ntine -- Laurent-Jan proposes to write an epic on it -- He
gives a synopsis of the cantos -- Laurent-Jan lives "on the fat
of the land" for six months -- A son of Napoleon's companion in
exile, General Bertrand -- The chaplain of "la Belle-Poule" --
The first French priest who wore the English dress -- Horace
Vernet and the veterans of "la grande armee" -- His studio during
their occupancy of it as models -- His budget -- His hatred of
pifferari -- A professor -- The Quartier-Latin revisited.

A few weeks ago,[30] when rummaging among old papers, documents,
memoranda, etc., I came upon some stray leaves of a catalogue of a
picture sale at the Hotel Bullion[31] in 1845. I had marked the prices
realized by a score or so of paintings signed by men who, though living
at that time, were already more or less famous, and many of whom have
since then acquired a world-wide reputation. There was only one
exception to this--that of Herrera the Elder, who had been dead nearly
two centuries, and whose name was, and is still, a household word among
connoisseurs by reason of his having been the master of Velasquez. The
handiwork of the irascible old man was knocked down for three francs
seventy-five centimes, though no question was raised as to the
genuineness of it in my hearing. It was a saint--the catalogue said no
more,--and I have been in vain trying to recollect why I did not buy it.
There must have been some cogent reason for my not having done so, for
"the frame was no doubt worth double the money," to use an auctioneer's
phrase. Was it suspicion, or what? At any rate, two years later, I heard
that it had been sold to an American for fourteen thousand francs,
though, after all, that was no guarantee of its value.

[Footnote 30: Written in 1882.]

[Footnote 31: The Hotel Bullion was formerly the town mansion
of the financier of that name, and situated in the Rue
Coquilliere.--EDITOR.]

In those days it was certainly better to be a live artist than a dead
one, for, a little further on among these pages, I came upon a marginal
note of the prices fetched by three works of Meissonier, "Le Corps de
Garde," "Une partie de piquet," and "Un jeune homme regardant des
dessins," all of which had been in the salon of that year,[32] and each
of which fetched 3000 francs. I should not like to say what their
purchasing price would be to-day, allowing for the differenc