French officer, who had heard something of the picture, was the first to discover the risk to which it was exposed, and hastened to inform the commander-in-chief of the circumstance, who arrived in time to save this precious monument, which might have fallen a sacrifice to the brutal ignorance, not of the French, but of the persons who superintended their quarters. The circumstance of the pistol shots is universally denied, and if even a single shot had been fired by some wanton individual, no trace of such violence is to be found.

The true causes of the present faded and decayed state of this celebrated fresco are, the bad quality of the materials of which the wall itself is constructed, and its exposure to the north. As far back as the year 1550, according to the testimony of Armanini, it was half destroyed, and in Vasari's time, he describes it as a confused blot. In 1726, it was restored by Ballotti, and some years afterwards, almost entirely repainted by a vile dauber, of the name of Mazza. When the French arrived in Milan, no part of the picture remained uninjured but the sky, (which being painted in ultra-marine, a colour not easily decomposed by moisture, had resisted the injuries of time) the three figures of the Apostle to the left, which had been restored by Ballotti and the profanation of Mazza. The barbarians, therefore, who have destroyed it, are the saltpetre which exudes from the wall, the smoke of lamps, the good cheer of the monks, and—Signore Mazza.

Under the direction of the Viceroy, Eugene Beauharnois, considerable attention was paid to the

Cenacolo for the purpose of arresting the hand of time; as a Latin inscription over the door intimates; and, by order of Napoleon, an accurate copy was made of it by Giuseppe Bossi, of Milan, a painter, for whose loss, regrets deep and universal are still fresh on every lip. Signore Rafaelli also was employed, by the still more munificent patronage of the Emperor Napoleon, to execute another copy, in mosaic, which is one of the most precious specimens of that singular art. Though ordered for Milan, executed by a Milanese, and paid for by the exchequer of the Regno d'Italia, this mosaic has been conveyed to Vienna by the Emperor of Austria, the chief of the holy alliance against French spoliation; and the loss is bitterly regretted and deeply resented by the plundered Italians.

The length of time which Leonardo da Vinci employed upon his Supper, his leaving Judas for some time without a head, the complaints of the prior to Sforza, the Duke of Milan, the humorous apology of Leonardo, that he had in vain sought a countenance expressive of all the treachery and vileness of Judas, and that he had seen none that would answer his purpose, save that of the prior himself, are anecdotes too well known to dwell upon. They, however, have given an historical interest to a picture which has so many other claims to notice, and which Francis I. of France, would have carried off even if he had taken the wall of the convent along with it. He even proposed the task to his architects, who dared not undertake its execution.

A door to the left of the cloisters opens into the refectory. A scaffold is raised for the spectator to

approach the picture, just where the scaffold must have stood on which Leonardo worked, forgetting even his necessary refreshment, as Bandello declares, and on which he received the Cardinal Gurcense, whose ignorance and pretensions were the subjects of his keen ridicule. The first object that meets the eye, on approaching this fresco, is a door cut through the legs of the principal figure, and that the figure of our Saviour!! The history of this door is well known at Milan. The dishes served at the monks table were found to cool in passing along the cloisters; and it was decreed by the chapter that a communication should be opened from the refectory to the kitchen, which stood behind the picture of Leonardo. Thus the Last Supper was destroyed, that the abbot's dinner might be served hot! This anecdote, which might so well have served as a pendant for the." target of the French soldiers," Mr. Eustace has not mentioned, though, if he visited the picture, this door could not possibly escape him.-Italy, by Lady Morgan.

THE VIOLET.

As the month of March gives birth to the violet, that flower was the symbol of the Napoleonists, upon the emperor's return from Elba. This was a sufficient reason for its being proscribed by the Bourbons. Upon this account some mischievous wag procured a quantity of the essence of violets, which he spilt about the leading apartments of the Tuilleries, a circumstance that gave great umbrage to the royal family, and in consequence every en1

deavour was made to discover the author of this trick, but without effect; whereupon, the members of the new dynasty were obliged to regale their olfactory nerves with the odour, however obnoxious the essence might prove to their feelings.

THE CUP OF COFFEE.

"I UNDERSTAND," said Napoleon, one day, to his medical attendant, Mr. O'Meara, "that this governor proposed an officer should enter my chamber to see me, if I did not stir out. Any person," continued he, with much emotion, "who endeavours to force his way into my apartment, shall be a corpse the moment he enters it. If he ever eats bread or meat again, I am not Napoleon. This I am determined on; I know that I shall be killed afterwards, us what can one do against a camp? I have faced death too many times to fear it. Besides, I am convinced that this governor has been sent out by Lord I told him, a few days ago, that if he wanted to put an end to me, he would have a very good opportunity, by sending somebody to force his way into my chamber. That I would immediately make a corpse of the first that entered, and then I should be of course dispatched, and he might write home to his government, that BUONAPARTE' was killed in a brawl! I also told him to leave me alone, and not to torment me with his hateful presence. I have seen Prussians, Tartars, Cossacks, Calmucks, &c.; but never before in my life have I beheld so ill favoured, and so forbidding a countenance. empreint sur son visage.

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"During the short interview that this governor had with me in my bedchamber," continued he, one of the first things which he proposed was, to send you away, and to take his own surgeon in your place. This he repeated twice; and so earnest was he to gain his object, that, although I gave him a most decided refusal; when he was going out, he turned about, and again proposed it. I never saw such a horrid countenance. He sat on a chair opposite to my sofa; and on the little table between us there was a cup of coffee. His physiognomy made such an unfavourable impression upon me, that I thought his looks had poisoned it, and I ordered Marchand to throw it out of the window; I could not have swallowed it for the world!"

"DURING our delightful residence on the Lake of Como, in the spring of 1820, (says Lady Morgan) we frequently used to walk to a frontier village of Italian Switzerland, called Chiasso. Although the barrier, with its placard of Swiss Territory,' is scarcely two miles from the town of Como, the 'difference between the character, manners, and physiognomy of the people, is most striking. One evening we observed a large but faded tree, planted in the main street; on inquiring, we found it had been placed there to celebrate the birthday of William Tell. A few days before, the Duke de Richelieu, the late minister of France, then visiting the beauties of Como, drove, with the Austrian commandant to Chiasso; he was struck by the appearance of this tree, and asked what