The volume was either lost or stolen, and finally reduced to the state in which it now is.

This book, too, is proof that a little French blood was shed in the service of Italy.

But those who have sold it have forgotten that, like Magenta and Solferino, you have only memory for hatred.

Now that you know why I want your prayer-book, will you sell it to me for five hundred francs ?" The bookseller listened to that discourse with twenty contradictory expressions upon his face.

From force of habit he felt for Montfanon a sort of respect mingled with animosity, which evidently rendered it very painful for him to have been surprised in the act of telling an untruth.
It is necessary, to be just, to add that in speaking of the great painter Matteo and of Pope Pius II in connection with that unfortunate volume, he had not thought that the Marquis, ordinarily very economical and who limited his purchases to the strict domain of ecclesiastical history, would have the least desire for that prayer-book.