masterpiece, declared it to be a spurious Pincini, probably the
work of some pupil whom he had employed in his declining years.
The evidence of Deplis on the subject was obviously worthless, as
he had been under the influence of the customary narcotics during
the long process of pricking in the design. The editor of an
Italian art journal refuted the contentions of the German expert
and undertook to prove that his private life did not conform to
any modern standard of decency. The whole of Italy and Germany
were drawn into the dispute, and the rest of Europe was soon
involved in the quarrel. There were stormy scenes in the Spanish
Parliament, and the University of Copenhagen bestowed a gold medal
on the German expert (afterwards sending a commission to examine
his proofs on the spot), while two Polish schoolboys in Paris
committed suicide to show what THEY thought of the matter.

"Meanwhile, the unhappy human background fared no better than
before, and it was not surprising that he drifted into the ranks
of Italian anarchists. Four times at least he was escorted to the
frontier as a dangerous and undesirable foreigner, but he was
always brought back as the Fall of Icarus (attributed to Pincini,
Andreas, early Twentieth Century). And then one day, at an
anarchist congress at Genoa, a fellow-worker, in the heat of
debate, broke a phial full of corrosive liquid over his back. The
red shirt that he was wearing mitigated the effects, but the
Icarus was ruined beyond recognition. His assailant was severly
reprimanded for assaulting a fellow-anarchist and received seven
years' imprisonment for defacing a national art treasure. As soon
as he was able to leave the hospital Henri Deplis was put across
the frontier as an undesirable alien.