In spite of these important purchases of Italian pictures the Duc d'Aumale never neglected an opportunity of acquiring French works of art, and he extended his collection as far as possible in that particular direction. So that from M. Destailleur, from the Comte de Fresnes, and from the Baron Seillier he acquired books that had been bound expressly for François I, for Henri II and for Marguerite de Valois. At the Hamilton Palace Sale he purchased for 12,375 francs a _Book of Hours_ of the fourteenth century which had been specially bound for its then owner, François de Guise. In 1892 the sumptuous _Psalter of Ingeburge of Denmark_, wife of Philippe Auguste, found its way into this ever-increasing collection; and this was quickly followed by the interesting _Breviary_ executed in the fourteenth century for Queen Jeanne d'Evreux. In 1889 more than 310 French drawings were acquired from Lord Carlisle, including original work by Jean Perréal, by Jean and François Clouet, by Corneille de Lyon and by the Dumoustiers. The artistic, iconographic and historical value of these drawings has been pronounced on all hands to be almost unique; more especially with regard to the portraits of celebrated personages living between the years 1514 and 1560. _Francis I_ with his Queens, his mistresses, his courtiers, and the ladies of his _petites bandes_; the famous _Preux de Marignan_, the great _Montmorency_ and the _Colignys_, _Henri II_ and his numerous sons and daughters; _Catherine de Medicis_ and _la belle Diane_--all these famous heroes and heroines of history are met together in effigy at Chantilly: a place they all knew so well and enjoyed so much during their lifetime. The question of how these drawings, so highly valued under the Valois _régime_, were ever allowed to leave France has never been satisfactorily solved. Horace Walpole possessed a similar collection, but it was of much less artistic importance. It was the collection once owned by Mariette and is now apparently in the possession of an English peer.[29] Gaignières also collected French drawings of the same type, but after his death they greatly depreciated in value and passed from the Bibliothèque Royale into the Bodleian Library at Oxford. But the Howard portfolio, the most important of all, and also the Salting Collection were discovered in Florence. It is certain that there is a common link between all of the sets, and similar handwritings are to be found upon the margins of most of them. We must, however, postpone further discussion on this interesting question until a later chapter. In 1889 the great painting by Meissonier, _Les Cuirassiers de 1805_, was bought at the Secrétan Sale for the sum of 190,000 francs; and soon after came Détaille's finest work, _Le Colonel Lepic à Eylau: "Haut les Têtes."_ In 1890 Corot's _Concert Champêtre_ cost the Duke 20,000 francs and proved how fully he appreciated the more recent art-movements in France.