“I have chosen this subject because it recalls the most terrible action that love of country has inspired.  The companion to this picture is Marius, spared by the Cimbrian, who cannot bring himself to kill this great man; the figure of Marius is imposing; the costume of the Cimbrian and the expression of his physiognomy, are very picturesque.  It is the second epoch of Rome, when laws no longer existed, but when genius still exercised considerable influence upon circumstances.  Then comes that era when talents and fame were only objects of misfortune and insult.  The third picture which you see here, represents Belisarius, carrying on his shoulders the body of his young guide, who died while asking alms for him.  Belisarius, blind and mendicant, is thus recompensed by his master; and in the universe which he has conquered, he is employed in bearing to the grave the remains of the poor boy who alone had not abandoned him.  This figure of Belisarius is admirable; another so fine is not to be found in the modern school.  The painter, with a truly poetical imagination, has united here every species of misfortune, and perhaps the picture is too dreadful even to awaken pity:  but who tells us it is Belisarius? to indicate him it should be faithful to history:  but that fidelity would deprive the subject of all its picturesque beauty.  Following these pictures which represent in Brutus, virtues approaching to crime; in Marius, glory, the cause of calamity; in Belisarius, services paid by the blackest persecutions; in short, every misery of human destiny, which is recorded in the events of history, I have placed two pictures of the old school, which a little relieve the oppressed soul by recalling that religion which has consoled the enslaved and distracted universe, that religion which stirred the depths of the heart when all without was but oppression and silence.  The first is by Albano; he has painted the infant Jesus sleeping on a cross.  Behold the sweetness and calm of that countenance!  What pure ideas it recalls; how it convinces the soul that celestial love has nothing to fear, either from affliction or death.  The second picture is by Titian; the subject is Christ sinking beneath the weight of the cross.  His mother comes to meet Him, and throws herself upon her knees on perceiving Him.  Admirable reverence in a mother for the misfortunes and divine virtues of her son!  What a look is that of our Redeemer, what a divine resignation in the midst of suffering, and in this suffering what sympathy with the heart of man!  That is, doubtless, the finest of my pictures.  It is that towards which I incessantly turn my eyes, without ever being able to exhaust the emotion which it inspires.  Next come the dramatic pieces,” continued Corinne, “taken from four great poets.  Judge with me, my lord, of the effect which they produce.  The first represents AEneas in the Elysian fields, when he wishes to approach Dido.  The indignant shade retires, rejoiced that she no longer carries