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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43754 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original 50 illustrations.
+      See 43754-h.htm or 43754-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43754/43754-h/43754-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43754/43754-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://archive.org/details/cu31924028381923
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original
+      document have been preserved.
+
+      Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+      The book consistently refers to "El Poverello", perhaps
+      a typographical error for "Il Poverello".
+
+
+
+
+
+PICTURES IN UMBRIA
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     TRAVEL BOOKS BY
+     THE SAME WRITER.
+
+
+     THROUGH NORMANDY.
+
+     THROUGH BRITTANY.
+
+     PICTURES AND LEGENDS FROM
+       NORMANDY AND BRITTANY.
+
+     IN THE ARDENNES.
+
+     ABOUT YORKSHIRE.
+
+     IN THE VOLCANIC EIFEL WITH
+       GILBERT S. MACQUOID.
+
+     IN PARIS WITH GILBERT S.
+       MACQUOID.
+
+
+     ILLUSTRATED BY
+     THOMAS R. MACQUOID, R.I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: VIA APPIA
+   Frontispiece.]
+
+
+PICTURES IN UMBRIA
+
+by
+
+KATHARINE S. MACQUOID
+
+With Fifty Original Illustrations by Thomas R. Macquoid, R.I.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
+London: T. Werner Laurie
+MDCCCCV
+
+
+
+
+       Fertile costa d'alto monte pende,
+     Onde Perugia sente freddo e caldo
+       Da Porta Sole, ...
+
+     Di quella costa là, dov'ella frange
+       Più sua rattezza, nacque al mondo un Sole,
+       Come fa questo tal volta di Gange.
+     Però chi d'esso loco fa parole,
+       Non dica Ascesi, chè direbbe corto,
+       Ma Oriente, se proprio dir vuole.
+     Non era ancor molto lontan dall'orto,
+       Chè cominciò a far sentir la terra
+       Della sua gran virtude alcun conforto.
+
+                       "Del Paradiso," Canto XI.
+
+
+
+
+     To
+     ARCHIBALD EARL OF ROSEBERY, K.G.
+
+     WHO HAS KINDLY PERMITTED US
+     TO OFFER HIM THE DEDICATION
+     OF THIS BOOK
+
+     THOMAS R. AND KATHARINE S. MACQUOID
+
+     April 1905
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     CHAP.                                         PAGE
+
+        I. AN ANCIENT HILL-CITY                       1
+
+       II. MARKET-DAY IN PERUGIA                     13
+
+      III. FONTE DI PERUGIA                          32
+
+       IV. COLLEGIO DEL CAMBIO AND THE PINACOTECA    69
+
+        V. SPELLO                                    76
+
+       VI. THE HEAVENLY CHOIR OF PERUGIA             97
+
+      VII. SAN PIETRO DE' CASINENSI                 119
+
+     VIII. THE SEPULCHRE OF THE VOLUMNII            130
+
+       IX. THE VIA APPIA                            138
+
+        X. THE WAY TO ASSISI                        165
+
+       XI. SAN FRANCESCO                            179
+
+      XII. IN THE TOWN, ASSISI                      230
+
+     XIII. SANTA MARIA DEGLI ANGELI                 260
+
+      XIV. ADDIO PERUGIA                            295
+
+       XV. LAKE THRASYMENE AND CORTONA              299
+
+     INDEX                                          317
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+BY THOMAS R. MACQUOID, R.I.
+
+
+                                                   PAGE
+
+     VIA APPIA                             Frontispiece
+
+     ALOES IN BLOOM                                  12
+
+     INITIAL--RAFFAELLE                              13
+
+     SAN DOMENICO                             Facing 16
+
+     SAN DOMENICO FOUNTAIN                           21
+
+     PIAZZA SOPRA MURA                               25
+
+     THE GREAT FOUNTAIN                       Facing 32
+
+     INITIAL--NICOLO PISANO                          32
+
+     STATUE OF POPE JULIUS III                       36
+
+     INITIAL--PERUGINO                               69
+
+     DOORWAY OF PALAZZO PUBBLICO              Facing 70
+
+     A BYEWAY TO THE STATION                         78
+
+     FONTANA BORGHESE                         Facing 78
+
+     PORTA VENERIS--SPELLO                           85
+
+     HEAD OF PINTURICCHIO                            88
+
+     PORTA AUGUSTA--SPELLO                           93
+
+     INITIAL--POTS IN BANDS AT WINDOW                97
+
+     VIA SANT' AGATA                                 99
+
+     MADONNA DI LUCE                                103
+
+     FAÇADE OF SAN BERNARDINO                       105
+
+     FLOATING ANGEL                                 106
+
+     HEADS OF CHERUBIM                              107
+
+     ANGELS PLAYING ON INSTRUMENT                   109
+
+     ANGEL PLAYING                                  110
+
+     LA VEDUTA                                      121
+
+     INITIAL--GIRL'S HEAD                           130
+
+     PORTA SUSANNA                           Facing 138
+
+     PORTA EBURNEA                             "    142
+
+     OUTSIDE PERUGIA                                143
+
+     VIA APPIA AND THE TOWN                         145
+
+     ARCO DELLA CONCA                               149
+
+     PORTA AUGUSTA--PERUGIA                         153
+
+     PORTA BULIGAIA                                 156
+
+     PORTA SAN ANGELO                               159
+
+     INITIAL--GIOTTO                                165
+
+     CONVENT AND CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO            172
+
+     ENTRANCE TO ASSISI                             177
+
+     STATUE OF ST. FRANCIS                          179
+
+     CHURCH TOWER                                   181
+
+     ENTRANCE TO LOWER CHURCH                       185
+
+     THE SMALL CLOISTER                             199
+
+     THE GARDEN OF CLOISTER                         203
+
+     THE UPPER CHURCH, SAN FRANCESCO                227
+
+     OUTSIDE SAN FRANCESCO                   Facing 224
+
+     INITIAL                                        260
+
+     INITIAL--OLIVE BRANCH                          299
+
+     LAKE THRASYMENE                                301
+
+     PALAZZO COMUNALE, CORTONA                      305
+
+     ETRUSCAN CANDELABRUM                           308
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+Our book treats of a few of the Hill-cities of Umbria, but it does
+not attempt exhaustive detail in regard to Perugia, Assisi, or any
+other.
+
+Several old contemporary writers have greatly helped the book,
+notably the delightful chronicler Matarazzo, and some of his fellows;
+besides the "Legend of the Three Companions," and the very quaint
+"Fioretti di San Francesco."
+
+"The Life of San Bernardino of Siena," by Pierre Clément, was also
+very useful. In the book itself I speak of the great enjoyment I found
+in Monsieur Paul Sabatier's thoughtful "Vie de Saint François
+d'Assisi," and in Miss Lina Duff Gordon's charming "Story of Assisi."
+
+     KATHARINE S. MACQUOID.
+
+     THE EDGE, TOOTING COMMON
+     April 1905
+
+
+
+
+PICTURES IN UMBRIA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+AN ANCIENT HILL-CITY
+
+
+It has been said that the face which exercises most permanent charm is
+the face whose attractions defy analysis; one in which beauty is
+subtle, compounded of many and varied qualities, so that, gazing at
+the harmonious whole, it is impossible to specialise its fascination.
+
+Such a face will not, at first, reveal its charm, for much of this
+does not lie only in regularity of feature, or in beauty of colouring,
+nor even in the trick of a smile; the spell is so potent, that when
+one at last tries to find out its secret, the mind refuses to dispel
+the sweet illusion by any such work-a-day process, and agrees with the
+hasheesh smoker, "to enjoy the sweet dream while it lasts."
+
+Places, as well as faces, exert this undefined attraction, but in the
+former, association often intrudes itself, a conscious ingredient in
+the witchery they possess for us.
+
+I am just now thinking of a city where much of the historic
+association is repulsive, even horrible; looking at the old grey walls
+of Perugia, the mind strays backward, to times when these ancient
+palaces with barred lower windows were gloomy fortresses, in which
+ghastly tragedies were acted over and over again.
+
+In some of the old houses dissolute sons plotted how to murder their
+fathers and brothers, how to commit every sort of crime; blood has run
+like water in the grass-grown streets and piazzas,--and not only with
+the blood of an Oddi, shed by a fierce Baglione, the two leading
+families always fighting for power in their city: the one party being
+Guelph, and the other Ghibelline.
