With respect to the cuts pretended to be executed by the twins themselves, I shall waive any objections which might be urged on the ground of it being unlikely that they should be executed by a boy and a girl so young. Supposing that the twins were as learned and accomplished as they are represented, still it would be a very surprising circumstance that, in the thirteenth century, they should have executed a series of wood engravings of the actions of Alexander the Great as an appropriate present to the pope; and that the composition of one of those subjects, No. 7, should so closely resemble one of Le Brun’s--an artist remarkable for the complication of his designs--that it would seem he had copied this very print. Something like the reverse of this is more probable; that the description of the pretended work of the Cunio was suggested by the designs of Le Brun.[I-40] The execution of a set of designs, in the thirteenth century, illustrating the actions of Alexander in the manner described by Papillon, would be a rarity indeed even if not engraved on wood; but that a series of wood engravings, and not a saint in one of them, should be executed by a boy and a girl, and presented to a _pope_, in 1286, is scarcely short of miraculous. The twins must have been well read in Quintus Curtius. Though we are informed that both were skilled in the Latin language, yet it plainly appears on two occasions, when we might suppose that they would be least liable to trip, that their Latinity is questionable. The sixth and the eighth subjects, which were accomplished by their joint efforts, are described as being marked: _Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel, Cunio pictor. et scalp._ “Thus painters _did not_ write their names at Co.” [Footnote I-40: Of Le Brun’s five subjects illustrative of the actions of Alexander the Great, four of them are precisely the same as four of those said to be executed by the Cunio: 1. Alexander passing the Granicus; 2. the battle of Arbela; 3. the reception of Porus by Alexander; 4. Alexander’s triumphant entry into Babylon. There certainly has been some copying here; but it is more likely that Papillon or his informant had seen Le Brun’s paintings, than that Le Brun had seen the original wood engravings executed by the Cunio.]