tures we saw Madalina bend her steps. Waiting for her outside the door were her nearly-naked little brothers. Her first words were, "How is baby?" "Sleeping," responded both. different ways, to do what we could to rescue these poor, deserted children from their present pitiful condition. The monk went to his convent to beg the prior for means to bury the infant, and some bread for their immediate want-I to tell the pathet The girl's eyes lighted up with thankful satisfac-ic scene which I had witnessed to some English and tion. She went in, and Father Gerolimo and myself approached the door. The next moment the girl rushed out with the infant in her arms, brought it into the broader light, her eyes strained and fixed with affright upon its waxen face-her lips apart, with breath imprisoned in her throat. She gave a shriek, and cried, "It is dead! It is dead!" The succor had come too late. Father Gerolimo did what he could to console the heart-broken Madalena, who had taken the place of mother to her infant sister. And I-well, I will confess it-I felt ready to rail that instant against human institutions, human charity-and inclined to renounce my belief in Providence itself; but a little reflection sufficed to make me abandon this accusation, for had not Providence shown its mercy in taking the little Rosa from further suffering? and I almost wished the whole family might share her enviable fate. There was nothing within the cave but straw upon the floor, where these miserable beings slept; a broken, wooden bench; a place in a corner of the room where to build a fire, with a hole above it for the smoke to escape; a cracked and broken dish or two, and an earthen pot, in which all the cooking was done, if they had aught to cook. A more wretched picture I have never seen. The pious monk and I went away resolved, in our American ladies who were passing a week or two at Subiaco. These charitable women lost no time in finding the cave and its deplorable inmates, never relaxing their exertions until Madalena and her brothers were removed from their unhealthy den, their nudity covered with such garments as could be found, and bread enough to defy starvation. A Russian princess, who at the same period was making an excursion to Subiaco, became interested in the fate of these poor children, used her influence, and the boys were taken into a charitable institution in Rome, where they would be taught and cared for. As for Madalena, she found a place in a good family as chambermaid-and let us hope the drear caves of Nero's palace will never know them more. It remains, however, for me to explain why Madalena finds a place in my chapter on models. Why, simply because I painted a picture of her. When first I saw her with the basket of pigeons on her head, I was determined to do so. The picture represents her going to offer the last thing left them-three domesticated doves or pigeons, to buy poor little Rosa a drop of milk, which came too late. Madalena's was a head that Raphael or Correggio would have loved to paint. There were beauty and sadness, sweetness and intelligence, faith, affection, purity, and modesty. GOBELIN TAPESTRY. BY LUCY H. HOOPER. ONE of the most ages was the tapestry There was no perspective attempted, all the person NE of the most luxurious appliances of house- | the effect is rather that of a mosaic than a picture. hangings that formed part of the possessions of every noble or wealthy commoner. These costly, and in many cases artistic draperies, served to hide the bare stone walls of feudal castles, or to exclude the currents of air admitted by unskillful masonry; they changed a pile of cushions into a lordly couch, a canvas tent into a princely chamber; they were used for screens, for partitions, for curtains, for carpets. The fair chatelain who trod over rushes might lift her eyes from the sodden greenery beneath her feet to gaze on marvels of needle-work upon her walls. These tapestries were woven or embroidered with scenes from Holy Writ, from mythology, or with the deeds of contemporary warriors. Gold and silk were often used in their embellishment. A set of hangings, nay, even a single piece of fine tapestry, was, and still is, considered an appropriate gift for one sovereign to offer to another. The specimens of embroidered tapestry which date from a period anterior to the sixteenth century show little art in blending colors or in pictorial rendition of a subject. No shading is employed, and ages occupying the same line in the foreground. On a background, which was plain in the thirteenth century and ornamented in the fourteenth, the characters were outlined by a single line, which sometimes designated also the folds of their garments. These outlines were filled up with masses of stitches in two, or at most three, shades of color. In the sixteenth century there is an attempt at perspective and at the creation of a background, but the dimensions, rather than the shading of the personages, indicate