A Jay of Italy

he former as a tiger's gay hide is to the strength and ferocity it clothes. Built originally for a great keep, or, as it were, breakwater, to stem the

ed at in the common tally of its rooms. These oubliettes were hideous with blotched and spotted memories; rotten with the dew of suffering; eloquent in their terror and corruption and darkness, of that same self-sick, self-blinded tyranny which, in place of Love and Justice, the trusty bodyguards, must turn always to cruelty and thick walls for its security. The hiss and purr of subt

and beautifyings-tentative at the best, for he was always more a soldier than a connoisseur. The real movement was inaugurated by his successor, and continued, as cultivation was impressed on him, on a scale of magnificence which was presently to make the splendour of Milan a proverb. Galeazzo, an indifferent warrior, to whose rule but a tithe of the territory once gathered to the Visconti owned allegiance, contented his ambitions by rallying an army of painters and sculptors and decorators to the glorification of his houses at Milan, Cremona, and his ancestral petted Pavia,-after all a worthier r?le than the conqueror's for a good man; but then, this man was so bad that he blighted everything he touched. It is true that the disuse of secret torture would have been considered, and by men mor

e window to it-just a deep wedge in the wall, piercing to the sheer flank of the tower. Sweet rushes carpeted the floor; the arras was pictured with dim, sacred subjects-Ambrosius in his cradle, with the swarm of bees settling on his honeyed lip

lute, and his tablets propped before him; while, motionless in the shadows opposite, sto

f-communing, or addressing himself, between playfu

full significant line; I dare say it, our Parablist despite. Listen.' (He chaunted the words in a harsh, uncertain voice, to an accompaniment as sorry.)

ng by book,' said Jac

gain, like a snarl, a

ionable old surly

nted to th

tes to his piping. A'

lt! are not first thoughts first thoughts, however they may be pricked down? Look at this, I say; flatten thy bull nose on it.

Galeazzo sat glaring

he screech

' said Jacopo obstinat

resently was muttering and strumming wi

t to rival heaven! Yet, perhaps,

oner laughe

ould know ho

short, quite vaca

one Nero, a fiddling emperor, came to

med, an unspoken invitation: 'He

t hurriedly

songster! no art, no culture in his voice-sweet and wild, above human understa

successor first

ts, his arms flapping like wing stumps, his teeth sputtering a foam of inarticulate words. Jacopo, erect under the avalanche, stood per

an Muses and a Christian penance-flaying only for heretics. I am no poet nor musician, say'st? Calf! what know'st thou abo

ne o

in

is Fra Capello was it not

not? A fa

ful en

hou? By w

of the quarry

ou hast him?

told thee so already? Let thine i

n, a lowly Franciscan, and pretend to rea

e holds

even years in all to reig

that-n

! This fellow to claim kinship with the stars-profess to be in their confidence, to share heaven's secrets? Dear Ja

ruth,

s shall be ours. This same Franciscan-thi

"Hermit'

tised abstinence save him in such pass. He shall eat his words-a

nt in,

m? Remember the worms, thy cous

y star

and, with thy knife in his throat, give him the l

rains and

e sky. Jacopo, it is a sweet and fearful thing to be chosen minis

said the executi

ich His servants yet testify in the spirit of their Redeemer. Blood, Jacopo, thou little monster-blood flowing, streams of it, the visible token of the sacrifice. That was our task till yesterday. Now

ue, and tiptoed, in a sort of

this tare

t and staggered them. Looking up at the blackened sky from the depths of that well of masonry, it seemed to crack and split in a rush of fusing stars. The mad soul of the tyrant leapt to speed the chase. He was one with this mighty demonstration-as l

ll-became a phantom, a diluted whisp of memory, sank like water into the blackness, and left the fancy suddenly naked in self-consciousness of hell. Then Capello screamed, and threw himself towards the last flitting of that spectre. He fell and bruised his limbs horribly: the very pain was a saving occupation. He struck his skull, and revelled in the agonised dance of lights the blow procured him. But one by one they blew out; and in a moment dead negation had him by the throat again, rol

