christ attention, and was bought very cheaply Blessing Little Children" (757) and by Mr. Macpherson, a Scotchman so- the pseudo-Holbein "A Medical Projourning in Rome. After the dirt had fessor" (195) are sad examples. They "except the Englishman, who, it is believed, bought the picture in good faith." Of pictures that have increased in value, among the most remarkable are Hogarth's series, the "Marriage à la Mode" (113-118). In Hogarth's day they could scarce find a purchaser. The frames alone had cost him twenty-four guineas; yet when he put the works up to auction the only bid was one of £110. The sale was to close at midday. "No one else arrived," the purchaser, a Mr. Lane,' says ; "and ten minutes before twelve I told the artist I would make the pounds guineas. The clock struck, and Mr. Hogarth wished me joy of my purchase." Mr. Angerstein bought them, fifty years afterwards, for £1,381; and it was from his collection that they came into the National Gallery. are among the nation's bad bargains. golden ladies, who are pleading in pink The first was bought in 1866, as a Rembrandt, for £7,000. It was soon recognized as a work by some pupil. The second was bought by the trustees in 1845, on the advice of the keeper, as a Holbein. Immediately after the purchase, they found out their mistake. Then and there they subscribed £100 to induce Mr. Rochard, the dealer, to annul the bargain. He refused, and there was an end of it. and violet; and there is he, and there are they, in our National Gallery; he, flushed and handsome; they, golden and suppliant as ever. It takes an oldish man to remember the comet of 1811. Who remembers Paul Veronese, nine generations since? But not a tint of his thoughts is unfixed; they beam along the walls as fresh as ever. Saint Nicholas stoops to the Angelic Coronation, and the solemn fiddling of the Marriage at Cana is heard along the silent galleries of the Louvre ( Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard The pictures that were the favorites of great men gain an additional value in our eyes from that fact. Vandyck's "Portrait of Rubens " (49), Bassano's are sweeter'!) - yes; and will be so "Good Samaritan" (277), and Bour- when you and I have cleaned our last don's "Return of the Ark" (64), were palette, and, in the darkness over us, all owned and much prized by Sir the four-handed mole shall scrape.' Joshua Reynolds, who would often ad- Paul Veronese and his contemporaries mire, to his Academy pupils, the "po- knew how to make their works last. etical style" of the Bourdon. When We, in our day, are not so fortunate. Angerstein bought the Vandyck, he It is sad to think how many pictures of was congratulated on possessing Rey- our own English school are gradually nolds's "favorite picture." Vandyck fading away; how many men have put himself singled out the "Portrait of their best feelings into pictures which Gevartius" as his masterpiece, and are now (among them some of Sir used to "carry it about from court to Joshua Reynolds's most beautiful crecourt, and patron to patron, to show ations) rapidly becoming "ghosts of what he could do as a portrait-painter." ghosts." There is a pretty story of how Sir George Beaumont valued a little landscape by Claude (61) so highly that he made it his travelling companion. He presented it to the National Gallery in 1826; but, unable to bear its loss, begged it back for the rest of his life. He took it with him into the country; and on his death, two years later, his widow restored it to the nation. With Turner the general wreck is more complete. "Turner," Constable said, "seems to paint with tinted steam -so evanescent and so airy." Alas! evanescent indeed. Reynolds devoted much time and attention to finding out durable pigments. Trying to find out the secret, he even cut up some old Italian pictures. It was a vain quest. The old masters are long ago buried, and they have carried their secret to the grave. Sadder still is the case of those artists whose pictures themselves have not faded, but the fashion for whose pictures has gone. Sir Benjamin West, who died sixty years ago, enjoyed very great fame during his life. He painted many large historical canvases, all painstaking, and, in their way, of undoubted merit. They gained high prices in their day, We might go on multiplying picturestories forever. The romance of the National Gallery is inexhaustible. Times and men change; we live our little day and are gone; but here, upon our walls, live souls embodied in canvases, monuments of human spirits which from age to age are still instinct with life. "Paul Veronese," James Smetham writes, "three hundred years ago, painted that bright Alexander, and are now mostly consigned either with his handsome, flushed Venetian to cellars or to the darkest rooms of face, and that glowing uniform of the suburban galleries. Venetian general which he wears; and before him, on their knees, he set those Time has, among other favors, done for us the work of discrimination. The best of all the centuries adorns the walls | hear the sound of music, and see of our National Museum. It is the the glimmer of gay banners, as Cimabest only that survives. To us, in all bue's Madonna is carried past, amid the our nineteenth-century newness and