their relative positions. The flesh-tints and the colors of the draperies are still of extreme simplicity, only three shades being employed, heightened with white. The greens, and especially those of foliage or verdure, are produced by a dark-blue for the shadows and a yellow for the lights; there are three shades of blue used. The Hôtel Cluny and the Musée du Louvre possess some fine tapestries of this period, in perfect preservation, and some others were once to be seen at the Musée des Gobelins, but were burned when that division of the work was destroyed by the Communists in 1871. The royal manufactory of tapestries in France was founded by Francis I., who established it at Fontainebleau, in or about 1543. Among the first designers of models for the new manufactory may be cited Primoticcio. The succeeding monarchs of France protected and encouraged the work, and in 1630, during the reign of Louis XIII., the manufactory was removed to its present quarters, the Hôtel des Gobelins, so called from a Flemish or Dutch family of dyers who had set up their works therein, and who, thanks to the virtues of the waters of the Bièvre, or to some secret methods of their own, had speedily become celebrated for the brilliancy and stability of their dyes, particularly a certain scarlet, whose merits appear to have been incontestable. The river-water, now sullied by all sorts of impurities, has lost the qualities it was once supposed to possess, if, indeed, it ever really possessed them, and the water now used in dyeing the wools employed at the Gobelins is drawn from a well. Respecting the famous scarlet, a strange legend was long current among the populace of Paris. It was said that this superb tint was produced by the intermixture, with the other ingredients, of the urine of human beings fed on certain deleterious substances, whose effect was greatly to abridge life; thus it was not uncommon for criminals condemned to death to request that their punishment might be commuted to that of the "food of the Gobelins." sought and not artistic reproduction. The tapestry was an interpretation but not a copy. The result was, that broader and more striking effects were obtained, and the workman was able to employ only fast colors. Thus the tapestries of this epoch present a uniform and harmonious coloring, the different tints having faded together, and the design having gained in tone what it has lost in brilliancy. The use of gold-thread proved, however, extremely injurious to the pieces in which it was employed. Not only did it lose its lustre and become by the action of time and of the atmosphere of a dingy brown hue, and thus darken the paints to which it was supposed to lend brilliancy, but the sharp edges of the metal thread chafed and wore the threads of the warp, so as to cause the tapestry to give way in the points whereat it was used. Certain pieces, largely enriched with gold-thread, have in this manner been actually destroyed, having literally dropped to pieces. Under the regency a quarrel broke out between the artists and the tapissiers, the result of which was to lead the manufacture to new and more artistic heights. From that time date the copies of actual paintings, laboriously produced, line by line, and hue by hue, that are still to be seen at Les Gobelins in such marvelous perfection. The appointment of Boucher as director in 1755, gave general satisfaction to the managers of the works. No one who is acquainted with the graceful, delicate, but affected and maniéré talent of this artist, but will be struck with the fitness of his designs for decorative purposes. He seems to have been born to paint ceilings and walls, to decorate fans, to design groups for chair-coverings and for screens. His graceful goddesses, embowered in roses or encircled with clouds, his hovering Cupids, his smiling nymphs, are as charming as they are artificial. To reproduce his pearly flesh-tints and faint, gray shadows, the workmen of Les Gobelins were forced to combine new hues and to invent new dyes. Unfortunately, this delicate coloring proved as evanescent as it was charming. The tapestries of the Louis XV. period present to-day a uniform surface of pallid and effaced hues, amid which, here and there, some single tint stands forth with startling and primitive brilliancy. The renowned scarlet of the es Under Louis XIV. the manufactory of the Gobelins attained its greatest importance. The king and his prime-minister, Colbert, united there all the different bands of workmen employed on furniture or decorations for the royal palaces of France. To the weavers of carpets and tapestry were added embroiderers, goldsmiths, engravers on metal and on precious stones, wood-carvers, dyers, etc., and the establishment received the title of the "Manufactory of Furniture to the Crown." Charles Lebrun was named director in 1663, and a new edict, confirming and extending the privileges accorded to workmen of Les Gobelins, was issued in 1667. The