+
+There was even worse strife than this: at times near and dear kinsmen
+fought hand to hand in the constant brawls of Perugia; murder was done
+in the churches, even before the high altar of the cathedral.
+
+Softer, quainter memories, however, linger in this hill-throned and
+hill-girdled city, and permeate the atmosphere, in spite of the "reek
+of blood" which, a poet once told me, "taints Perugia."
+
+Up the brick-stepped way, beneath a tall dark arch, came, even in
+those years of rapine and murder, the grave Urbino painter, Giovanni
+Sanzio, with his fair-haired son, Raffaelle. Giovanni came to Perugia
+to place the lad with the illiterate genius of Città del Pieve, Pietro
+Vannucci, whose praise was in every one's mouth, and who had already
+set up a school and was ranked a great painter. The Perugians still
+fondly call him "il nostro Perugino." It is said that Pietro was born
+in the ancient hill-city.
+
+One feels sure that Raffaelle must have been petted and tenderly
+loved. The father and son made a striking picture as they came from
+the dark archway into the sunlight,--Raffaelle mounted on his mule,
+his dainty locks falling over his shoulders in glossy waves of
+brightness.
+
+Years before he came, the sun saw a very different picture, when poor,
+roughly clad, coarse-featured Cristoforo Vannucci came trudging along
+on foot from Città del Pieve, holding the red fist of his little son,
+Pietro. The square-faced, square-headed boy was only eleven years old,
+yet his father already firmly believed in his genius, and had brought
+him all the way from Città del Pieve to present him to the great
+Umbrian master, Benedetto Bonfigli, who was then at work on the
+famous frescoes still to be seen in the Palazzo Pubblico of Perugia.
+There are, both in the Sala del Cambio and elsewhere in the city,
+proofs that Raffaelle actually worked here, and that he studied under
+Perugino with Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna, Eusebio di San Giorgio, and the
+great master's other pupils.
+
+One learns in Perugia how the student from Città del Pieve raised the
+tone and widened the scope of the existing Umbrian school, and gave to
+it a grace and ease, to say nothing of higher qualities, which have
+rarely been excelled. Yet, except in the frescoes of the beautiful
+Sala del Cambio, much of Perugino's best work is to be found
+elsewhere, rather than in the town wherein he established his academy,
+and from which he took his name as a painter.
+
+The southern side of the city holds a still more absorbing association
+in the gate near the old church and convent of San Pietro de
+Casinensi; for by this gate is the way to Assisi, and it has often
+been trodden by Francesco Bernardone and his disciples.
+
+But I am straying from my text: the mysterious fascination which the
+grey old city on the hill has for those who linger in it.
+
+I have been told that some travellers "do" Perugia in six hours, or
+between trains; I have heard the Via Appia compared with the Holborn
+Viaduct; but these travellers do not come under the spell of the
+place; they see only an old city, part Etruscan, part Roman, chiefly
+mediæval, perched on top of a hill, girt with massive walls which look
+down thirteen hundred feet and more, to the fertile valley of the
+Tiber.
+
+The steep slopes as they descend are in summer-time silver with
+olive-groves, golden with plots of maize; later on they are studies of
+golden-green and yellow, with richly festooned vines laden with
+fruit.
+
+These rapid travellers may, perhaps, admire the triple ranges of
+purple Apennines that on every side form a varied background to this
+picturesque fertility, and to the lesser hills below them, spurs
+projecting boldly forward into the deep valley, above which the old
+city shows her towers and massive walls; they will, perhaps, notice,
+as they go downhill again, how quaintly the wall is carried in and
+out, starwise, as it follows the indentations of the hills, and how
+boldly at each projecting angle a warmly tinted tower stands out
+against the sky. They can hardly fail to observe these salient
+features; but they will not have time to study the varied form of each
+hill, or to watch the sun set opposite grand old Monte Subasio.
+
+That is a sight worth going far to see; the intense glow dyes the
+white houses of Assisi as they cling to the mountain-side, a pale
+rose against the flame-like orange tint that seems to burn in the very
+heart of Subasio, rather than to be reflected from the opposite side
+of the horizon.
+
+And the hurrying travellers will not have time to enjoy the charming
+drives among the olives in the valley, or to visit the many places of
+interest which can be reached from Perugia. They go home, and say, "Oh
+yes, we saw Perugia,--a dull old city, without a shop worth looking
+into."
+
+A part of the indescribable fascination of the place is felt in long
+wanderings through the narrow streets, often deeply shadowed by tall
+palaces with grated windows and bricked-up doorways.
+
+Come with me under a lofty archway, made with uncemented stones on
+either side, so huge that surely giants must have placed them in
+position. Now we are in a vaulted way, beneath ancient houses built
+over the street; these archways are frequent, sometimes low-browed
+and round-headed, mere tunnels through which one almost gropes one's
+way, and finds at the farther end a sudden descent down a flight of
+half-ruined brick steps, which turn so quickly that a keen interest
+insists they must be followed to the end. Sometimes the arch is
+Etruscan, tall and pointed, and instead of a descent, steps go upwards
+to another lofty archway with a darkness beyond it that still beckons
+on the explorer.
+
+Day after day I have wandered up and down those twisting, hilly
+streets, often losing my way, and as often stumbling upon some fresh
+interest; some portion of Etruscan wall, or some exquisite point of
+view; a vista at the far-off end of a street, and often when this is
+arrived at, a grander and more varied picture, with part of Perugia
+for foreground.
+
+One may easily lose one's way in Perugia. At first the city seemed to
+us a hopeless maze of twisting streets; but after a little we
+succeeded in realising the peculiarity of its form. It is said to be
+that of a star; but it is more like a lobster, with its head on one
+side, and outstretched tail and claws; or it is like a comet with
+star-shaped sides, the head on its long neck inclined westward, and a
+longer tail pointing south-east.
+
+A great charm for those who stay in this city is the comfortable,
+home-like resting-place to be found in the Hotel Brufani. On our first
+visit this hotel was in progress of erection, but its predecessor
+existed in the house on the spur of the hill, outside the city gates.
+We have been told that the Albergo di Belle Arti is both very
+comfortable and moderate.
+
+I shall not soon forget the delight of that first arrival.
+
+The heat was so intense in Tuscany that we could not travel in
+daytime, so we left Florence at night, and had a dull, sleepy
+journey, arriving at Perugia towards morning.
+
+As we came into the hall and the long corridor of the hotel, the dim
+light fell mysteriously on plants and flowers, showing curios on the
+wall behind them; to our joy, when we reached our charming cool room
+and opened the persiennes, we saw the exquisite light of early morning
+crowning the dim, far-off hills.
+
+The day dawned golden with sunshine, the air breathed a delightful
+freshness. We strolled into the garden, which had at one end two
+majestic aloes in full bloom and a group of sun-flowers. Oleanders,
+covered with rosy blossoms, stood at the garden entrance; beyond was a
+bower of golden-green acacias, wreathed to their topmost branches with
+blue and white morning glories; below us we saw a varied landscape,
+the distant hills tinted with delicate morning light.
+
+We found our quarters delightful, and our host and hostess full of
+attentive kindness. This was continued when the hotel removed to its
+present quarters in the large house at the beginning of the city. The
+views from the Brufani Hotel terrace and windows are superb; they
+command both the Val di Tevere and several points of the town itself.
+
+Alas! both our good hosts, Signor and Madame Brufani, have passed
+away, but the well-arranged house remains, and is said to be very
+comfortable still.
+
+  [Illustration: ALOES IN BLOOM.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MARKET-DAY IN PERUGIA
+
+
+  [Illustration: RAFFAELLE.]
+
+The day after our arrival we went up some steps near the hotel,
+bordered by aloes not yet in bloom, and gemmed with brilliant-eyed
+lizards darting in and out in the sunshine; presently we found
+ourselves under the lofty walls that once supported the fortress built
+by command of Pope Paul III., on the site of the Baglioni palaces. In
+this wall is bricked up an ancient Etruscan gate--the Porta Marzia,
+which came in the way of this erection.
+
+One is glad, for the sake of freedom, to think that not so many years
+ago the citizens of Perugia pulled down and utterly destroyed this
+hated fortress, set up by the tyrant Pope when the hill-city submitted
+to his dominion.
+
+From a picturesque point of view, the fortress was probably more in
+harmony with the old streets behind it, especially with the frowning
+walls, than are the modern buildings that now border the new Piazza
+Vittor Emanuele, and take off the charm of approach on this side.
