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80 progress of their voyage, during which their principal companion was a little French painter called Bournonville.

If self-content form happiness, Corregio Bournonville was the happiest of men. Perfectly convinced that miniature-painting was the most important pursuit in life, he was equally persuaded that he was the finest miniature-painter in the world. Character he had none; for he was simple as a child—experience taught him nothing, being one of those in whom the faculty of comprehension is utterly wanting, His only remaining characteristic was an extravagant deference to rank, mingled, too, with an odd sort of patronage. "I to whom the court will owe its immortality!" was with him a common phrase. For hours he would dilate, with an enthusiasm only broken in upon by emotion, how he had relieved the monotony of colouring in Anne of Austria's picture (taken during the second year of her widowhood, when she wore a suit of entire grey silk) by painting her as Juno, and introducing a peacock. He was touched even to tears when he mentioned that her majesty graciously condescended to resume the use of powder for that occasion expressly, she not having worn it since the death of the king. "Yes, her grace had