director, Lebrun, and his pupils were charged with the care of furnishing designs for the different works. From the pencil of Lebrun himself there exist in the collection of the Louvre alone over twenty-four hundred drawings furnished to Les Gobelins, to say nothing|tablishment seems in particular to defy the power of of his famous "Battles of Alexander." The 15th of October, 1667, Louis XIV. paid a visit in state to the manufactory, accompanied by Colbert, and inspected, with evident satisfaction, the magnificent tapestries, silver plate, carvings, carpets, etc., which were among the products of the works. But these extensive and splendid works were in existence but for a comparatively brief period, and after the death of Lebrun the manufactory was restored to its original function, namely, that of producing carpets and tapestry. Up to this period the tapestries of the Gobelins were executed from a decorative point of view solely. The use of gold-thread to heighten the lights, the liberties taken by the workman with the lights and shadows of his model, prove that effect was time. Recently at the sale of the furniture of the Château de Vaux Praslin at the Hôtel Drouot, a fine example of the tapestry of this period was exhibited, representing Venus in her chariot, surrounded by nymphs and Cupids. A mass of rose-pink drapery in the background alone preserved the original beauty of its hue, the rest of the piece having faded into a faint yellowish-brown, whereon the original design could scarcely be discerned. To create the new colors desired, and particularly the different tint of gray and brown, the manager of Les Gobelins brought from England a skilled dyer named Neilson, under whose direction a register of all the hues used in the establishment was drawn up, together with the receipt for producing each of them. One thousand different colors, each composed of twelve shades, from the palest to the darkest, were set down in methodical order. Nor did the improvements introduced by Neilson stop at the dyeing division of the establishment. He also changed the method of weaving, and reëstablished an institution created at the foundation of the royal manufactory, but long fallen into disuse, namely, the seminary, or department for training apprentices, which apprentices were to be chosen from among the children of former employés. One of the great stumbling-blocks in the path of the enterprise, namely, the difficulty of obtaining skilled workmen, was thus obviated. Neither before nor since has the manufactory ever attained to so high a point of artistic development as at this period. Its productions were particularly suited to the gorgeous and artificial taste of the age, and the art of the epoch, itself artificial and decorative in character, lent itself readily to the purposes of the work. The first Revolution brought with it evil days for Les Gobelins. At first it was proposed to suppress this peculiarly royal institution altogether, and certain pieces of tapestry adorned with fleurs de lis and coats-of-arms were solemnly burned at the foot of the Liberty-Tree. Among the pieces so destroyed was a large and magnificent one, representing the visit of Louis XIV. to Les Gobelins. The manufactory was finally allowed to exist on the condition of reproducing only republican subjects, and the portraits of the chiefs of the new government. Among the heroes so immortalized figured Marat. The choice of subjects was afterward enlarged, and sundry paintings by Correggio, Guido, and Lesueur, were forwarded to Les Gobelins to be used as models. The establishment of the first empire brought with it fresh activity for the royal manufactory. From its looms came the covering for the new imperial throne, the design for which was furnished by David. Soon the workmen were kept busy copying the pictures which recorded the military glories of Napoleon, as well as in producing a large quantity of furniture-coverings and tapestries enriched with gold, destined to replace the furniture of the royal palaces which had been sold, destroyed, and dispersed under the republic. The Restoration brought about but little change, except in the subjects of the pieces executed. The carpet-factory of La Saronnirie was joined to the Gobelins at this period. No change of any importance has taken place in the manufactory since that time. Wholly devoted to the uses of the state, the splendid products of its looms are destined either to adorn the public buildings and the royal palaces of France, or to serve as presents from the French Government to the sovereigns of friendly states. There never was but one brief period in the history of this essentially royal institution when its productions were offered for sale to the general public. This period was during the second republic. Two sets of furniture-coverings were purchased for an American gentleman residing in Philadelphia, and formed for twenty years the ornament of his drawing-rooms. The so-called Gobelin