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dicative of rage, and liflened toby the others with lively 
fighs of fympathy with hispaflion. As the packages came 
our, they crowded round them, giving vent to torrents 
of pefies, diab/es, /acres, and other worfe iriterje&ions. 
No defcription can convey an exaggerated idea of the 
diftrefs of the Parifians at the removal of their favourite 
monuments. The duke of Wellington, hitherto the 
theme of their incefl'ant praife, was now deftined to be¬ 
come the objeCt of all their farcafms, and the burden of 
every idle tale current in that credulous metropolis. Eng¬ 
land, they laid, was to have the choiceft ftatues, the Venus 
and the Apollo! The French would not hear a doubt 
whifpered on this head : for wdiat other reafon fliould fhe, 
who had loft nothing,'interfere to break up the collection ? 
The females, accuftomed to hold a prominent place in all 
matters of bufinefs in France, made themfelves confpi- 
cuous alfo on this occafion ; and the Britifh general, 
when looking around him in a drawing-room, was faid 
to have been told by a young lady, Ne regardez pas, mi¬ 
lord, il n'y a rim a prendre ici; “ You need not look round, 
my lord ; there is nothing here to be taken away.” 
Wherever an Englifhman went in Paris, at this time, 
whether into a fhop ora company, he was affailed with the 
exclamation Ah! vos compatriotes! “ Your vile country¬ 
men !” and the ladies had always fome wonderful ftory to 
tell him, of an embarrafl’ment or mortification that had hap¬ 
pened to Ms duke ; of the evil defigns of the prince regent, 
or the dreadful revenge that was preparing againft the inju¬ 
ries of France. The great gallery of the Louvre prefented 
every day a more and more forlorn afpeCl; but it com¬ 
bined a number of interefting points of view, and for re¬ 
flection. It feerned to be the abode of all the foreigners in 
the French capital : and it was eafy to diftinguifh the laft 
comers from the reft. They entered the Louvre with fteps 
of eager hafte, and looks of anxious enquiry : they Teemed 
to have fcarcely flopped by the way, and to have made 
direCtly for the pictures on the inftant of their reaching 
Paris. The firft view of the ftripped walls made their 
countenances fink under the difappointment, as to the 
great objeCt of their journey. Crowds collected round 
the Transfiguration, that picture which, according to the 
French account, defiiny had always intended for the 
French nation : it was every one’s with to fee it taken 
down ; for the fame which this great work of Raphael had 
acquired, and its notoriety in the general knowledge, 
caufed its departure to be regarded as the confummation 
of the deftruCHon of the picture-gallery of the Louvre. It 
was taken away among the laft. 
Students of all nations fixed themfelves round the prin¬ 
cipal piCtutes, anxious to complete their copies before 
the workmen came to remove the originals. Many 
young French gilds were feen among thefe, perched up on 
fmali fcaffolds, and calmly purfuing their labours in the 
midft of the throng and buftle. A melancholy air of 
utter ruin mantled over the walls of this fuperb gallery ; 
thefloorwas covered with empty frames. A Frenchman, 
in the midft of his forrow, had his joke, in faying, “ Well, 
we fhould not have left to them even thefe !” In walking 
down this exhaufted place, I obferved a perfon, wearing 
the infignia of the legion of honour, fuddenly flop fhort, 
and heard him exclaim, “Ah ! my God, and the Paul Potter 
too !” This referred to the famous painting of a bull by 
that mafter, which is the largeft of his pictures, and is 
very highly valued. It belonged to the Netherlands, and 
has returned to them. It was laid that the Emperor 
Alexander offered fifteen thoufand pounds for it. 
The Spaniards claimed their lharein this general diftri- 
bution, and fucceeded. In the latter times of Bonaparte, 
in the year 3814, an exhibition had been made of the fub- 
jeCts of the Spanifh fchool; of the Italian, before the time 
of Raphael; and of the German fchool. Some French 
marlhals, to pleafe their mafter, had lent their Morellos 
to fwell this exhibition ; which pieces had, by chance, been 
left during the reign of the Bourbons, the Ihort invafion of 
Bonaparte, and to the prelent period. The Spanifli am- 
R I S. 
baflador would not have demanded the Morellos, had 
they remained in the houfes of thofe who had taken them; 
but, as he found them collected in an exhibition, he took 
advantage of the negligence of their frelh owmers, and 
Pent them back into Spain. 