+
+One need not, however, enter Perugia by way of Piazza Vittor Emanuele.
+Keeping below the huge wall, beside an avenue of green acacias, we
+climbed by a wide flight of shallow brick steps past the picturesque
+church of San Ercolano, then went through a lofty archway, with huge
+projecting imposts, into a street with tall, grey houses on either
+side.
+
+One of these was evidently the back of a palace, and indeed it forms
+part of the Palazzo Baglione which fronts the next street, Via Riario;
+the very name Baglione made one shiver, remembering the chronicles of
+that bloodthirsty race.
+
+We halted here before a shop, to its owner, a well-to-do merchant of
+Perugia, we had been given an introduction; he most courteously
+offered to show us his wine cellar, in which is a portion of the
+veritable Etruscan wall of Perugia, in excellent preservation. Some of
+the stones are about thirteen feet long and eighteen inches thick,
+huge uncemented blocks of travertine. The floor of the cellar is
+formed by the ancient way, so that one actually treads the road used
+by Etruscans before Rome was thought of!
+
+The amount of forced labour represented by these walls of Perugia is
+painful to think of, for the stones in the merchant's cellar must have
+been brought from a very great distance. The blocks of travertine are
+certainly the finest specimens we saw in the city. The old wall went
+on from them by way of the Porta Marzia to the Porta Eburnea, then
+northwards (there are visible fragments of it in the Rione Eburnea)
+till it reached the famous arch near the Piazza Grimani, and so on
+eastward to Monte Sole, where it took a southern course again, to join
+the remains in Signor Betti's cellar.
+
+The house stands on the edge of the hill, and from its back windows
+there is an extended view over the country on that side, and, looking
+south, over the garden of San Pietro de Casinensi, then kept in order
+by the boys of the reformatory. The fine old machicolated spire of San
+Pietro and the quaint campanile of San Domenico are striking landmarks
+from the high road winding out to the Tiber and Ponte San Giovanni.
+
+We discovered one secret in the charm of Perugia when we turned from
+this lovely and varied landscape to the vivid contrast offered by the
+old grey street.
+
+  [Illustration: SAN DOMENICO _PERUGIA_]
+
+Near to Signor Betti's house is a little curiosity shop, and in its
+window was a proof that the belief in "mal occhio" still exists
+among the peasants. Hanging from a rough brass watch chain, much the
+worse for wear, was a little bunch of hairs from a horse's tail, set
+as a charm, and considered to be a specific against "mal occhio," or
+any spell cast on horses, cows, etc. Near it was an irregular, stumpy
+bit of coral, a man's safeguard against a like disaster.
+
+During our stay in Perugia we made acquaintance with Signor Bellucci,
+a very learned and courteous professor of the university, who most
+kindly showed us in his rooms, not only a very interesting and
+valuable collection of implements and other articles, beginning at the
+Stone Age, but also a collection of amulets and charms. Some of these,
+especially those for protection from lightning, are bits of
+prehistoric stones, and exhibit a grotesque mingling of pagan and
+mediæval superstition.
+
+A little case embroidered with the Agnus Dei contained a triangular
+stone arrow-head, and this, the Professor said, used to be hung at
+the bed-head of the owner, between pictures of saints; on the occasion
+of a storm, candles were lighted, and prayers were offered before the
+amulet.
+
+This collection of charms amounts to nearly two hundred specimens; it
+is full of interest, and it would require many pages to do it justice.
+
+A very curious amulet was the fragment of a human skull enclosed in a
+little brass reliquary, considered to be a sovereign protection
+against epilepsy and kindred disorders. Tradition said that this bit
+of bone had belonged to the skull of a person, dead some two hundred
+years before, who had worked so many wonderful cures by his skill in
+medicine, and had lived such a long and saintly life, that he had been
+loved and venerated by all.
+
+The Professor told us it was not uncommon, when a body was dug up in
+the course of excavations, to find a bit of the skull missing, and
+this amulet doubtless explained the use that had been made of such
+lost fragments.
+
+Another charm was a little cross of holly-wood carved by Capuchin
+friars; it had been found hanging at an old woman's bed-head, to
+protect her from the spells of a witch. She would only part from it on
+condition that she might reserve some splinters of the wood, so as to
+prevent the witch from visiting her, and tormenting her for having
+parted from her safeguard.
+
+In Brittany we often saw a branch of holly hanging beside the bed for
+the same purpose. There were corals in this Perugian collection of
+various shapes, for women and children, for safety in teething, for
+protection against "mal occhio," to stop bleeding, and above all, for
+the cure of melancholy. The dark stone with red spots, which I have
+heard called in England bloodstone, is said to be infallible in
+checking bleeding; it must be useful in a country where blood-letting
+and leeching are still common and frequent remedies.
+
+One of the most amusing of the charms was a heart-shaped agate with a
+hole through the top. This was found in a house not far from Perugia,
+where from time immemorial it had been held in reverence, and in which
+its influence was supposed to have maintained perfect harmony among
+the inmates of the house. Professor Bellucci did not tell us why its
+possessors were willing to give it up: did they want a little change
+from this perpetual harmony?
+
+Belief in witches is still very prevalent in Umbria. They are said to
+haunt cross-roads persistently at night-time, it is also said that he
+who walks late in the environs of Perugia will do well to carry a few
+small coins in his pocket, and to fling them abroad as an offering
+when he comes near to a cross-road, for assuredly a witch lies there
+in ambush, ready to work him harm. Also, when the traveller sees in
+some unfrequented by-road a heap of stones beside the way, he must at
+once add another stone to this cairn, so that he may keep down the
+phantom of the murdered traveller, whose unblessed body has been
+hastily put underground in the lonely spot.
+
+  [Illustration: FOUNTAIN OUTSIDE SAN DOMENICO.]
+
+Among these ciottoli, however, I did not see any of the charming
+little coral hands to be found farther south, with the forefinger and
+little finger, the other fingers closed, pointed in defence against
+"mal occhio." It is possible that this belief in the virtue of coral
+may have originated the custom of the long coral necklace so
+frequently worn by the peasant women of Umbria.
+
+San Domenico is near the Professor's house; a flight of steps leads up
+to the church, and before it is a fountain bearing on its side the
+Griffin of Perugia. The lofty campanile makes this church conspicuous
+from every part of the city. It must have been tall, indeed, before
+the tyrannical Pope ordered its two upper storeys to be demolished.
+The original church is said to have been built early in the fourteenth
+century, from the designs of Giovanni Pisano; it was, however, almost
+all rebuilt three centuries later. The very large and richly coloured
+east window, and the beautiful tomb with its remarkable canopy, were
+both in the first church. The tomb, that of Pope Benedict XI., who
+died in Perugia from eating poisoned figs, is the work of Giovanni
+Pisano. Some intarsia work in the choir stalls is very good, but with
+this exception, and the Pope's monument, San Domenico is not nearly so
+interesting as San Pietro de' Casinensi.
+
+Past the little Gothic church of San Ercolano, and a line of acacias
+with exquisite yellow-green foliage, the tender greys of the city
+seemed suddenly galvanised into vivacious colour, for Piazza Sopra
+Mura was thronged with merry chattering crowds of market buyers and
+sellers; many of the handsome peasant women standing or sitting
+behind their wares wore a necklace of coral beads.
+
+  [Illustration: PIAZZA SOPRA MURA.]
+
+This long Piazza is built on substructures which connect the two hills
+on which Perugia stands; these substructures are said to be in some
+places built on the foundation of the Etruscan wall. The Piazza itself
+is full of infinite variety: on the right are two quaint grey mediæval
+palaces, with balconies and windows; the Palazzo del Capitano del
+Popolo or del Podestà, and the ancient university, are now used as Law
+Courts. One can fancy the sometimes inflammatory, sometimes soothing
+discourses that have been pronounced from the ringhiera of the ancient
+Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo. Nearly opposite this building stands
+a fountain. The laughing, gesticulating, ever-moving crowd in the
+market-place, and the brilliant hues of tomatoes, melons, and
+vegetables, made one's eyes ache. There was a certain sobriety in the
+colour of the women's gowns, for the most part pale lilac or yellow
+cotton prints, with sometimes white jackets enlivened by the favourite
+necklace of coral beads.
