The morning after the Fourth of September, he besought the Minister of War, Léon Gambetta, for an appointment as prefect in one of the departments that were either invaded or menaced. His patriotism was only partly satisfied; he was appointed Colonel in the staff of the National Guard. "The populace of Paris," says a witness, "when they saw that little man with florid face and long gray beard, and legs encased in tight leathern breeches, passing back and forth along the boulevards, often cheered him, mistaking him for the major-general of artillery." The painter planned to commemorate the defence of Paris in a picture of colossal size. The project never got beyond the stage of an outline sketch, of deep and tragic interest. Have we cause to regret this? Meissonier was an allegorical painter, and nowhere more than in his military pictures--both scenes and types--do his powerful and delicate qualities of penetrating observation reveal themselves. Every one of his soldiers,--trooper, musketeer, French guard, Grenadier of the guard,--in full uniform or in fatigue, or even in the disarray of the barrack-room, has his own personal physiognomy, and manner and temperament; they one and all _live_, and in them lives the conscientious and brilliant artist who laboured so faithfully to create them and succeeded so well. Is it not because of this expressive relief both of figures and gestures that people were able to compare Meissonier to Marmot, and to say that "Meissonier was worthy to paint the stories of Marmot, and Marmot worthy to furnish stories to Meissonier"? It would be only just, before leaving him, to defend the artist--who after enjoying a vogue that was perhaps a trifle too enthusiastic, has fallen, quite unjustly into slight disfavour--from two criticisms that have frequently been passed upon him. Too much stress has been laid on his lack of the gift of colour and the gift of grace. [Illustration: PLATE VIII.--NAPOLEON III. AT SOLFÉRINO (Tommy Thierry Bequest, Musée du Louvre) Under any other hand than Meissonier's, the group constituting the Imperial Staff would have been banale in the extreme, but thanks to an ability that has no parallel outside of the great Flemish painters, the artist has succeeded in making these miniature figures veritable portraits of the shining military lights of that period.]