e rose rapturously to his feet, and stood staring at the grating, the tears gushing down his fall

t thou hunger

o out of all the world could be thus addressing him. He

said the voice. 'Thou shalt

r: 'justice is with thee,

like a great goblet of Malmsey. Dost know the wine Malmsey, monk?-a cool, heady, fragrant liquid, that gurgle

his knees, stretc

thee, but to end

er trees. Picture it, Capello: the quails in cold jelly; the melting pasties; the salmon-trout tucked under blankets of whipped cream; the luscious

en throat could hardly shape the wo

n: how long

tice, f

pty phrase? Then art thou, to

out hi

t, monk, or monkey?

oice and question, the prisoner ran under the outstre

one-one only, to dul

it between his teeth, roared out and fell spitting and sputtering. He had crunched upon nothing

than quail, more ref

fell on h

ain. May his drink be salt, and his meat bitter as aloes. May his short lease of wicked life be cancelled, and death seize him, and damnation wither in the moment of his supreme impenitence. Darken his vision, so that for evermore it shall

screamed

st-vile apostate f

rate was flung into place, the light whisked and vanished, a door slammed, and

oaths and prayers, Galeazz

hook out between h

e tasted, and f

ncy quite overcrowed his re

his oratory, and cast himself on

nted him with visions: what if I have caught the infection of mine own imagination-too fearful, spare me this once. Lord God, consider-as I put it to Thee-now-like this-listen. To starve with him should be but a fast enlarged. What then? Some, honest ascetics, no Conventuals, so push abstinence to ecstasy as that they may cross the lines of death in a dream, and wake without a pang to heaven gained. If he does not, should he suffer, he is properly condemned for a gross pampered brother, false to his vows, unworthy Thine advocacy. Now, call the

feet, glaring a

d. It was his privilege to come unannounced. He stood a moment regard

it? The f

t him a minute, slow recognition dawning in his eyes; then, of a sudden, b

my little angel! and I had thought thee-nay, b

is channels to gasping. Presently he looke

a girl's! Would that my own we

thdrew a

yself indeed-casting that old familiar? chasing him hereout? Why, then, I whom thou hast appointed to be thy consc

st still heaved spasmodically

wouldst give me, thy conscience's delegat

confess ere midnight, and, fasting, receive the Holy Commun

ng a little, and sat himself dow

cally, 'I am overwrought: there is wine in

tating, handed

id. 'Put thy lips to the chalice, Galeazz

His eyes dilated and grew wolfish-'I am vindicated,' he stuttered: 'O sweet little sa

f again from

sured, half-maudlin confidence

r gravely, 'they are

Yet som

comet, cancellin

s vanity,

, I th

g of the last

, they make

ha

nursing all day that they may starve by night. God gave us level eyes. The star's best resting place for them is on a hill. We ne

t G

we come to the brink of the abyss where Time drops sheer into nothingness. Joy or woe, then, to him the returning wanderer, according as he hath provisioned his

f conduct. The Future to him was always an unmortgaged reversion, sufficient to pay off all debts to cons

shudders at the inexorable word: Evil presumes on it: it is the lodestone to all dogmatism; the bogey, the weapon of the unversed Churchman; the very bait to acquisition and self-greed. Be what, returning, ye would find yourselves-no lovelier ambition. See, we walk with Christ, the human God and comrade, I have but this hour left h

by natural laws to retraverse every point of its upward flight-disturbed him horribly. He desired no responsibility in things done and

whenever thou sayest God thou meanest gods. The gods possess the

o si

Love, and the Holy Ghost-Tri

is forehead; then ran and clas

ried: 'take my conscience, and

h a happy smile: 'when its t

that the soul's responsibility was to itself alone? In any case so pure a spirit as this could represent him only to his advantage. Still, at the same time, if God were no more than relatively wiser and stronger than himself-why, it was not his theory-let the Parablist answer fo

himself to confes