+
+The dark eyes, brilliant skins, and the red-gold hair of many of these
+women actually seemed to burn under the gay flower-like headkerchiefs,
+which looked at a little distance like some huge tulip-bed, so bright
+was the orange, chocolate, scarlet, and rose colour mingled with white
+and green. The laughing women mostly showed white, even teeth. The
+buzz of talk and laughter was so gay and animated that one wondered
+they could manage the buying and selling in such a hubbub.
+
+We especially noticed an old dame, her white hair showing under a gay
+kerchief with a sea-green border, and a bunch of roses in the corner
+hanging behind her head. She too had a long string of coral, that set
+off the orange-brown of her skin and her clear blue eyes. Her features
+were regular; she had not lost her teeth, so that the form of her
+mouth was still good. She had been bargaining and gesticulating with a
+dark lustrous-eyed girl, with blue-black hair, for a pair of snowy
+struggling pigeons, and when she went back to her place behind a
+basket of ripe figs she moved like an old Juno.
+
+Some of the young women were singularly handsome. Among these peasants
+and the people of Perugia we noticed two distinct types of face:
+regular features and deeply set eyes, like the faces in the old tomb
+of the Volumni, were frequent; some of these faces had blue eyes and
+beautiful red-gold hair, and were set on round pillar-like throats and
+well-developed figures. Others--and perhaps the greater number of the
+town shop-keeping class--had a far less refined type of face,
+turned-up noses and sensual mouths; though many of them were very
+attractive, especially when they wore the graceful black lace
+mantilla, so well suited to their brilliant complexions, dark shining
+eyes, and full red lips. Some of the men were also handsome, but not
+so well grown as the women were.
+
+Probably the custom of carrying a huge basket or a tall pitcher on her
+head, up and down the hills and hilly streets, gives to the peasant
+woman in Umbria the stately grace that distinguishes her movements.
+
+These peasants seem to take an interest in foreigners, and are much
+pleased to be spoken to by them. One girl who kept a handkerchief
+stall greatly amused us. I had been trying to bargain with her for
+some of her gaily-coloured wares, but she asked such a price that I
+turned away; she came after me, almost crying:
+
+"If the signora will explain her ideas on the subject, we may be able
+to arrange," she said.
+
+I am bound to say that we met with much courtesy and fair dealing in
+Perugia. Even at the fruit-stalls, where we stood studying heaps of
+lemons, full of colour from bluish green to most golden of yellows,
+the owner left us in peace, and seemed pleased that we should take our
+fill of gazing.
+
+But the market is soon over; the baskets empty quickly; the unhappy
+turkeys and cocks and hens, tied by the feet, are soon handed over
+head downwards to fresh owners; the lemon heaps, some exquisitely
+green, with a leaf or so hanging from the fruit stalks, have dwindled
+till the remaining fruit lies flat on the large board near the
+fountain; of the scarlet army of tomatoes not one is left, and all the
+cool, pink-fleshed slices of water melon, sown with black seeds, have
+disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FONTE DI PERUGIA
+
+
+The next morning we took our way up a side turning into the Corso, the
+handsomest street in Perugia. The shop windows had the day before been
+made extra gay, to attract the market-sellers; they still showed long
+strings of cut coral beads.
+
+  [Illustration: NICOLO PISANO.]
+
+There is a mass of fine, as well as interesting, fourteenth century
+building on the left of the Corso: the Collegio del Cambio, and the
+Palazzo del Pubblico, or, as it is also called, Palazzo Comunale. This
+has a richly-sculptured doorway, and ends on the Piazza del Duomo; it
+has quaint iron lamps. On this Piazza, and facing us, we saw the
+unfinished stone and brick work of the Cathedral, San Lorenzo, with
+its outside pulpit, from which St. Bernardino preached to the people.
+
+  [Illustration: THE GREAT FOUNTAIN
+   _PIAZZA DEL DUOMO_]
+
+On the left stands the Palace called the Canonica or Seminary, with
+its cloisters. This belonged to the clergy, and was the dwelling of
+those Popes who stayed in Perugia during their visits to the city, so
+greatly beloved and coveted by the Holy See.
+
+In the centre of the Piazza stands the famous fountain usually
+ascribed to Nicolo Pisano, but said to have been designed by Fra
+Bevignate, a native of the city. However, the great Pisan sculptor and
+his son Giovanni made the two large marble basins, and sculptured the
+panels which decorate them. Nicolo, whose quaint costume is given in
+the initial, is said to have sculptured the twenty-four statues, now
+dark with age, but remarkable for the sharpness of their exquisite
+carving; two of the statues are, however, restorations. The delicate
+bas-reliefs of the second basin are ascribed to Giovanni Pisano, and
+are full of variety; the upper basin, with nymphs and lions and the
+inevitable griffin of Perugia, is supposed to have been cast in bronze
+by Rossi; water no longer plays from this fountain. It is very
+beautiful, but it wears a sad and desolate aspect, in perfect harmony
+with the terrible tragedies which have been so often enacted on this
+square.
+
+The finest side of the Palazzo Pubblico is that which faces the
+Cathedral; it has a charming loggia and a grand double flight of steps
+guarded by the Guelphic lion and the Perugian griffin. There are still
+traces on this fine old wall showing where the keys of two cities,
+Siena and Assisi, were hung in chains by the arrogant Perugians, till,
+in one of the attacks on the city, some mercenary soldiers wrenched
+them away. The griffin, the quaint emblem of Perugia, is to be found
+repeated in all the decorative work of the city. The Palazzo Pubblico
+was built early in the fourteenth century from the design of the
+Benedictine, Fra Bevignate. The heads of criminals used to be fixed on
+the steel lances which project from it. When the criminals had been
+guilty of treason their heads were hung downwards. It was a custom in
+Perugia to confine criminals in an iron cage hung on this old wall,
+the miserable creatures being left to starve to death in the cage! The
+horrible dungeons below can still be seen; they give one some idea of
+the cruelties enacted in the Middle Ages.
+
+The cathedral of San Lorenzo, on the Piazza del Duomo, is spacious
+rather than interesting, except for its associations: three Popes who
+died in Perugia are buried in one tomb in a transept, and in a chapel
+is preserved the marriage-ring of the Blessed Virgin. We noticed some
+good wood carving in the stalls.
+
+On the right, beyond the cathedral and its square, is the little
+Piazza del Papa. On this a bronze statue, vivid green in colour, is
+raised high on a pedestal. An inscription tells that the statue
+represents Pope Julius III., and is the work of Vincenzo Danti.
+
+  [Illustration: BRONZE STATUE OF POPE JULIUS III.]
+
+The grand old Pope has been sitting enthroned outside the cathedral
+doors for more than three hundred years, with hand outstretched, in
+the act of blessing. It almost seems that during these long years the
+golden sunshine, mingled with the intense blue of the sky, has created
+the brilliant colour of the bronze, this vivid green which rivals that
+of the lizards as they dart in and out of the grey old wall behind the
+Duomo.
+
+Looking at the old Pope under different aspects,--in the sparkle of
+morning sunshine, in its full meridian glow, or in the gloom that
+comes to Perugia so swiftly at the heels of day,--one gets to see a
+different expression in the Pontiff's immovable face.
+
+In the morning it beams on the crowd of crockery sellers, and their
+wares spread out on the stones around its pedestal, and points proudly
+to the grand group presented by the fountain and the Palazzo Comunale;
+at midday the expression is harder; but at eventide a pensive cast
+comes over the face, more in keeping with the grass-grown street
+behind the statue, and the ancient grey palaces.
+
+This bronze Pope, Julius III., was not sitting here at the time of the
+famous preaching of San Bernardino of Siena, on the Piazza del Duomo,
+when the Perugians flung their grandest vanities into a heap and
+burned them as a proof of penitence, as the Tuscans did at Florence in
+the days of Savonarola. This preaching of San Bernardino is
+commemorated in an old but restored window in the cathedral.
+
+Behind the adjoining Piazza dei Gigli, an open square in front of the
+Sorbello Palazzo, is a way going steeply upwards to the right; it has
+bricked steps in the middle, but at the side of these is a long strip
+of ascending slope, so irregularly paved that it might serve as a
+specimen pattern of the variously paved streets in the town. Tufts of
+grass between the stones show that this way is not much used. Its
+right side is walled by the church of Santa Maria Nuova, and high
+above it on the left are some quaint houses. This road leads to San
+Severo, a little chapel containing what is called Raffaelle's first
+fresco, unhappily very much restored. The view of the country between
+the houses near it is more interesting than the painting.
