very well built; her pretty face had a sweet,
angelic expression, which gave me the idea of representing her as
Iris. I painted her standing, as if about to fly into the air. She had
about her a fluttering, rainbow-coloured scarf. Of course I painted
her with naked feet, but when the picture was hung in her husband's
gallery the heads of the family were greatly scandalised at seeing the
Princess exhibited without shoes, and the Prince told me that he had
had a pair of nice, little slippers placed under the portrait, which
slippers, so he had informed the grandparents, had slipped off her
feet and fallen on the ground.

At Vienna I was as happy as any one possibly could be away from her
kin and country. In the winter the city offered one of the most
agreeable and brilliant societies of Europe, and when the fine weather
returned I delightedly sought my little country retreat. Not thinking
of leaving Austria before I could safely return to France, the Russian
Ambassador and some of his compatriots urged me strongly to go to St.
Petersburg, where, they assured me, the Empress would be pleased to
see me. Everything that the Prince de Ligne had told me about
Catherine II. inspired me with an irrepressible desire to get a
glance at that potentate. Moreover I reasoned correctly that even a
short stay in Russia would complete the fortune I had decided to make
before resuming residence in Paris. So I made up my mind to go.

[Illustration: QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE.]

After a sojourn at Vienna of two years and a half, I left that place
in April of the year 1795 for Prague. I then passed on to Budweis,
whose surroundings are most engaging. The town is deserted, the
fortifications are in ruins; there are only old men and some women and
children to be met with--and not many of those. Finally we reached
Dresden by a very narrow road skirting the Elbe at a great height, the
river flowing through a broad valley. The very day after my arrival I
visited the famous Dresden gallery, unexcelled in the world. Its
masterpieces are so well known that I render no special account. I
will only observe that here, as everywhere else, one recognises how
far Raphael stands above all other painters. I had inspected several
rooms of the gallery, when I found myself before a picture which
filled me with an admiration greater than anything else in the art of
painting could have evoked. It represents the Virgin, standing on some
clouds and holding the inf