atched him at work upon,
thinking, as he did so, how Rome abounded in paradoxical meetings.

For, in 1867, that same old Garibaldian exchanged shots at Mentana with
the Pope's Zouaves, among whom was Marquis de Montfanon, for so was
called the visitor awaiting Ribalta's pleasure. Twenty-three years had
sufficed to make of the two impassioned soldiers of former days two
inoffensive men, one of whom sold old volumes to the other! And there
is a figure such as you will not find anywhere else--the French nobleman
who has come to die near St. Peter's.

Would you believe, to see him with his coarse boots, dressed in a simple
coat somewhat threadbare, a round hat covering his gray head, that you
have before you one of the famous Parisian dandies of 1864? Listen
to this other history. Scruples of devoutness coming in the wake of a
serious illness cast at one blow the frequenter of the 'Cafe Anglais'
and gay suppers into the ranks of the pontifical zouaves. A first
sojourn in Rome during the last four years of the government of Pius IX,
in that incomparable city to which the presentiment of the approaching
termination of a secular rule, the advent of the Council, and the French
occupation gave a still more peculiar character, was enchantment. All
the germs of piety instilled in the nobleman by the education of the
Jesuits of Brughetti ended by reviving a harvest of noble virtues,
in the days of trial which came only too quickly. Montfanon made the
campaign of France with the other zouaves, and the empty sleeve which
was turned up in place of his left arm attested with what courage he
fought at Patay, at the time of that sublime charge when the heroic
General de Sonis unfurled the banner of the Sacred Heart. He had been a
duelist, sportsman, gambler, lover, but to those of his old companions
of pleasure whom chance brought to Rome he was only a devotee who lived
economically, notwithstanding the fact that he had saved the remnants of
a large fortune for alms, for reading and for collecting.

Every one has that vice, more or less, in Rome, which is in itself the
most surprising museum of history and of art. Montfanon is collecting
documents in order to write the history of the French nobility and of
the Church. His mistresses of the time when he was the rival of the
Gramont-Caderousses and the Demidoffs would surely not recognize him
any more than he would them. But are they as happy as he seems to have
remained through his life