tapestry which decorates the houses of some of our millionaires is nothing more nor less than a finer species of Aubusson tapestry. It is hardly possible that any piece of new Gobelin tapestry, with the exception of the furniture-coverings before mentioned, has in our later days ever found its way to the United States. Nor are the antique pieces which are occasionally offered for sale often purchased by our citizens. The artistic blending of color and design, the peculiar beauty of the tints, faded though they may be, and the real æsthetic value of the work, are not yet appreciated by the American art-collector. In 1871 the Communists set fire to the manufactory, and, though the flames were extinguished before they had spread to the main buildings, the wing wherein were situated the exhibition-rooms was totally destroyed, with all its valuable contents. Among these last were tapestries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including the Acts of the Apostles after Raphael. There were also a number of pieces dating from the eighteenth century, among which were to be found several of Boucher's most charming compositions. The historical portraits, scenes, etc., were numerous and highly interesting. The value of the collection thus destroyed has been estimated at four hundred thousand dollars. At present the exhibition-rooms contain some thirty specimens in all, including the fragments of two historical subjects ordered by the first Napoleon, and left unfinished at his downfall. Cut hastily from the looms, and cast aside in a closet, they lay there forgotten till Louis Napoleon became the ruler of France; they were then disinterred, cleaned, and framed, and now figure honorably in the diminished collection. These fragments are the commencement of two pictures, intended to represent, one the capitulation of Vienna, and the other the meeting of Napoleon I. with Queen Louisa of Prussia after the battle of Tilsit. They are very beautiful in execution, the use of silk as a substitute for the high lights in gold and silver objects being very remarkable and successful. The process of tapestry-weaving as practised at this celebrated manufactory is well known. The work executed there is called the haute-lisse, from the warp being placed vertically, in contradistinction to the basse-lisse, or work with an horizontal warp, as executed at Beauvais. The weaver stands with the model which he is to copy behind him. As the surface of the tapestry must present a perfectly smooth and even surface, all cuttings and fastenings must be made on the wrong side, consequently he must work on the wrong side, and thus neither faces his work nor the model which he is engaged in copying. The process is an extremely slow one, every thread being carefully and deliberately selected, introduced, and fastened into its place. The carpet-weavers work on a different system, their model being suspended overhead, and the right side of their work being toward them. These carpets are considered the finest in world; they are of the closest velvet-pile, and the shading, colors, and designs, are inimitably beautiful. No instance has ever been known of one being sold REESE LIBRAS OF THE UNIVERS. TE CALIFORNIA from the manufactory. Some of the larger carpets take from five to ten years to make, and cost from twelve to thirty thousand dollars each. The largest ever made here was manufactured for the gallery of the Louvre; it was in seventy-two pieces, and was over four hundred and fifty yards in length. The present force of workmen employed in the establishment is over one hundred. Their pay is from three to six hundred dollars a year, and when they become old or disabled they are entitled to a pension. The works at present in course of construction comprise sundry panels destined for the new museum at Sèvres and other public buildings, among which is a copy of Machard's lovely "Selené." Instead of copying celebrated pictures, the administration more wisely devotes its energies principally to the reproduction of designs by eminent artists, made specially for the manufactory. Two carpets for the palace at Fontainebleau now occupy the looms, as well as sundry pieces of furniture-covering destined for the same building. The only innovation which has been made in the details of the manufactory during later years has been the substitution of cotton thread for linen in the warp, the former being found to be more durable and to stretch less than the linen thread which had been heretofore employed. FALLEN FORTUNES CHAPTER XXXIII. A CATASTROPHE. MAMMA! Kitty! news, news!" cried Tony, running joyfully into his mother's room one morning. She was not yet up; yielding to her daughter's entreaties and to the monitions of her own growing sense of weakness, she had of late consented to take her morning meal in her bedroom. As her son entered, she rose from the pillow with eager eyes. "What news, my child? It is not post-time yet. How can there be news?" 64 Kitty, too, who was arranging some late autumn flowers in a little vase upon the dressing-table, so that her mother should see them reflected in the glass, turned round with a beating heart. The ship must have arrived at Rio!" thought she. "O mamma!" said Tony, his ardor greatly cooled, and half-conscious of having aroused undue expectations," the first snow has fallen upon the fell. It is quite high up; but one can see it plainly, and it looks so beautiful. Margate says that it will not go away again till late in the spring; and that its coming so early is a sign of a hard winter.