+
+This is a very old part of the town; presently, through a tunnel under
+a low-browed arch, we came out on the Piazza of Monte Sole, surrounded
+by old palaces. This Piazza marks the summit of one of the two hills
+on which ancient Perugia was built by the Etruscans; the other hill,
+Colle Landone, is crowned by Palazzo Donnini, and till the time of
+wise and valiant Forte Braccio, who, though cruel, seems to have been
+the best ruler the Perugians can boast of, the valley between these
+two hills existed.
+
+Forte Braccio caused it to be filled up, and the Piazza Sopra Mura,
+where the weekly market is held, takes its name from the levelling and
+sub-structures then effected.
+
+It was from Piazza Monte Sole that the despotic Abbot Monmaggiore fled
+along the covered way he had made to connect his citadel of Monte Sole
+with his palaces at Porta San Antonio. On this occasion the nobles
+joined hands with the citizens against the conspiring French priest,
+drove the foreigners out of the city, and for the time freed Perugia
+from the hated Papal yoke.
+
+Going on from the Piazza Monte Sole, a few steps bring us to a
+tree-shaded terrace with benches placed along it. There is a grand
+view from the wall that bounds the terrace, and seems to go straight
+down into the valley. Just below is the red cupola-topped church of
+Santa Maria Nuova, while the houses of the town lay thickly clustered
+below. The ancient wall from which we now gaze runs out northward on
+the right, and on the left goes on till it reaches the famous Etruscan
+arch near the Piazza Grimani. Beyond are the heights, on one of which
+stands the convent of San Francesco, outside the extreme northern
+point marked by the gate of San Angelo; from this we get a glimpse of
+Subasio. Going out behind the terrace we see the Duomo close by, and
+soon find our way back to the Corso.
+
+Perugia was never weak; rather she was in all things powerful, and she
+produced a race of the most renowned Condottieri of Italy, the
+bloodthirsty Baglioni. Had the brutal nobles and the proud citizens
+been able to control their passions, and to discipline their ambition;
+had they been able to behave, in fact, like Christians, Perugia might
+have held sovereign sway in Umbria.
+
+Instead of this, though nominally governed by the Podestà, or chief
+magistrate and the Priori, she was frequently forced to defend herself
+against Papal plots and aggression; almost constantly against the
+tyranny of her rival nobles, and the mischiefs caused by their brawls
+between themselves, and with the Raspanti, among whom were the richest
+and most powerful of the citizens.
+
+Through these centuries, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth, the
+Piazza del Duomo often ran with blood. It was the chief scene of the
+fierce struggles which make the eventful history of the hill-city; for
+until the time of Paul the Third, Perugia never entirely submitted to
+the personal sway of an alien ruler, though she frequently banished
+both nobles and Raspanti.
+
+There was a short period of comparative peace when, in the fourteenth
+century, the Condottiere Biordo Michelotti entered the city at the
+head of the banished Raspanti, and became supreme ruler in the name of
+the people. Broils were still frequent between the nobles and the
+plebs, but Biordo was the first of the brigand despots who tried to
+free Perugia from Papal encroachments.
+
+Warlike, wicked Guidalotti, Abbot of San Pietro, jealously watched the
+Captain's success, and justly estimated his power; he resolved to end
+it, and to restore the influence of the Holy See in Perugia.
+
+Biordo, a valiant, hard-working ruler, had asked in marriage the
+beautiful Lucrezia Orsini, with whom he hoped, now that the city
+enjoyed comparative quiet, to end his days in peace. The Abbot thought
+that these bridal festivities would give him the opportunity he
+sought.
+
+A few days after the marriage the wily priest rode up from San Pietro
+on horseback to the higher part of the town. He here collected his
+bravi together, and rode on to Michelotti's palace on Monte Sole. As
+soon as Michelotti came down to greet his visitor the Abbot put his
+arm round him and kissed him. At this signal the other ruffians at
+once attacked the unarmed governor, and killed him with their poisoned
+daggers.
+
+After Biordo Michelotti, came early in the next century the valiant
+and wise Forte Braccio, who greatly improved the condition of the
+city, and repressed licence and disorder. But this brave (though
+cruel) soldier and sagacious ruler was defeated in battle, and died
+from the wounds he received. This was a terrible loss; it alarmed the
+Perugians, for though Forte Braccio was of noble birth, being Conte di
+Montone, he had protected the city against the outrages of the fierce
+and brutal Oddi, Baglioni, Corgna, and others. The citizens, in their
+despair at the loss of their ruler, made overtures to Pope Martin, who
+received them with open arms.
+
+At this the nobles felt all their power restored; they knew the Pope
+would side with them against the people, and, quitting their houses in
+the country around the city, they established themselves in palaces
+chiefly in the vicinity of Porta Marzia, whence it was easy to overawe
+the town.
+
+After Forte Braccio's death, one of his soldiers, a singularly brave
+and capable man, named Nicola Piccinino, tried to wrest supreme power
+both from the Pope and the nobles. The Perugians suffered terribly,
+for, while the long struggle lasted, the Pope, the nobles, and
+Piccinino, who was liked by the people and idolised by the army, all
+levied taxes on them; Nicola at last ceased his efforts to attain
+supreme power, and accepted from the Pope the post of Gonfalionere,
+chief magistrate of the city, in the pontiff's name.
+
+The nobles at this period were left unhindered to brawl as they
+pleased. The Baglioni, a race of men so renowned for crime, strength,
+bravery, and beauty, that they recall the heroes of the _Iliad_, and
+one wonders whether the old pagans were not better men than those
+so-called Christians, were always at war with the Oddi, till at last
+they worsted their rivals, and drove them out of Perugia; then they
+fell out among themselves. During their last struggle with the Oddi
+they took possession of the cathedral and fortified it.
+
+After the banishment of the Oddi the power of the Baglioni greatly
+increased; it became almost supreme. The Pope had given them the
+lordship of Spello; they also owned Spoleto, and some others of the
+hill-cities of Umbria. These possessions brought them great wealth.
+They were cruel and tyrannical despots; they appointed civic
+officials; it was even said that no legate ventured to visit the city
+unless he was a friend of the Baglioni.
+
+Towards the close of the fifteenth century some of the poorer and more
+obscure members of this powerful clan, or, as the old chronicler
+Matarazzo terms them, "beautiful Baglioni," murmured loudly against
+their richer kinsfolk. They were just as indolent, just as brutal and
+licentious, and in proportion to their means fully as arrogant and
+prodigal. But people were not afraid of them; they had neither wealth
+to keep bravi with, nor influence to support and further their
+pretensions. These poor relations could no longer endure their
+dependent position; they saw that if the sons of the elder house were
+disposed of, they should have a chance of coming to their own. At
+present they were completely shadowed by the wealth and haughty
+self-assertion of their cousins; they also coveted their possessions,
+and longed to divide them among themselves.
+
+The heads of the Baglione house were the two brothers, Guido and
+Ridolfo. Guido had five stalwart sons, as much noted for their prowess
+and heroic bravery, as for their good looks; these were Astorre,
+Adriano (usually called Morgante, because of his wonderful strength),
+Marcantonio, Gismondo, and Gentile. Ridolfo's sons were Troilo,
+Gianpaolo, and Simonetto.
+
+Besides the splendid sons of Guido and Ridolfo, there was yet another
+very wealthy and distinguished scion of the Baglione family, their
+young cousin Grifonetto. He was happily married to a young and
+beautiful wife, and was on friendly terms with all his cousins. His
+father, Grifone, had died young in battle; his still young and lovely
+mother, Atalanta Baglione, was extremely rich. She so greatly loved
+Grifonetto, her only child, that she remained a widow for his sake,
+and gave up her own home to live with him and his fair young wife,
+Zenobia Sforza, in the splendid palace he had built near Porta Marzia.
+
+A few years before the end of the fifteenth century, the banished Oddi
+faction thought fit to attack the city; they rode suddenly in through
+the gates, and began to strike at the chains stretched across the
+street for defence against sudden attacks. The first to give the alarm
+was Simonetto Baglione, a young and beardless youth, who, though of a
+fierce and cruel nature, was heroically brave. He rushed forth in his
+shirt, armed only with sword and shield, and held the squadron of
+advancing Oddi at bay before the barrier that defended the Piazza.