And, laftly, prefented themfelves the commiflaries of 
the king of Sardinia. They came at an unlucky moment. 
The Auftrian guard at the mufeum had been called away 
to aflift in the removal of the horfes at the Tuileries. The 
guardians of the mufeum, roufed into indignation at the 
attack of thefe new commiflaries, collected their forces, 
confiding of numerous workmen, and with brufli and 
broom fwept the Sardinians out of the gallery. 
An attack meanwhile was directed againft the National 
Library. Among the manufcripts of the Vatican, which 
was ceded by the peace of Tolentino, were thofe which 
had been pillaged from the library of Heidelberg, in the 
Palatinate, during the thirty-years war, by the foldiers 
of General Tilly. Thefe fpoils were at that period given 
to the pope. The commiflaries of the Margrave of Baden 
laid violent hands on thofe manufcripts, as the original 
property of their mafter, now fovereign of Heidelberg. 
Thefe manufcripts, both Greek and Latin, amounted to 
4000 ; and had been taken from Rome, Venice, and the 
Ambrofian library at Milan. It would have been happy 
if all had gone that road, fince the Vatican is the grave 
of manufcripts. Whatever appertains to the fciencesand 
literature is there loft to the world. 
The duke of Wellington may perhaps be taxed with 
remifinefs, for having overlooked, in this hour of retri¬ 
bution, certain property that belonged to England. When 
Bonaparte, fome years fince, was on the point of execu¬ 
ting his threatened invafion of England, it was deemed 
expedient to excite the Parifians to fympathy with fuch an 
heroic enterprife. Volumes of the hiltory of fifteen or 
twenty invafions were circulated ; but nobody read or 
believed them. On the maxim of Horace, that what is 
feen with the eyes produces much greater effeCt than what 
pafles through the ear; the walls of the mufeum were co¬ 
vered with pictures, proving that the meafure was not 
only poflible, but had really been executed. The hiftory 
of this marvellous tranfaClion was imprefted on Parifian 
incredulity by the difplay of Matilda’s tapeftry, worked 
by the queen and her ladies of honour, reprefenting, in 
worfted epic, the heroic feats of her hulband, William 
the Conqueror. Hume, in hi? Hiftory, refers to this ta¬ 
peftry, to authenticate fome incident of that period. The 
duke of Wellington, it appears, had made no inquiry 
after this hiftorical furniture; which was evidently the 
property of the prince-regent, (now George IV.) as heir- 
at-law to William the Conqueror, to whom it originally 
belonged, as the hufband of Matilda. The duke might, 
however, from a fentiment of generofity, have left it to 
adorn the now-naked walls of the Mufeum, and to confole 
the French that their anceftors had once conquered Eng¬ 
land, and taken London, though it were nearly a thou¬ 
fand years fince. 
The removal of the ftatues was longer in commencing, 
and took up more time; they were ftili packing thefe up 
when Mr. Scott quitted Paris. I faw (fays lie) the Venus, 
the Apollo, and the Laocoon, removed : thefe may be 
deemed the prefiding deities of the collection. The fo- 
lemn antique look of thefe halls fled for ever, when the 
workmen came in with their ftraw, and plafter of Paris, 
to pack up. The French could not, for fome time, allow 
themfelves to believe that their enemies would dare to 
deprive them of thefe facred works : it appeared to them 
impoffible that they fliould be leparated from France ; from 
la France, the country of the Louvre and the Inftitute ; 
it feemed a contingency beyond the limits of human re- 
verfes. But it happened neverthelefs : they were all re¬ 
moved. “ One afternoon, before quitting the palace, I 
accidentally flopped longer than ufual to gaze on the 
Venus; on the following morning I returned, and the 
pedeftal on which the Venus had flood for fo many years, 