-What is the matter, dear mamma?" Mrs. Dalton had sunk back on a pillow, and covered her face with her thin hands. What sort of news she had expected, Kitty knew not; but it was plain that the disappointment had been a terrible blow. "A hard winter," she repeated, "a hard winter." "That is what Margate says," continued Tony, reassuringly; "but Margate may not be right, you know. And, even if she is, what will it matter? The snow will fall and fall; the beck will be frozen; the roads will be choked up, so that only light carts can come; and we shall be snug and cozy in Sanbeck, all by ourselves, just as though we were out of the world." 66 'Out of the world?" repeated his mother, slowly. Yes, mamma; but why should we care, being all together?" reasoned Tony, gently. "I have heard you say yourself that you are always happy when you have us about you; and I am so glad that I am not at Eton this half." She was kissing him now in a strange, passionate manner, and the rare tears were streaming down her cheeks. Kitty would have drawn the boy away; but she signed to her to leave him. 1 Continued from APPLETONS' JOURNAL (weekly) of June 24th. "You have not forgotten who is not here among us all, Tony?" whispered she. 64 Oh, no, mamma; I often think of dear papa." And pray for him, darling? Do you pray for him?" answered he in her ear, "just as you taught me. "Yes, indeed I do; every night and morning," There is no snow where he is gone, Jenny says.I went to Jenny first, because I knew she was up and at her desk. And I have promised her to write to him all about it. Margate says there will be skating on the mere, and sleighing; the timberme-half a dozen of them at a time, Margate says— trucks make capital sleighs, and the boys will draw Now, and one shoots down the fell like an arrow. all that will be something to write about to papa. I don't mind writing when I have got something to write about-that's her difficulty, Jenny says; so it happens to clever people as well as to stupid ones. far as the bridge to-day, and see the snow on the And oh, dear mamma, I do hope you will get out as fell." Poor Tony came back to that as his one strong point, and the sole excuse for his enthusiasm; but he felt that it was not so strong as it was, and that he had overrated the importance of his tidings. He even understood that his mother's thoughts were too occupied with "dear papa" to take much interest in the natural phenomenon which had taken place; but. beyond that, matters were a puzzle to him. Kitty, right when she said that her mother suspected someon the other hand, now felt that Jenny had been thing was amiss; that her apprehensions respecting ried, were not less poignant than hers and Jenny's, the Flamborough Head, and the precious life it carthough they had not the same sad foundation. She had never said one word to her of her walk to the mere with Uncle George, or even referred to his visit; a suspicious circumstance of itself, and which, joined to what she had seen that morning, made tender Kitty's heart bleed. Jenny had now no secrets from her sister as reJeff had written again-at spected the steamer. Jenny's desire-describing what had happened at Lloyd's; how first "the committee" had announced "that they would be glad of information regarding the Flamborough Head," and how, afterward, it had been placed in the dread list of "missing vessels." Yet even he had not said one word of the paragraph about the wreck, wishing to spare his correspondent, and ignorant that his employer had already supplied the information. So week after week went by, and the snow fell, as Margate had prophesied it would do-heavier than was growing late because of the waning light, which made her bring the enchanted pages nearer to the window. Presently, her mother entered the room, and her first act was to pick up the discarded wrappings of the parcel. "O mamma, I am so sorry," said Kate, remorsefully. Neither she nor her sister, though neat enough in their personal appearance, were tidy; whereas, if Mrs. Dalton had a weakness, besides good-will for everybody, it was for putting things straight. Nay, nay, my dear," answered she, smiling; "don't reproach yourself: it was natural enough that, in your eagerness for the kernel, you should forget the husk." "But that I should have made you stoop to pick them up, mamma-I am quite ashamed of myself." And she cheerfully shut