harshly treated. But, as you know, he was at last set free, and was able in his old age to visit America again. Among the victims of the French Revolution was good Mayor Dietrich. Like Rouget de Lisle, he refused to swear allegiance to the new government; he thought that the people could have freedom without killing their king and queen. He went to the scaffold to the sound of the very song which had been written by his friend, and which had first been sung in his own house.

Rouget de Lisle was more fortunate than Dietrich. He was arrested and cast into prison, but at the end of the Revolution he was released. He was poor and alone. All the other guests at Dietrich's famous banquet were gone; some had been executed like Dietrich, others had died in prison or on the field of battle, and still others were in exile.

De Lisle had a long struggle with poverty and neglect. He was just able to keep alive by teaching, copying music, and making translations from English books. But he was a warm-hearted man, and he had many friends who helped him through these bad times.

At last the government granted him a pension and bestowed upon him the Cross of the Legion of Honor. His old age was free from care, and he was happy among his literary, artistic and musical friends. He proudly wore the red rosette of the Legion of Honor on his shabby military overcoat.

The republic which the French revolutionists had set up lasted only a few years. When France was once more ruled by a king, the singing of the "Marseillaise" was forbidden. The song seemed too fierce and wild; it reminded people too much of the frightful days when the savage revolutionists had sung it.

But at Rouget de Lisle's funeral, some one in the vast crowd began to sing the forbidden song. Instantly other voices took it up, and soon all the people present were solemnly singing the "Marseillaise" as they followed De Lisle's body to the grave.

Rouget de Lisle was not a great composer, like the other musicians of whom we have been reading. No composition of his has lived except the "Marseillaise." But the "Marseillaise" has made De Lisle immortal. A German poet named Heine said of it: "What a song! It thrills me with fiery delight, it kindles within me the glowing star of enthusiasm." And the British poet and novelist, Sir Walter Scott, called it "the finest hymn to which Liberty has ever given birth.”

Breathes there the man with soul so dead

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand?

-Walter Scott.

MARIE ANTOINETTE AND HER CHILDREN Madame Le Brun painted Marie Antoinette surrounded by her children, in the happy days before the French Revolution. The Queen is splendidly dressed in a robe of red velvet trimmed with fur. On her powdered hair she wears an elaborate red toque decorated with ostrich plumes. She holds her baby boy on her lap, and her sweet-faced young daughter clings lovingly to the mother's arm. The older boy lifts the curtain of an empty cradle belonging to a little sister who died just before this painting was made.

When King Louis saw the picture, he said to the artist: "I do not know much about painting, but you make me love it!" He was delighted to have so fine a portrait of his wife and children. Unhappily the older boy died about a year afterward. The Queen could not look at the picture without weeping, because it reminded her so vividly of her cruel loss. She had it put away, but was careful to explain her reason, so that the artist's feelings should not be hurt. If the picture had been left in its place on the wall it would certainly have been destroyed when the savage mob burst into the palace at the beginning of the French Revolution. After the Revolution the picture was brought from its hiding place and was hung once more in the palace.

Of this happy family group only the little girl lived to see the end of the Revolution. The Queen, as you

know, was executed, and the younger boy died in prison because of the dreadful treatment that he received. The young Princess escaped from France when the Revolution was over. She lived for many years afterward, but it is said that from the day of her mother's death she was never known to smile.

MARIE-LOUISE-ELISABETH VIGEE LE BRUN

(1755-1842)

Elisabeth Vigée was the daughter of a painter in Paris. When she was a little girl at school she used to decorate her copybooks and even the walls of the school room with faces and landscapes in colored chalk. After she left school she took some lessons in painting, and spent many happy hours in her father's studio, working away to her heart's content.

Her mother was strict and severe, but her father was very kind and tender. He died when Elisabeth was thirteen years old, and for a time she was broken-hearted. However, she made rapid progress in art, and at fifteen she was earning so much money by painting portraits that she had taken her father's place as the chief support of the family.

Elisabeth was an extremely beautiful girl, and had also a charming manner and a quick wit. She became very popular. When she was nineteen, she married a well-known picture dealer, named Le Brun, who was