There was a curious police case in 1831, _re_ a curious subject--no less than Madame Vestris's leg; and the following is a portion of the case as reported in the _Times_ of January 21st:-- "MARLBOROUGH STREET.--A young man was brought into this office a few days ago, charged with stealing and disposing of, on his own account, and for his own use, the casts of several figures in plaster of Paris and other compositions, the property of Mr. Papera, the celebrated Italian modeller, in whose service the prisoner lived as journeyman, and the offence charged being clearly supported by evidence, the young man was fully committed for trial. "Yesterday Mr. Papera applied again to the sitting magistrate, for advice how to act in a case in which he had to charge the young man in prison with an offence of much more enormous nature than that for which he had been committed to take his trial. "Since the investigation of the former case, Mr. Papera said, he had discovered that several of 'Madame Vestris's legs' were exhibited for sale in the shop windows of various artists about town, and on an inspection of these legs, he immediately recognized them as his property, and they must have been stolen from his premises by the prisoner and sold by him. "The magistrate inquired what sort of legs they were? "Mr. Papera said they were casts of Madame Vestris's leg to a little above the knee and including the foot. "The magistrate asked if such casts could not have been made by other artists, so as to render it difficult for Mr. Papera to identify them as belonging to him. "Mr. Papera said it was impossible these casts could have been made by any other artist, because he was the only person to whom Madame Vestris had ever 'stood' to have a cast taken of her leg, and from that cast he had made one mould or model, and only one, and that was always kept with the greatest care under lock and key, except when required to be used in his model room, so that no person could possibly obtain access to it, except some one in his employ; and, as for any attempt at imitation, that was impossible to do with success, for so beautiful and perfect was the symmetry of the original, that it was from it alone the various natural niceties of the complete whole could be acquired and to perfection formed. "The magistrate asked Mr. Papera if he kept these legs ready made in his establishment, and if in that state they were stolen by the prisoner? "Mr. Papera said no; they were too rare and valuable an article to be kept ready made in the ordinary way of common shop legs, and were only made to 'order'--that is, when especially ordered by artists or amateurs." On February 22nd the young man was tried at the Old Bailey and acquitted. CHAPTER XXXI.