+Soon ten of his adversaries lay dead at his feet. Till he had killed
+many more he persevered in attacking the foe with intense fury, until
+he had received twenty-two wounds. Then his cousin Astorre rode forth
+to help him. "Go and tend your wounds, Simonetto," he cried, and
+dashed at the common enemy; a falcon flashed on his gilded helmet,
+with the griffin's tail sweeping behind it. At once he became a target
+for the Oddi, their blows fell so thick and fast that each hindered
+the other from striking truly; nothing could be heard above the din of
+the strokes made by lances, partizans, crossbow quarries, and other
+weapons falling on Astorre's body; the sound of those great blows
+overbore the noise and shouting of the combatants. But the noble
+Astorre was undismayed by the horrid clamour, he rode his horse into
+the thickest of the fight, and trampled the Oddi under foot; while his
+horse, being a most fierce animal, gave the enemy what trouble it
+could, for so soon as they were jostled and overthrown by his rider,
+the beast trampled on them. By the time that the other Baglioni heroes
+sallied forth to help him, Astorre and his war-horse were overdone,
+they could scarce breathe.
+
+The Oddi were again driven from the city, but a war followed which
+devastated the fertile country between Perugia and Assisi.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All through these fearful times of strife and bloodshed Art was
+progressing quietly and surely in Perugia. Raffaelle was at this time
+working in the atelier of Perugino, and it is thought that he must
+have witnessed this splendid defence of Astorre Baglione, and that he
+afterwards reproduced the young warrior, his helmet crowned by a
+falcon and tail of griffin, in the St. George of the Louvre, and the
+trampling horseman in the Heliodorus Stanza of the Vatican.
+
+After this achievement the Baglioni seem to have had a short time of
+family peace. This was soon interrupted. Grifonetto's wealth, the
+splendid palace in which he lived with his lovely mother and Zenobia
+Sforza, his beautiful wife, helped to make him, young though he was,
+the most powerful member of the family. He and his wife dearly loved
+each other, and the chronicler says, "No wonder, for they were as
+beautiful as angels." But for evil counsellors, and the restless
+ambition of the Baglioni, this state of affairs might have lasted.
+Three of the evil and disappointed relatives clung to Grifonetto like
+limpets; these were his uncle Filippo, his cousin Carlo Baciglia
+Baglione, and a scandalously dissolute scoundrel named Jeronimo della
+Penna or Arciprete. They took counsel together as to how the sons of
+Guido and Ridolfo Baglione could be easiest put out of the way, so
+that their wealth and power might be divided among the conspirators.
+Too poor and of too ill-repute to act alone, they saw that their
+patron Grifonetto had all they lacked, and they resolved to persuade
+him to head their conspiracy. At first they strove to win him by the
+offer of supreme power in Perugia; he could revolt, they said, against
+the Papal yoke, and become sovereign ruler in the city. Grifonetto
+was not ambitious; he had all he wanted,--their proposals did not
+tempt him.
+
+Astorre was about to wed a Roman bride, Lavinia, the daughter of a
+Colonna father and an Orsini mother, and the malcontent Baglioni
+decided that this marriage, which was to happen at the end of July,
+would be a great opportunity for ridding themselves of their hated
+kindred, as it would assemble every member of the family in Perugia,
+except Marcantonio, who, being out of health, was taking baths at
+Naples.
+
+The conspirators took fresh counsel together; the time fixed for the
+marriage was now close at hand, they must at once win over Grifonetto
+to their schemes. They therefore told him that Zenobia, the beautiful
+wife he so adored, was unfaithful to him, with his cousin Gianpaolo,
+one of the sons of Ridolfo Baglione.
+
+Grifonetto was furious; in his mad jealousy he believed this story,
+and thirsted for vengeance: he consented to head the conspiracy, and
+to rid the city of the elder branch of his family by a wholesale
+murder.
+
+Among the conspirators were Jeronimo della Staffa, three members of
+the Corgna family and others; only two of those who engaged in this
+bloodthirsty scheme were over thirty years old.
+
+The Baglioni were chiefly lodged in houses on or near the Porta
+Marzia; Astorre and his bride, on the night of the murder, were lodged
+in the beautiful palace of Grifonetto, which was the wonder of
+Perugia, and always pointed out to strangers as a marvel of
+magnificence both inside and out. Among his other treasures,
+Grifonetto possessed a lion; Astorre and Gianpaolo, the sons of Guido
+and Ridolfo Baglione, each owned one of the royal beasts, and their
+fearful roaring at night struck terror to the hearts of belated
+Perugians on their way home.
+
+It had been arranged that as soon as the proposed victims were asleep
+the signal should be given; this was to be a stone thrown from the
+loggia of the Magnifico Guido's palace, into the court below.
+
+Banquets, jousts, all kinds of magnificent festivities had gone on for
+days past. That night a great supper was given, at which the
+conspirators were present; they appeared to be on the most friendly
+terms with the others, and were even affectionate and caressing to
+all,--yet the traitors had decided who was to be the murderer of each
+victim, and the number of bravi by which each murderer should be
+accompanied in case of resistance.
+
+At last the time arrived. The victims, heavy with wine, had retired to
+rest, they slept undisturbed by the roaring of the lions. Then the
+signal was given; each assassin stood ready at the appointed door.
+Carlo Baglione, who seems to have been the mainspring of "el gran
+tradimento," as the chronicler Matarazzo calls it, made first for the
+sleeping-chamber of the head of the family, the "Magnifico Guido," but
+he turned aside to that of young Simonetto. Jeronimo della Penna
+forced open the door of the noble Gismondo; while Grifonetto himself
+attacked Gianpaolo, Filippo di Braccio and one of the Corgna family
+unlocked the door of valiant Astorre, who, asleep with his
+newly-married wife, was thus murderously awakened; the young fellow
+opened the door, and, seeing his murderers, he guessed the truth. As
+they attacked him he cried out, "Wretched Astorre, who dies like a
+coward." His young wife rushed up to him, and flung her arms round
+him, trying to make her body a shield between him and his assailants,
+but they had already stabbed him with many more blows than would have
+sufficed to kill him, and she too received a wound. Then the brutal
+Filippo di Braccio, seeing how large a wound was in Astorre's breast,
+thrust in his hand, tore out his heart, and savagely bit it. After
+this he and his accomplice flung the body of Astorre down the stairs
+and into the street, where presently the murdered Simonetto lay beside
+it. He had wakened, and, seeing the murderers kill the companion who
+lay in his chamber, armed himself, and fought his way through the
+villainous crowd of bravi, till he reached the foot of the stairs;
+here fresh assailants despatched him. Simonetto's uncle Guido had also
+time to snatch up his sword; but, powerful though he was, he was
+killed.
+
+Grifonetto was less successful than his fellow-conspirators.
+Gianpaolo, the most daring of the elder branch of the Baglioni, had
+taken alarm, and so had his squire. But Gianpaolo was sagacious as
+well as brave, and, not knowing who were his assailants, he bade his
+squire guard the staircase which led from his chamber to the roof,
+while he tried to escape over the tops of the other palaces.
+
+The squire fought valiantly, and held his post for some time,--the
+staircase turned, and gave him a point of vantage over his assailants
+from below. Gianpaolo reached the roof, and crawled over it till,
+coming to the skylight of his cousin Grifonetto's palace, he had a
+mind, in his ignorance as to the conspirators, to seek shelter there;
+but he gave up the idea, and climbed through a window into another
+house, owned by one of the citizens; the good man within was so
+terrified at the sight of Baglione, that, in his fear, he refused to
+harbour the great noble. Gianpaolo, going back to the roof, found his
+way into the atelier of some foreign artists, who were also greatly
+alarmed at his appearance among them. One of them, however, named
+Achille de la Mandola, seems to have greatly helped the fugitive.
+
+Gianpaolo finally made his way out into the street; and soon after out
+of the city. Seeing a mule grazing by the wayside, he at once mounted
+it, though he was greatly disturbed to quit Perugia without having
+either discovered the meaning of this night attack, or taken
+vengeance on the unknown assassins. In the meantime day had broken,
+and Gentile Baglione, who lived some way from his father's house, had
+been also attacked by the conspirators; he escaped them at once, by
+mounting his horse and riding away. Just as he reached the bridge
+beyond the plain, he was amazed to recognise his elder cousin
+Gianpaolo, riding in the same direction on a mule.
