Rossetti stepped once more into the arena, and replied by a letter in the _Athenæum_ headed _The Stealthy School of Criticism_. From that time he shut himself up completely, never went out, and led "the hole-and-cornerest existence." In 1881 he published a second volume of poems, chiefly composed of ballads and sonnets. A year afterwards, on 10th April 1882, he died, honoured, even in the academical circles in which he never mingled, as one of the greatest men in England. The exhibition of his works which was opened a couple of months after his death created an immense sensation. Those of his pictures which had not been already sold straight from the easel were paid for with their weight in gold, and are now scattered in great English country mansions and certain private galleries in Florence. The only very rich collection in London is that of an intimate friend of the artist, the late Mr. Leyland, who had gathered together, in his splendid house in the West End, probably the most beautiful work of which the East can boast in carpets and vases, or the early Renaissance in intaglios, small bronzes, and ornaments. Here, surrounded by the quaint and delicate pictures of Carlo Crivelli and Botticelli, Rossetti was in the society of his contemporaries. [Illustration: _Seemann, Leipzig._ ROSSETTI. DANTE'S DREAM. (_By permission of the Corporation of Liverpool, the owners of the picture._)] [Illustration: _Cassell & Co._ ROSSETTI. ROSA TRIPLEX. (_By permission of Mr. F. Hollyer, the owner of the copyright._)]