mostly held by subscribers."

"Then stable them in the picture-galleries," said the general. "It
will be good discipline."

"The people will call that sacrilege," returned Augereau.

"Not if we remove the pictures," said Bonaparte. "We'll send the
pictures to Paris."

Accordingly this was done, and the galleries of France were thereby
much enriched. We mention these details at length, because Napoleon
has been severely criticised for thus impoverishing Italy, as well as
for his so-called contempt of art--a criticism which, in the face of
this accurate version, must fall to the ground. The pictures were
sent by him to Paris merely to preserve them, and, as he himself
said, a propos of the famous Da Vinci, beneath which horses and men
alike were quartered: "I'd have sent that too, but to do it I'd have
had to send the whole chapel or scrape the picture off the wall.
These Italians should rather thank than condemn me for leaving it
where it was. Mine was not an army of destruction, but a Salvation
Army of the highest type."

"You made mighty few converts for a Salvation Army," said Talleyrand,
to whom this remark was addressed.

"That's where you are wrong," said Napoleon. "I made angels of
innumerable Austrians, and converted quite a deal of Italian into
French territory."