and in 1797 Adam
Bartsch, keeper of the prints in the library at Vienna, issued the
well-known catalogue that bears his name in two octavo volumes. Since
Bartsch's monumental work many students of the etchings have striven to
sift the authentic from the false. Needless to say, they disagree. Here are
the figures:--

Bartsch 375 authentic etchings.
Wilson 366 " "
Claussin 365 " "
Blanc 353 " "
Middleton-Wake 329 " "
de Seidlitz 260 " "
Legros 71-113 " "

M. de Seidlitz's list of 260 was arrived at through consultation with
several authorities, and that number is now accepted as approximately
correct.

Our enthusiast knew nothing of the work of the labourers in Rembrandt's
etching vineyard. He was quite ignorant of the expert contributions of Sir
Francis Haden, P.G. Hamerton, and Mr. Frederick Wedmore, although his
father, had he been a communicative man, could have discoursed learnedly on
their efforts. Fate so willed it that he came to Rembrandt's etchings by
chance, and, being sensitively alive to beauty and idealism, they merged
into his life, and became as it were a personal possession.

On a certain day, in the window of one of those delightful London shops
where first editions, prints, pieces of pottery, and odds and ends tempting
to the virtuoso, are exposed for sale, he saw a small opulent picture by
Monticelli. Entering to inquire the price, he discovered, as he had feared,
that it was far beyond his bank balance. At the invitation of the
proprietor, who seemed delighted that his goods should be admired, he
stayed to "look round." Strewn upon a rosewood, inlaid table were a hundred
and more etchings. Many were quite small, heads of men and women minutely
and beautifully wrought; others, larger in size, were Biblical subjects;
some were weird and fantastical; one, for example, showed a foreshortened
figure lying before an erection, upon which a skinny bird stood with
outstretched wings, flanked by ugly angel boys blowing trumpets.

[Illustration: TITUS IN A RED CAP AND A GOLD CHAIN

1657. The Wallace Collection, London.]

"The best are sold," said the gentle proprietor.

The enthusiast was about to ask the name of the artist, when he suddenly
caught sight of the _Christ at Emmaus_. His blood stirred in him. That
little shop became an altar of art, and