Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/442

 430 these fingers Fuseli considered, as they were wide apart, to be so much like an open pair of shears, that he was heard to make the following observation; "Ay, King Solomon suits his action to his words, he is saying, with his fingers, cut him in two."

One year, during the time the artists woe touching up their pictures in the great room at the Royal Academy, previous to the opening of the Exhibition, Northcote was looking at one of Fuseli's pictures, in which, a man was represented in the attitude of shooting at another seated upon a throne. Fuseli, who ob« served Northcote to stop at this performance, went up to him, and said, "Well, Northcote, what do you think of it?" To which the answer was, "He'll never hit him." Fuseii; without returning thanks for this pointed remark, sullenly ascended the ladder, and after waking upon it for nearly an hour descended, and going to some distance to view it, was heard to utter, emphatically, "He will hit him! I say he will hit him!!" However, "Tit for tat" Northcote had hit Fuseli in the wing, for he could not fly, no, not even after the attempted struggle, as the marksman's arrow was drawn parallel to the top of the frame, perfectly horizontal, and the man he wished to shoot was