st probable that he would
have refused. To Mariette-Bey belongs the credit furthermore of having
entirely stage-managed the opera.

Thus Felicien David, who had revealed "the East in music" to the
Europeans, no more reaped the fruits of his originality than Decamps,
who had revealed it in painting. Was not Auber right when he said to
young Coquelin that the verdict on all things in this world might be
summed up in the one phrase, "It's an injustice"?

CHAPTER VIII.

Three painters, and a school for pifferari -- Gabriel Decamps,
Eugene Delacroix, and Horace Vernet -- The prices of pictures in
the forties -- Delacroix' find no purchasers at all -- Decamps'
drawings fetch a thousand francs each -- Decamps not a happy man
-- The cause of his unhappiness -- The man and the painter -- He
finds no pleasure in being popular -- Eugene Delacroix -- His
contempt for the bourgeoisie -- A parallel between Delacroix and
Shakespeare -- Was Delacroix tall or short? -- His love of
flowers -- His delicate health -- His personal appearance -- His
indifference to the love-passion -- George Sand and Delacroix --
A miscarried love-scene -- Delacroix' housekeeper, Jenny
Leguillou -- Delacroix does not want to pose as a model for one
of George Sand's heroes -- Delacroix as a writer -- His approval
of Carlyle's dictum, "Show me how a man sings," etc. -- His
humour tempered by his reverence -- His failure as a caricaturist
-- His practical jokes on would-be art-critics -- Delacroix at
home -- His dress while at work -- Horace Vernet's, Paul
Delaroche's, Ingres' -- Early at work -- He does not waste time
over lunch -- How he spent his evenings -- His dislike of being
reproduced in marble or on canvas after his death -- Horace
Vernet -- The contrast between the two men and the two artists --
Vernet's appearance -- His own account of how he became a painter
-- Moral and mental resemblance to Alexandre Dumas pere -- His
political opinions -- Vernet and Nicholas I. -- A bold answer --
His opinion on the mental state of the Romanoffs -- The comic
side of Vernet's character -- He thinks himself a Vauban -- His
interviews with M. Thiers -- His admiration for everything
military -- His worship of Alfred de Vigny -- His ineffectual
attempts to paint a scene in connection with the storming of
Consta