up her book, with the air of a good nun who has prescribed for herself a penance. it had been known to fall for many a year in San- "If the snow permits it, pray send me over our batch of books," wrote Kitty imploringly to Mary; "it is a case of real destitution; I am starving for light literature; not a novel has met my eye for a fortnight. I am now reading the 'Pilgrim's Progress'-the most recent work in the library of the Nook." Mrs. Campden denounced this note as "flippant," considering the circumstances of Kate's position. The writer, indeed, was by no means in a flippant mood; only she no longer wore her heart upon her sleeve with respect to Mary. She did not feel inclined to lay bare to her her miserable anxieties, and affected a gayety that she was far enough from feeling. It is true we should never affect anything; but Kitty would have found it hard to please Mrs. Campden now by any style of composition. With a large class of persons the unfortunate, like the absent, are always in the wrong; and besides, the mistress of Riverside was angry with the girl for refusing or withholding encouragement to Mr. Holt. However, the books were sent off as requested, and reached their destination, although with some difficulty, and not until late in the afternoon. The carrier, who was suitably entertained in the kitchen by Margate in recompense for his courage, gave a terrible account of his journey. If his cart had not been the best built and lightest of all carts, and the horse a paragon of strength and endurance, he could never have come up the valley! The snow was five or six feet deep in many places, and hung so heavy on the hedgerows that they looked like white walls! He tossed off his glass of spirits so quickly after his meal, in order that he might get home before dark, that he found he had just time for another. The treasure he had brought with him was taken into the parlor, and at once divested by Kitty of its coverings. She had thrown down the brown paper and the white upon the ground, and plunged in a first volume of her favorite author; and under his benign influence time, notwithstanding its weight, and weariness and woe, was flying. She only knew that it VOL. I.-5 "Nay, my darling; I am going to look through our weekly accounts; so do not punish yourself in that way. I don't want you to make yourself agreeable just now; only please to get the lamp, for my old eyes will not serve me in this twilight.' Neither Margate nor her myrmidon was intrustwith the trimming of the lamp, which, with many another household duty, was now Kitty's peculiar care. Notwithstanding the economical fashion in which the Daltons lived at the Nook-it was much more meagre than what fine folk call "quiet"-their establishment was to be even still more reduced; it was found that, Lucy could not be retained beyond the quarter. The fact was, with all one's good sense and wish to spend as little as possible, certain freehanded habits-a shilling here and sixpence there, and food for whoever set foot in the house on real or pretended_service—could not be discarded all on a sudden. In vain the weekly accounts were pared to the thinnest proportions; the "extras" somehow swallowed up the savings. Of course it would be a pang to part with their last attendant; but not so severe as it would have been a few weeks ago. Although her emoluments were the same as before, Lucy was not so easily reconciled to the roughness of the new régime as were her mistress and the young ladies; and she complained of the lack of "society." Margate's gossip-for it is not to be supposed that Nature had denied her the usual topics of conversation-itself by no means piquant, was also entirely local; while the "gurl," as the third retainer of the family was scornfully denominated by the lady's maid, was a mere sponge or sucker. Her ears and mouth-were opened for everything, but there was no reciprocity. We cannot all of us be self-denying forever; it is something if one makes a temporary sacrifice at the shrine of duty, and poor Lucy had found by this time that her promise of life-long service to her old employers would be not a little irksome to keep. So she was parting from them, though on the best of terms; and in the mean time Kitty was learning to "make herself useful" about the house-a very elastic phrase, which, as we have seen, included lamp-trimming. A neater-handed Phyllis than Kitty it is impossible to imagine; and whatever she set her hand to she graced. If you could have seen her now, as she comes up the oaken stair with the lamp, burnished, and throwing its mellow light upon her golden hair, you would have said that the Daltons had one family ornament at least still left to them, one rare and beautiful picture, which-however humble its frame-would not escape the judicious eye of the connoisseur. Congratulate me, mamma, upon my success,'' said she, as she stepped carefully into the parlor over the raised threshold that had been very literally a |