Paris in 1861, fetched 16,000 francs.
Fifteen years later, at the Oppenheim sale in Paris, Marilhat's "Ruins Near
Cairo" brought no less than 29,000 francs. It was as a painter of Oriental
subjects that Marilhat won his most lasting distinction. Having travelled
to the East with Baron Hugel, he remained for many years in Egypt, painted
portraits of the Khedive and decorated several of the buildings of
Alexandria. In an obituary article published in the "Revue des Deux
Mondes," Theophile Gautier wrote: "Marilhat was a Syrian Arab. He must
have had in his veins some blood of the Saracens whom Charles Martel did
not kill.... One of the glories of Marilhat was that he preserved his
originality in presence of Decamps. The talents of these two men are
parallel lines, it is true, but they do not touch each other. The more
fruitful fancy of the one is balanced by the character in the works of the
other."

[Sidenote: Death of Oudinot]

[Sidenote: Death of Grouchy]

[Sidenote: Death of Marie Louise]

[Sidenote: Merimee and Dumas]

In France the dissatisfaction with Louis Philippe's government, as
administered by Guizot, was steadily increasing. The Socialist party, led
by Louis Blanc, agitated the country for reform. An appeal to Revolutionary
traditions was made by the simultaneous publication of Blanc's and
Michelet's histories of the French Revolution. At the same time, Lamartine
brought out his "Histoire des Girondins." Napoleonic traditions were
revived by a series of events following the death of General Drouot. In
September came the death of Marshal Oudinot, the hero of Bitche,
Moorlautern, Treves, Ingolstadt, Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Ostralenka,
Friesland and Wagram. Oudinot was wounded innumerable times and was twice
made a prisoner. He bore a prominent part throughout the Russian campaign
and that of 1814. During the Hundred Days he remained in retirement. For
this he was made Commander-in-chief of the National Guards under the
Restoration, and passed through the campaign of Spain in 1823, when he
captured Madrid. After his death, Marshal Soult, another veteran of the
Napoleonic wars, succeeded him as general commander of the French army.
Before this, Marshal Grouchy had likewise expired in his eighty-first year.
He it was who was held responsible by Napoleon for the final crushing
defeat at Waterloo. There he failed to support his chief, when Bluecher came
to the support of Wellington. To the end of his days, Grouch