acclamation of a multitude ; or a gay vulgarity, it is given to inherit the mys- court appears before our eyes, filled tery and magic of the old Greeks and with fine ladies, grandees, and inquisEgyptians; the charming imagery of itors; and apart from all, a great king Raphael, filled with simple faith and conversing eagerly with a little, dark sweet imagination; the quaint beauty painter, whose only ornament, besides of Botticelli, and of the early Floren- his lace ruffles, is the red cross of the tines, whose art was a portion of their order of Santiago on his breast; or lives; the gay voluptuousness of the we seem to be in Italy in the time of later Venetians; "the courtly Spanish Romeo and Juliet, in a rich noble's grace" of Velazquez; the charming house, gay with splendid hangings affectations of Sir Joshua, shown in the and works of art; a painted weddingfair ladies whose portraits in their chest, or cassone, has just been prebeauty once filled the halls of England. sented on the occasion of a marriage, All is given to us unsparingly. For us, and the young bride herself gazes and for the enrichment of the walls of down lovingly into its depths, which our National Gallery, did the rude bar- she has stored with rich silks and brobarians, in the sack of Italian cities, caded velvets and all her treasures ; stay the hand of destruction; for us the just such a chest as Ginevra might have treasures of art were wrested from hid and perished in, just such a bride many a palace of antiquity; it was for as Ginevra herself; or the scene the delight of thousands of modern changes again to a dusty gallery in a Londoners that the monasteries of the dingy street, with a little ugly old man Middle Ages were plundered. Altar- mounted high on a stool, painting furipieces painted for adoration in the ously away amid a horde of tailless private chapel of some patron saint are cats; and anon a transformation, and now seen dimly, through London fog we see a brilliant illumination of Queen and smoke, hanging, maybe, next to Mab's Grotto, with fairies in wonderful some Pagan "Bacchus and Ariadne " gondolas, gliding to and from a ball in or "Venus and the Loves." For our Venice. We also are invited; but, as sake were battles fought, to include we hesitate to trust ourselves to Turnmasterpieces among the spoils; for user's airy structures, a voice sounds in did the Italian nobles sell their treas- our ears—a prosaic voice, however: ures into the hands of money-lenders." Closin' time! ma'am, — closin' time." Could Botticelli, the follower of SavonaEMILY CONSTANCE COOK. rola, he who "worked and prayed in silence," have guessed that his beloved "Nativity of Christ" would centuries thence be removed to London, and be stared at by crowds of wondering Philistines, who should see in it only the curious uncouthness of its gestures, he would surely have held his hand. From Belgravia. A REVOLUTIONARY EPISODE. I. A SAD and strange story is that of the Marquis de Favras, who played his part in history scarcely more than a century ago. The question still remains unanswered; was he innocent as some believed, or as guilty as by others he was represented? Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras, was born at Blois, March 26th, 1744. He entered the Mousquetaires in 1755 4276 - there was no childhood in those days | the ominous ringing of the tocsin. A -and at the age of nineteen, was al- band of women, and men disguised as ready a captain, and had seen eight women, had forced the doors of the years' service, including two cam- Hôtel-de-Ville. paigns. But that was not enough to satisfy him; he had dreams of greater things; and, contrary to the custom of officers of that period, he set about re-educating himself. Literature, art, finance, political economy, even architecture, by turns occupied his attention. He is represented to have applied himself with more ardor than method, more diversity than depth; for this handsome, brave young fellow became persuaded that he knew everything, and developed into one of those dreamers who are forever following a chimera, or tracing out plans impossible of realization. The details of his sudden and unexpected marriage in Germany with the Princess Caroline of Anhalt are absolutely unknown. "A Versailles, à Versailles !" was being roared on all sides, when Lafayette appeared suddenly in their midst. He boldly declared that they should not go to Versailles, he emphatically forbade the National Guard to stir. But he had counted too much on his own popularity. A wretch named Maillard, who later acquired a certain celebrity, placed himself, drum in hand, at the head of this imposing manifestation. In hopes of moderating the mad multitude, Lafayette feigned to join them. He gave the signal for departure; and though he merely seemed the leader of a crowd clamoring for bread, it was in fact the Republic that marched behind him, on its way to put down royalty. The utmost consternation prevailed at Versailles on the approach of this column. The king was out hunting; messengers were despatched to warn him. Forty thousand men are marching upon us," said Mirabeau to President Mounier. How a penniless young captain of dragoons as he then was managed to contract an alliance which he said himself, "n'eut