He is among the most short-sighted of mortals--as to _ocular_ vision. But
he has a bravely furnished mind; and such a store of spirits and of good
humour--talking withal unintermittingly, but very pleasantly---that you
find it difficult to get away from him. He is no indifferent speaker of our
own language; and I must say, seems rather proud of such an acquirement.
Both he and M. Gail, and M. Van Praet, are men of rather small, stature--
_triplicates_, as it were, of the same work[29]--but of which M. Gail is
the tallest copy. One of the two head librarians, just mentioned, sits at a
desk in the second room--and when any friends come to see, or to converse
with him--the discussion is immediately adjourned to the contiguous
boudoir-like apartment, where are deposited the rich old bindings of which
you have just had a hasty description. Here the voices are elevated, and
the flourishes of speech and of action freely indulged in.

In the way to the further apartment, from the boudoir so frequently
mentioned, you pass a small room--in which there is a plaster bust of the
King--and among the books, bound, as they almost all are, in red morocco,
you observe two volumes of tremendously thick dimensions; the one entitled
_Alexander Aphrodiæsus, Hippocrates, &c._--the other _Plutarchi Vitæ
Parallelæ et Moralia, &c._ They contain nothing remarkable for ornament, or
what is more essential, for intrinsic worth. Nevertheless you pass on: and
the last--but the most magnificent--of _all_ the rooms, appropriated to the
reception of books, whether in ms. or in print, now occupies a very
considerable portion of your attention. It is replete with treasures of
every description: in ancient art, antiquities, and both sacred and profane
learning: in languages from all quarters, and almost of all ages of the
world. Here I opened, with indescribable delight the ponderous and famous
_Latin Bible of Charles the Bald_--and the religious manual of his brother
the _Emperor Lotharius_--composed chiefly of transcripts from the Gospels.
Here are ivory bindings, whether as diptychs, or attached to regular