off for Rome. Having
reached the gardens of the "Vigna Navicella," and bribed the custode to
lend them for a few hours, and otherwise to assist him, he dispatched a
circular billet to eighteen of his friends, supplicating them to give
him a rendezvous at the Navicella. Each believed that Salvator had
fallen into some new difficulty, which had obliged him to fly from
Florence, and all attended his summons. He received them at the head of
a well furnished table, embraced them with tenderness, feasted them
sumptuously, and then mounting his horse, returned to Florence before
his Roman persecutors or Tuscan friends were aware of his adventure.

SALVATOR ROSA'S WIT.

Salvator Rosa exhibited a clever picture, the work of an amateur by
profession a surgeon, which had been rejected by the academicians of St.
Luke. The artists came in crowds to see it; and by those who were
ignorant of the painter, it was highly praised. On being asked who had
painted it by some one, Salvator replied, "It was performed by a person
whom the great academicians of St. Luke thought fit to scorn, because
his ordinary profession was that of a surgeon. But (continued he), I
think they have not acted wisely; for if they had admitted him into
their academy, they would have had the advantage of his services in
setting the broken and distorted limbs that so frequently occur in their
exhibitions."

SALVATOR ROSA'S RECEPTION AT FLORENCE.

The departure of Salvator Rosa from Rome was an escape: his arrival in
Florence was a triumph. The Grand Duke and the princes of his house
received him, not as an hireling, but as one whose genius placed him
beyond the possibility of dependence. An annual income was assigned to
him during his residence in Florence, in the service of the court,
besides a stipulated price for each of his pictures: and he was left
perfectly unconstrained and at liberty to paint for whom he pleased.

HISTRIONIC POWERS OF SALVATOR ROSA.

In 1647, Salvator Rosa received an invitation to repair to the court of
Tuscany, of which he availed himself the more willingly, as by the
machinations of his enemies, he was in great danger of being thrown into
prison. At Florence he met with the most flattering reception, not only
at the court and among the nobility, but among the literary men and
eminent painters with which that city abounded. His residence soon
became the rendezvous of all who were distinguished for their talents,
and who after