um Imaginum et Picturarum_, in the edition given us by Noel
Paquot, dated Louvain, 1771; Cardinal Frederico Borromeo, _De Pictura
Sacra_, and the Iconography of Didron; but this last work must be read
with caution."

Having thus spoken, Monsieur Sariette relapsed into silence. He was
pondering on his devastated library.

"On the other hand," continued Abbe Patouille, "since an example of the
holy anger of the angels was necessary in this chapel, the painter is to
be commended for having depicted for us in imitation of Raphael the
heavenly messengers who chastised Heliodorus. Ordered by Seleucus, King
of Syria, to carry off the treasures contained in the Temple, Heliodorus
was stricken by an angel in a cuirass of gold mounted on a magnificently
caparisoned steed. Two other angels smote him with rods. He fell to
earth, as Monsieur Delacroix shows us here, and was swallowed up in
darkness. It is right and salutary that this adventure should be cited
as an example to the Republican Commissioners of Police and to the
sacrilegious agents of the law. There will always be Heliodoruses, but,
let it be known, every time they lay their hands on the property of the
Church, which is the property of the poor, they shall be chastised with
rods and blinded by the angels."

"I should like this painting, or, better still, Raphael's sublimer
conception of the same subject, to be engraved in little pictures fully
coloured, and distributed as rewards in all the schools."

"Uncle," said young Maurice, with a yawn, "I think these things are
simply ghastly. I prefer Matisse and Metzinger."

These words fell unheeded, and old Guinardon from his ladder held forth:

"Only the primitives caught a glimpse of Heaven. Beauty is only to be
found between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The antique, the
impure antique, which regained its pernicious influence over the minds
of the sixteenth century, inspired poets and painters with criminal
notions and immodest conceptions, with horrid impurities, filth. All the
artists of the Renaissance were swine, including Michael-Angelo."

Then, perceiving that Gaetan was on the point of departure, Pere
Guinardon assumed an air of bonhomie, and said to him in a confidential
tone:

"Monsieur Gaetan, if you're not afraid of climbing up my five flights,
come and have a look at my den. I've got two or three little canvases I
wouldn't mind parting with, and they might interest you. All good,
honest, stra