+
+When Atalanta, Grifonetto's beautiful young mother, heard of the
+tragedy that had been acted so close to her, she rose up, wrapped
+herself in a large cloak, and, taking with her the two little sons of
+Gianpaolo and her daughter-in-law, Zenobia Sforza, she quitted her
+son's house (she loved Grifonetto so dearly that she had always lived
+with him, having been widowed before she was twenty) and took refuge
+in her own dwelling on the Colle Landone. She had nothing with her but
+the cloak she wore, and when she learned in detail the events of the
+night she solemnly vowed she would never again cross her son's
+threshold. Grifonetto had quickly repented his crime. His eyes had
+opened to the wickedness into which his mad jealousy had betrayed him.
+As soon as he learned his mother's departure he followed her, but he
+was refused admittance; he, however, forced his way into her presence.
+She stayed his approach with outstretched hands, and delivered her
+solemn curse on his guilty head as the murderer of his nearest
+kindred. The young fellow fled horror-stricken from her presence, but
+soon returned; he could not find peace, he said, till his beloved,
+beautiful mother forgave him, and removed the curse she had laid on
+him.
+
+Atalanta had, however, taken her precautions, and though the unhappy
+Grifonetto went again and again from his Palazzo to that on the Colle
+Landone, Atalanta refused to see or listen to him. With the exception
+of his complicity in this fearful tragedy, Grifonetto seems to have
+had more human feeling than some of his cousins of the elder branch.
+His suffering under his mother's curse, and his penitence for his
+crime, had completely unnerved him. When Gianpaolo, who by the death
+of his uncle Guido was now the head of the Baglioni, returned to
+Perugia with the troops he and his brothers had rallied round them,
+they were met at the city gate by an excited crowd of citizens; for
+though some of the Perugians still sided with their favourite
+Grifonetto, the larger portion abhorred his foul treason, and longed
+to see it avenged. Gianpaolo, seeing the concourse and hearing the
+cries of welcome, asked graciously that the ladies present in the
+crowd would be good enough to pray for his success. They did so, and
+sent out, besides, wine to refresh him and his soldiers after their
+journey, before they began to revenge themselves on their enemies.
+Grifonetto had come towards the gate with intent to guard it, gnashing
+his teeth and weeping, for he had made another attempt to see his
+mother. He presently met Gianpaolo on the Piazza, where some of the
+conspirators had already been slain,--Carlo Baglione and Jeronimo
+della Penna had a narrow escape by climbing the city wall.
+
+Gianpaolo gazed with pitying contempt at his young cousin, who, still
+overwhelmed with remorse for his share in the unnatural crime, and
+heart-broken by his mother's curse, was taken aback at thus suddenly
+meeting his enemy within the city.
+
+Gianpaolo rode up, and, pointing his sword at Grifonetto's throat,
+cried out; "Farewell, thou traitor Grifonetto; thou art"--Then he
+added, "Go, in God's name, for I will not kill you; I will not dip my
+hands in your blood, as you have dipped yours in the blood of your
+kindred."
+
+He turned away, making a sign to his guards, they fell on the stricken
+Grifonetto, and wounded him so that his "graceful limbs" could no
+longer support him; he fell in a pool of blood on the ground. The
+terrible news was at once carried to his mother Atalanta, and his
+sorrowful wife Zenobia; they hurried down to the Piazza, and found
+their dearly loved Grifonetto not yet dead, but bleeding from every
+wound. His mother fell on her knees beside him; she assured him of her
+forgiveness, and gave him her blessing in place of the curse she had
+laid on him. She implored him to pardon his murderers, and to give her
+a sign that he did so. At this the dying youth clasped the white hand
+of his young mother, whom he so dearly loved, and, pressing it, he
+expired. "No words," adds the chronicler, "can paint the grief of the
+wife who had so dearly loved him, or of the mother who had remained a
+widow because of her great love for this adored son. At last they
+rose, stained with the blood that streamed from him, and ordered his
+body to be carried to the hospital."
+
+By this time Gianpaolo and his troops had returned to the Piazza, bent
+on taking a complete revenge on the conspirators and all enemies of
+the Baglione family in Perugia. A fierce battle was fought on the
+Piazza, and in the cathedral itself, for Gianpaolo had caused a large
+fire to be kindled before the door, so as to gain access to the
+interior; even those who took refuge at the high altar were slain
+there. More than a hundred persons were murdered by Gianpaolo's order;
+the dead bodies lay where they fell, till the cathedral was
+bloodstained from one end to the other.
+
+Then the Magnifico Gianpaolo, being now the head of the family, took
+possession of Grifonetto's palace and of all the Baglione dwellings
+which, as has been said, were near the Porta Marzia. He gave command
+that all should be solemnly hung with black, as a token of mourning
+for the victims of "el gran tradimento,"--a term which Matarazzo
+constantly repeats. Gianpaolo also gave command that the cathedral of
+San Lorenzo should be washed with wine from one end to the other, and
+then re-consecrated, to purge it from the blood shed there during his
+vengeance on the slayers of his kindred, and on all who were in any
+way unfriendly to the house of Baglione.
+
+Even Matarazzo, the enthusiastic admirer of Gian,--or, as he
+frequently calls him, Giovanpaolo,--bursts into lamentation over the
+continued excesses committed in Perugia till the death of his hero.
+The chronicler tells us that from the time the Oddi were banished
+there was no rule in the city, except that of might against right;
+every man who was powerful enough took the law in his own hands:
+rapine, murder, plunder, reigned unchecked. When the Popes, aware of
+the persistent excesses, sent now and again a legate to control and
+modify disorder, and to restore some amount of security to the
+dismayed and outraged citizens, the envoys rarely remained long enough
+to interfere, even if they ventured within the gates of Perugia, lest
+they should give offence to the Baglioni, and be either stabbed or at
+best flung out of window.
+
+At last Gianpaolo submitted himself to the power of the Pope, and
+though the Perugians detested Papal government, they had suffered so
+severely under the Baglioni tyranny that they hailed the prospect of
+change, especially as the terms granted them promised moderation.
+
+Leo the Tenth, however, had little faith in Gianpaolo Baglione; he
+therefore lured him to Rome by sending him a safe-conduct. On his
+arrival the Pope caused him to be imprisoned in the castle of San
+Angelo; where he was soon after beheaded.
+
+Gianpaolo's descendants went from bad to worse. They were powerful in
+other states besides Perugia; captains of Condottieri in Venice, in
+Florence, also in the States of the Church. One of them, Malatesta
+Baglione, proved himself a most infamous traitor; he sold himself to
+Pope Clement VII., and, for his dastardly treason to Florence, was
+held up to public execration. The last male member of this terrible
+family died in the middle of the sixteenth century.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the accession to the popedom of Paul the Third came the deathblow
+to the freedom of Perugia. He broke all the treaties as to municipal
+rights and privileges, etc., granted by his predecessors, and built a
+huge citadel to overawe the town, actually removing one of the
+Etruscan gates, the Porta Marzia (now restored to its original site),
+to make room for his tyrannical construction. The military despotism
+of Pope Paul must have been heartbreaking to a free, proud people like
+the Perugians.
+
+There seems to have been less bloodshed under the Papal tyranny, but
+this little incident at its beginning, taken from an old record in the
+Public Library, was a savage sort of portent:
+
+"While the Duke Pietro Aloigi stayed with his troops in Perugia, to
+order the new government, Agostino de' Pistoia and Antonio Romano, two
+of his soldiers, asked the Duke's permission to fight out their
+quarrel in his presence on the Piazza of Perugia. The Duke gave
+consent, and ordered that they should fight before the chapel of the
+Cambio. There, surrounded by the populace, the Duke being at one of
+the windows of the palace, they fought in their shirts with swords and
+daggers.
+
+"Both men showed much courage and daring, but at last Agostino, of
+Pistoia, who was both handsome and tall of stature, fell on the ground
+dead.
+
+"Victory was at once cried for Antonio Romano, who, by his father's
+side, was of Perugia; but from the many and grievous wounds the
+Pistonian had given him, Antonio was considered by many as good as
+dead, and was carried home by his friends. However, by the great care
+taken of him, he after a while recovered his strength."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE COLLEGIO DEL CAMBIO AND THE PINACOTECA
+
+
+The Corso was on the left near the Fonte grand range of ancient
+buildings, in which is the entrance to the chapel of the Cambio;
+beside this is the Sala, adorned with Perugino's famous frescoes. A
+little farther on is the richly-sculptured doorway of the Palazzo
+Pubblico, and within this is the Pinacoteca, containing a very
+interesting collection of art treasures. Here are marvellous frescoes
+by Bonfigli; and pictures by him and by Piero della Francesca,
+Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, and other famous old painters.
