paintings and
chromo-lithographic reproductions of all the battles of the First
Empire. The moment he entered, the sight of the big Arab greyhound
had struck him as he passed. It was the _sleughi_ all over, the true
_sleughi_, delicate and nervous, of his own country, the companion of
all his hunting expeditions. He laughed in his black beard, felt the
loins of the animal, stroked its muscles, seemed to want to urge it on
still faster, while with nostrils open, teeth showing, all its
limbs stretched out and unwearying in their vigorous elasticity, the
aristocratic beast, the beast of prey, ardent in love and the chase,
intoxicated with their double intoxication, its eyes fixed, was already
enjoying a foretaste of its capture with a little end of its tongue
which hung and seemed to sharpen the teeth with a ferocious laugh. When
you only looked at the hound you said to yourself, "He has got him!" But
the sight of the fox reassured you immediately. Beneath the velvet of
his lustrous coat, cat-like almost lying along the ground, covering it
rapidly without effort, you felt him to be a veritable fairy; and his
delicate head with its pointed ears, which as he ran he turned towards
the hound, had an expression of ironical security which clearly marked
the gift received from the gods.

While an Inspector of Fine Arts, who had rushed up in all haste, with
his official dress in disorder, and a head bald right down to his back,
explained to Mohammed the apologue of "The Dog and the Fox," related in
the descriptive catalogue with these words inscribed beneath, "Now it
happened that they met," and the indication, "The property of the Duc
de Mora," the fat Hemerlingue, perspiring and puffing by his Highness's
side, had great difficulty to convince him that this masterly piece
of sculpture was the work of the beautiful young lady whom they had
encountered the previous evening riding in the Bois. How could a woman,
with her feeble hands, thus mould the hard bronze, and give to it the
very appearance of the living body? Of all the marvels of Paris, this
was the one which caused the Bey the most astonishment. He inquired
consequently from the functionary if there was nothing else to see by
the same artist.

"Yes, indeed, monseigneur, another masterpiece. If your Highness will
deign to step this way I will conduct you to it."

The Bey commenced to move on again with his suite. They were all
admirable types, with chiselled features and