success." So Mariano Fortuny and the great
Madrazo, pupil and teacher, became firm friends.

And we know that, in Eighteen Hundred Fifty-seven, Mariano was voted the
"Prize of Rome." Each year this prize was awarded to the scholar who on
vote of the teachers and scholars was deemed most deserving. It meant two
years of study at Rome with five hundred dollars a year for expenses. And
the only obligation was that the pupil should each year send home two
paintings: one an original and the other a copy of some old masterpiece.

The sum of two hundred fifty dollars was advanced to Mariano at once. He
straightway sent one-half of the amount down to his grandfather, with
particulars of the good news.

"What did I tell you?" said the grandfather. "It was I who first taught
him to use a brush. I used to caution him about running his reds into his
greens, and told him to do as I said and he would be a great artist yet."

Father Gonzales and Grandfather Fortuny went out and bought two fowls,
three bottles, and a loaf of bread a yard long.

Mariano made all preparations to start for Rome. But the night before the
journey was to begin, conscription officers came to his lodging and told
him to consider himself under arrest--he must serve the State as a
soldier.

It seems that the laws of Spain are such that any citizen can be called
on to carry arms at any moment; and there are officials who do little but
lie in wait for those who can pay, but have no time to fight. These
officials are more intent on bleeding their countrymen than the enemy.

Mariano applied to his friend Madrazo for advice as to what to do, and
Madrazo simply cut the Gordian knot by paying out of his own purse three
hundred dollars to secure the release of the young artist.

And so Mariano started gaily away, carrying with him the heart's love of
two old men, and the admiring affection of a whole school.

The grandfather died three months afterward--went babbling down into the
Valley, making prophecies to the last to the effect that Mariano Fortuny
would yet win deathless fame.

And Father Gonzales lived to see these prophecies fulfilled.

* * * * *

Then, at twenty-two, Fortuny was ordered by the city of Barcelona to
accompany General Prim on his Algerian expedition, it was a milepost on
his highway of success.

Nominally he was secretary to the General. Who it was secured his
appointment he never knew; but we have reas