_ and the ladies had always some wonderful story to tell
him, of an embarrassment or mortification that had happened to _his_
duke; of the evil designs of the Prince Regent, or the dreadful revenge
that was preparing against the injuries of France. The great gallery of
the Louvre presented every fresh day a more and more forlorn aspect; but
to the reflecting mind, it combined a number of interesting points of
view. The gallery now seemed to be the abode of all the foreigners in
the French capital:--we collected there, as a matter of course, every
morning--but it was easy to distinguish the last comers from the rest.
They entered the Louvre with steps of eager haste, and looks of anxious
inquiry; they seemed to have scarcely stopped by the way--and to have
made directly for the pictures on the instant of their reaching Paris.
The first view of the stripped walls made their countenances sink under
the disappointment, as to the great object of their journey. Crowds
collected round the _Transfiguration_--that picture which, according to
the French account, _destiny_ had always intended for the French nation:
it was every one's wish to see it taken down, for the fame which this
great work of Raffaelle had acquired, and its notoriety in the general
knowledge, caused its departure to be regarded as the consummation of
the destruction of the picture gallery of the Louvre. It was taken away
among the last.

"Students of all nations fixed themselves round the principal pictures,
anxious to complete their copies before the workmen came to remove the
originals. Many young French girls were seen among these, perched upon
small scaffolds, and calmly pursuing their labors in the midst of the
throng and bustle. When the French gallery was thoroughly cleared of the
property of other nations, I reckoned the number of pictures which then
remained to it, and found that the total left to the French nation, of
the fifteen hundred pictures which constituted their magnificent
collection, was _two hundred and seventy-four_! The Italian division
comprehended about eighty-five specimens; these were now dwindled to
_twelve_: in this small number, however, there are some very exquisite
pictures by Raffaelle, and other great masters. Their Titians are much
reduced, but they keep the Entombment, as belonging to the King of
France's old collection, which is one of the finest by that artist. A
melancholy air of utter ruin mantled over the walls of this