pas déshonoré nos rois," remains an unexplained mystery. The Prince of Anhalt refused to acknowledge his daughter's marriage, or to give her a dowry; but the law compelled him to pay her a thousand florins a year, and the mésalliance was after-lic!" wards forgiven. A thousand florins per annum, however, was not much wherewith to figure at court, so M. de Favras found it necessary to quit the service. He retired on half-pay; took a small appartement, No. 21 Place Royale, and lived there several years very quietly, writing a great deal on political economy. His work, not without merit, was read and approved by Mirabeau. "So much the better," replied the president, "let them kill us all - all and France will the sooner be a Repub The column was already defiling in the Avenue de Paris during a pouring rain; Maillard, covered with mud, a naked sword in his hand, exciting the people with word and gesture. Within the palace all was confusion. Among the officers one alone had presence of mind enough to make a bold proposition; this was the Marquis de Favras : "It is shameful," cried he, "to permit these hordes to advance without resistance upon the palace of our king!" and he proposed to the cour In June, 1789, he took up his abode at Versailles, and from this day his name belongs to history. On the 6th October he may be said to tiers to call together all faithful soldiers enter upon the scene. The previous evening, it will be remembered, was the preface to the Reign of Terror. At five o'clock in the morning, Paris was awakened by and sally out sword in hand. They objected that the enemy were too numerous. "Then I will have horses!" said De Favras; and immediately sought the Comte de Saint-Priest, then minis ter. The latter kept him long waiting. | of the National Guard, who wept on When admitted, De Favras asked per- seeing their Majesties in so frightful a mission to use the king's horses for one situation. He inquired the name of hour: "We will undertake, with them this officer, and learned that he was and some cannon, to disperse these Pierre Marquier, a sub-lieutenant of hordes," said he. Grenadiers, of the faubourg Saint Antoine. De Favras wrote the name down on his tablets and counted Marquier among those whose sentiments corresponded with his own. But it required the royal sanction to make use of the horses in the royal stables, and not until the king returned from hunting could the minister give leave; an hour later De Favras was informed that the court having heard that Lafayette and several battalions of the National Guard were among the people from Paris no action could be taken in the matter. It remains now to show what fatal consequences followed this apparently trivial incident. II. FROM the day following the king's return to the Tuileries, the so-called conspiracy of De Favras was reckoned to commence. After the 6th of October, being "suspected" by the commune, he was closely watched. A secret agent, named Joffroy, never actually lost sight of him for two months, and this spy sometimes joined by M. Masson de Neuville, aide-de-camp to Lafayette, revealed in subsequent examinations the minutest details of De Favras's conduct. M. de Favras, at this time, liked nothing better than to wander about the streets of Paris, observing all he They broke down the palisading and it is well known what horrible scenes were enacted, notwithstanding the efforts of Lafayette, who did prodigies of valor. The pacificator of La Vendée never forgot that memorable night when he so bravely defended the queen. How at day-dawn he appeared on the balcony, and, before the eyes of that howling multitude, kissed respectfully saw and heard. Anarchy reigned the hand of Marie-Antoinette. His everywhere. In public places, in the action was applauded, for the people of cafés-the groups of people in the Paris applaud anything that resembles streets-all spoke only of vengeance a coup de théâtre. Peace even seemed and assassinations. Even the theatres restored; but it was not so; in fact, told the same story. Most frequently nothing had actually changed. The he walked in the direction of the faumob was victorious and bent on carry-bourg Saint Antoine, which was the ing the king back to Paris. chief centre of demagogy, and listened aghast to the menaces that were uttered. M. de Favras with some other devoted officers escorted Louis XVI. who returned to Paris as a captive; the dis- One day he heard a bare-armed oraarmed body-guard marching on foot tor expounding with such luxury of desurrounded by the hideous mob carry-tail, such strategic precision, a plan for ing naked swords. Women covered attacking the Tuileries, that he was with cockades and tri-colored ribbons terror-stricken. He believed it to be surrounded the king's carriage, singing his duty to go immediately and inform ribald songs, while the heads of two M. de Luxemburg, who then acted as of the body-guard who had been killed captain of the guard to the king. - in the palace were borne aloft on pikes. De Favras, deeply moved by all these terrible events, remarked by the door of the queen's carriage a young officer M. de Luxemburg, acquainted with the part De Favras had taken at Versailles, and touched by his devotion, begged him to continue to watch closely |