590 
had come trom Parma, such as 
the St. Jerom of Correggio, those 
from Milan and Modena, and the 
Titians from Venice, It was now 
that the losses of the Museum 
were swelled into magnitude. 
The report that a strong guard 
of foreign troops were posted all 
night at the Louvre was now re- 
peated from mouth to mouth. 
The. Parisians seemed ready to 
apostrophize the allies in the same 
tone of bitter irony with which 
Achilles addresses Agamemnon in 
the Iphigenia of Racine: 
“Un bruit assez étrange est arrivé 
jusqu’a moi, 
“ Seigneur, je l’ai jugé trop peu digne 
de foi.’’ 
It was sullenly whispered that 
the allies were going to take away 
some pictures of the Flemish 
school. A fearful apprehension, 
indeed, of something more dread- 
ful, dwelt in every mind; but no 
one dared to express it. We were 
in the situation of Madame de 
Longueville, when she lamented 
the death of her brother, who 
had fallen in battle ; but dared 
not inquire for her son. To be 
bereaved of the Greek chefs- 
d’ceuvre, and of the Italian school, 
was an idea too full of horror to 
be borne; a sacrilege from which 
the minds of the Parisians started 
back aghast. 
But when the direful truth 
was promulgated, what language 
can paint the variety and violence 
of passion which raged in every 
Frenchman’s breast! Curses, 
louder and longer than those 
heaped on the head of Obadiah, 
were poured out on the allies by 
the enraged Parisians. They for- 
got all other miseries ; the pro- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1815. 
ject of blowing up bridges, pillage, 
spoliations, massacres, war-taxes, 
the dismemberment of empire ;— 
all these they wiped away “ from 
their tablets.” No longer were 
their heads plotting on tyranny, 
on liberty ; they thought no more 
of the cession of fortresses, and 
the fate of the Constitutional 
Chart; all principles, feelings, 
hopes, and fears, were absorbed 
in this one great and horrible 
humiliation. 
Whatever has been recorded in 
history of the depredations of the 
Goths and Vandals seemed light 
to the public of Paris when 
weighed in the balance with these 
outrages of thenineteenth century. 
They were in vain reminded that 
these precious objects were the 
spoils of the vanquished, who had 
now become the conquerors in 
their turn ; despair seldom rea- 
sons. The artists tore their hair, 
and even the lower classes of the 
people partook the general in- 
dignation. In the liberal access 
which in this country is accorded 
to all objects of art and science, 
the poor had not been excluded. 
They too had visited these models 
of perfection, and felt that all had 
a right to lament the loss of what 
all had been permitted to enjoy. 
It may be observed, by the way, 
that this violence of resentment, 
this desperate fury at the removal 
of those master-pieces of art, 
denote the feelings of a people ar- 
rived at a very high degree of ci- 
vilization. The Parisians, while 
they had supported with equani- 
mity the most signal calamities, 
and endured with cheerfulness 
the most cruel privations, de- 
plored with sensibility, and goad- 
ed almost to madness, the loss of 
