The Strolling Saint

in their turn, accumulated into months, I grew rapidly

bidden Fra Gervasio to set me, and my acquaintance with the profane writers advan

ad kept me in utter ignorance of the classic writers, and almost in as great an ignorance of history itself. This the pedant set himself at once to redress, and amongst the earlie

lled by the novelty of the matters that I read, so different from a

ter two I found less arresting; then came Lucretius, and his De

d. He had definitely taken up his residence in Piacenza, whither it was said that Farnese, his master, who was to be made our Duke, would shortly come. And in the interval of labouring

y mind had gradually, yet swiftly, been opening out like a bud under the sunlight of much new learning. We sat in the fine garden behind t

essively hot. He was as usual in plain, walking clothes, and save for the ring on his finger and the cross on his breast, you had never conceived him an

et, leaned the tall figure of Messer Fifanti, his bald head uncovered and shining humidly, his eyes

somewhat monotonous voice, had a lulling effect from which I was in danger of falling asleep. But anon, as the narrative warmed and quickened, the danger was well overpast. I was very wide-awake, my pulses throbbing, my im

e most lamentable, heartrending story of Dido's love for Aeneas, of

ard; and the fate of Dido moved me as if I had known and loved her; so that long

the Comedies of Terence, the Metamorphoses of Ovid, Martial, and the Satires of Juvenal. And with those my transformation was complete. No longer could I find satisfaction in

she could never have dreamed under what influences I was so soon to come, no more than she could conceive what havoc they played w

nlight and dazzled by it, so that, grown conscious of his sight, he is more effectively blinded than he was before. For the pro

nd he looked upon me as an odd human growth that was being subjected to an unusual experiment. I think he took a certain delight in helping t

e had a way of telling me of monstrous things as if they were purely normal and natural to a properly focussed eye, and as if any mon

igi Farnese, who, it was said, was coming to be our Duke, and on whose behalf th

rden-my Lord Gambara and I-I asked him

He laughed shortly and resumed his pacing, I keeping step with h

"But how is it possible that th

ame was Lola, who pleased him, and who was pleased with him. Alessandro Farnese was a handsome man, Ser Agostino. She bore him three children, of whom one is dead, another is Madonna

time ere I

then?" I excl

his vows. I had forgotten that. No doubt he did the same."

Messer Gambara very readily made me acquainted through his unsparing eyes with that cesspool that

ago. Through him I came to know the Sacred College as it really was; not the very home and fount of Christianity, as I had deemed it, controlled and guided by men of a sublime saintliness of ways, but a gathering of ambitious worldlings, who had become so brazen in th

ess of boldness, in one of those passionate out

st trace of anger, smiling ever his quiet mocking

have entered it under the cloak of the priesthood. What then? In their hands the Church has

he scandal of

, boy, have you ne

r," s

lized by the licence and luxury of the clergy that he straightway had himself baptized and became a Christian, accounting that a religion that could survive such wiles

red, that I was like some poor mariner upo

now my cousin Cosimo came oftener too. But it was their custom to come in the forenoon, when I was at work with Fifanti. And often I observed the doctor to be oddly preoccupied, and to spend much

e himself no peace. And once when Messer Gambara and she went together within doors, he abruptly

or his foul and unworthy suspicions. As soon would I have suspected the painted Madonna from the brush of Raffaele Santi that I had seen over the high altar of the Church of San Sisto, as suspect the beautiful a

liana and I. Our intimacy had grown over a lit

urnished with letters to the Governor, and Gambara had brought him to Fifanti's villa. From Monna Giuliana the young painter heard the curious story of my having been vowed pren

ing seen me and heard that story of mine, he conceived the curious notion of using me as the model for the figure of the saint. I consented,

there-O bitter irony!-you may see me to this day, as the

t the time that I had my first lessons of Curial life from my Lord Gambara. You will remember that he me

nquired, 'twixt seriousness and mockery, her dark eyes

would get an indigestion from so much mental nourishment as I w

ess and the wide dissemination of books to which it led. Out of his opposition to the machine grew a dislike to its productions, which he denounced as vulgar; and not

ere, with a readiness that argued a good acquaintance with the work, the story of Abraam the Jew, which I desired

d, I became animated and vivacious in my manner, so that when I ceased I saw her sitting there, her hand

save Latin works-began to make and soon to widen my knowledge of our Tuscan writers. We varied our reading. We dipped into our poets. Dante we read, and Petrarca, and both we loved, thoug

the "dialettale," and he loved the solemn injuvenations of the Latin tongue. Soon, as he listened, he would begin to yawn, and presently grunt a

hatever we read by way of divergence, ever and anon we woul

she had moved from where she had been sitting and had come to stand behind my chair. And when I reached the point a

. She smiled at me through unshed te

more," I said.

. "Read on, Agostino

d by the tragedy of it, whilst Giuliana continued to lean against my chair. I was moved, too, in an

pages. "Let me read something else," said I. "So

and holding it. "Ah, no!" she begged me gently.

iver and my breath shortened-and suddenly there flashed throug

piu non vi le

the echo made me of a sudden conscious of an unsuspected parallel. All at once our

he had withdrawn her hand, and had take

s. Here there was but one. Let me make an

task. She returned from the book-shelf, and in

et us walk in the

-contained as was my habit. And soon thereafter came m

and of which she had the manuscript. In the end she begged me would I go seek the writing in her chamber. I went, and hunted where she had bidden me and else

hen I intruded. He looked up, thrusting his horn

testily. "I thought you were in

mbara is th

Do I not know that?" he roared, though I could see no r

who had come to Piacenza three months ago. I had not been lea

nywhere but where I please. That firstly. Secondly-but of infinitely lesser mom

cool, firm tones that quiet

ser Caro might discover better employment for his leisure. But there, there"-he seemed in sudden haste again. "Take it to her in God's na

nuscript, the odd thing was that the subject of their discourse having meanwhile shifted, it no long

even to one who was beg

ower and more sour and lean than usual. He was arrayed in his long, rusty gown, and there were the

eeted him. "My Lord Cardin

; and he looked at the legate as though his exce

Luigi appointing you one of the ducal secretaries. And this, I doubt not, will be followed, on his coming hi

ara stood with his scarlet cloak sweeping about his shapely limbs, sniffing his pomander and smiling almost insolently into th

spoke, his litt

or my poor desert

loyalty to the House of Farnese, and the hos

aint colour began to creep into her cheeks. "You would pay for that?" he questioned

upon his wife, and I saw her st

use me with an amiable frankness," he said. "The s

es. What had troubled him hitherto, I could not fathom even yet. He washed his bony hands in the air, an

d of the value of your lea

learning?" he echoed, as if slowly puzzle

intment?" smiled the Cardinal, with a

bt," said Messer Fifanti. "I hope you will

lked off again, very white and

iana there stole a slow smile, the memory of which was to be hateful to me soo