was convulsed and almost threatening; when I looked at him he made me
afraid. I did not amuse myself by discussing with him matters upon which
we were, both of us, more or less ignorant. I did all that could be done
to introduce a little calm into his superstitious head, and to gain the
necessary time for the completion of my five portraits. I was careful
not to confide to the King this qualification of Heliogabalus; but as his
intervention was absolutely necessary to me, I persuaded him to come and
spend half an hour at this chateau of Clagny, which he had deserted for a
long time past.

"Your presence," I said to him, "will perhaps take the edge off the
theological irritation of your fanatical painter. A little royal
amenity, a little conversation and blandishment, a la Louis XIV., will
seduce his artistic vanity. At the cost of that, your portrait, Sire,
will be terminated. It would not be without."

The surprise of his Majesty was extreme when he had to learn and
comprehend that the prodigious talent of Petitot was joined to a Huguenot
conscience, and this talent spoke of expatriating itself. "I will go to
Clagny to-morrow," replied the prince to me; and he went there, in fact,
accompanied by the Marquise de Montchevreuil and Madame la Dauphine, in
an elaborate neglige.

"Good-day, Monsieur Petitot," said the monarch to our artist, who rose on
seeing him enter. "I come to contemplate your new masterpieces. Is my
little miniature near completion?"

"Sire," replied Petitot, "it will not be for another six weeks. All
these affairs and decrees have deprived me of many hours; my heart is
heavy over it!"