+
+  [Illustration: PERUGINO.]
+
+It would be difficult to say too much in praise of the Sala del
+Cambio: the harmony preserved throughout it, in the rich and artistic
+decoration of its walls and ceiling, is most soothing, and adds
+greatly to the enjoyment one feels in the beautiful little place. The
+lower part of the walls is wainscotted with dark wood, inlaid with
+tarsiatura by Domenico del Tasso; the doors have the date 1483. Near
+the entrance is the raised throne for the judge; below this are desks
+and seats for the money-changers, and these are exquisitely carved.
+One account says that the intarsia designs were furnished by
+Raffaelle; another tells us that Domenico del Tasso was both designer
+and executor of this beautiful work. In the record of the agreement
+between the authorities at Perugia and Pietro Vannucci the painter, he
+writes, "My intention in the frescoes which cover the upper part of
+the walls is to recommend the merchants and magistrates therein
+assembled never to forsake the path of duty, but to remain faithful
+to the dictates of wisdom, of natural reason, and of religion."
+
+  [Illustration: DOORWAY OF PALAZZO PUBBLICO]
+
+Faith and Love are emphasised by two large frescoes facing the
+entrance, the Transfiguration and the Adoration of the Magi; Hope of
+an eternal future, by the prophets and sibyls on the wall to the
+right.
+
+On the left wall the frescoes depict moral qualities,--Justice and
+Prudence, illustrated below by the figures of Fabius Maximus,
+Socrates, Numa, Camillus, Pittacus, and Trajan.
+
+On a lower level still is a portrait in oil of Perugino, painted by
+himself; while the remaining half of the upper wall has figures
+representing Courage and Temperance. Below them are Licinius Leonidas
+and Horatius Cocles; Scipio Africanus, Pericles, and Cincinnatus.
+
+There is not any attempt at grouping in these frescoes: the figures
+stand severe and stately, as if they were on the look-out to rebuke
+any cheating or covetous practices going on in the Hall below. It is
+remarkable that the painter should have been accused of greed in the
+pursuit of his calling, when he considered it necessary to call up on
+the walls of the Sala so many witnesses to protest against the love of
+money in others. The ceiling is divided into bays, on which are the
+planets. In the centre is the sun, represented by Apollo in his
+chariot; the spaces between are filled with ornament and figures, some
+of which are attributed to Raffaelle.
+
+On a bright morning, when the sun is pouring light and warmth into the
+little Sala, the rich tone of these frescoes is marvellous, and, so
+far as one can see, they have not greatly suffered by restoration.
+
+In the adjoining Cappella del Cambio are some sibyls and children,
+said to be Raffaelle's, but the work in these has evidently been much
+retouched.
+
+Perugino is at his best in the frescoes of the Sala; they form a
+striking contrast to the monotony of style which, in spite of their
+individual beauty, wearies one in his Perugian oil pictures. The
+gallery devoted to his work upstairs in the Pinacoteca is, on the
+whole, disappointing.
+
+The pictures are calm and sweet and refined, but one longs for variety
+of feeling; a few, however, show marked superiority over the rest. It
+is very curious to remember that these peaceful saintly pictures were
+painted when daily brawls were taking place in the city, even while
+her chief Piazza streamed with the blood of nobles and Raspanti.
+
+The most interesting Umbrian pictures are those, only a few, by a rare
+and early painter, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, who with Piero della
+Francesca, from Borgo del Sepolcro, and Benedetto Bonfigli, had
+established a school of art in Perugia. The lovely head of a Madonna
+by this rarely found painter, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, is over a doorway
+in the Palazzo Pubblico, and upstairs in one of the galleries are two
+very remarkable pictures, the Adoration of the Magi is especially
+beautiful.
+
+The three kings stand on the left,--one of them is said to be a
+portrait, when young, of Perugino; on the ground, in the centre, lies
+the Holy Child; the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph kneel on either side
+of Him. Opposite the magi are the ox, and a very wise-looking ass;
+while a large group of angels fills up the background, and forms the
+most interesting part of the picture; the angels are so altogether
+original and graceful.
+
+The painting of detail is marvellously finished, though the similarity
+of faces and of costume make it probable that the same model was used
+for most of the angels. They and smaller figures, the shepherds and
+others, seen at the openings which reveal landscape on either side of
+the stable, are singularly full of grace and charm. There is
+admirable colour in all the pictures by this painter.
+
+We find paintings by Niccolo Alunno of Foligno, another contemporary,
+pictures too by some old Sienese masters; a room is filled with small
+easel pictures by Fra Angelico. The student of early Italian art will
+find in these galleries abundant material of a most interesting kind.
+The pictures were formerly scattered in the various churches of
+Perugia, for which they had been painted; the government has now
+collected and placed them in the Pinacoteca.
+
+One of the rooms leads on to a terrace. Here is a beautiful view over
+the surrounding country. The old cicerone took much interest in
+showing us where Siena and Orvieto and Rome lay, all three hidden
+among ranges of blue hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SPELLO
+
+
+The pleasantest and shortest road to the railway is by Porta Eburnea.
+I started one day from this gate with a friend, by a steep path which
+leaves the road just outside the Porta, and curves along the side of
+the hill below the old wall. The bank, this fine morning, was gay with
+butterflies and wild flowers, and wreathed with a luxuriant growth of
+wild gourd, full of pale blossoms and small furry fruit; all was so
+wild, it seemed impossible we had only just left a busy city behind
+us.
+
+At the turn of the path we came into a delightful lane, between
+bramble-covered banks; on one side was the dry bed of a little rill,
+and overhead branches of quaint trees met each other. From the
+Italian custom of constantly stripping the leaves to provide fodder,
+the foliage was scanty, yet we went down the steep path in cool and
+checkered shadow; lizards, darting across the way before us, gleamed
+as they passed in and out of the light.
+
+This practice of stripping leaves from the trees for fodder, gives a
+quaint appearance to many of them; in this lane the gnarled and
+twisted branches looked grotesque. A man high up in one of the trees
+sang as gaily as a bird, while he filled with leaves a sack fastened
+to one of the branches.
+
+Now and again the rich transparent purple of the shadows was traversed
+by a bar of golden light; this sometimes came in irregular flecks from
+spaces between the twisted trunks and crossing branches.
+
+A woman coming up from the station, with a heavy basket on her head,
+said, "Buon Giorno," and smiled pleasantly as she passed; then a
+countryman, a fine, handsome fellow with glowing black eyes, wished us
+a good journey. He was going at such a pace that he must have been
+bound for the station; usually the easy, leisureful movements of its
+people seem to me one of the charms of Italy, so entirely in harmony
+with the burning, palpitating blue of its skies and the careless
+luxuriance of its vegetation.
+
+  [Illustration: THE WAY TO THE STATION, PERUGIA.]
+
+Near the end of the descent is a washing place, and here a woman on
+her knees was hard at work, scrubbing and soaping linen. Looking back
+up the lane we saw the grey town peeping at us through the trees,--the
+tower of a house on the Piazza a prominent feature in the view.
+
+  [Illustration: FONTANA BORGHESE
+   _outside PERUGIA_]
+
+At the foot of the lane we crossed the dusty highroad, and again
+followed the short way, here very steep and rugged. At the end we
+came out at a cross-road where the Fontana Borghese, at one angle,
+made a striking feature; partly shadowed by tall cypresses, it glowed
+red in the sunshine. The date is 1615; its basin is green with age,
+and from the constant drip, drip of the water. To-day the fountain was
+surrounded with wine carts, each drawn by a pair of huge white oxen.
+It is fortunate these beautiful creatures are so gentle, for their
+wide-spreading, sharply pointed horns make them formidable; indeed,
+when the wine season began, during our stay in Perugia, we had
+sometimes to take refuge in a shop while they passed, for the horns of
+a pair of these splendid beasts stretched from one side of a narrow
+street to the other. Inside a little wine-shop opposite the Fontana
+Borghese we heard shouts of "Dieci," "otto," "sette," etc., from the
+players at morra.
+
+One of the charms of Perugia is the genial courtesy of the people. My
+companion on this excursion had stayed several times in the town, and
+to-day when she appeared at the station all the officials were at her
+service, full of little friendly attentions, especially one giant-like
+porter called "Lungo."
+
+The railway takes its course to Foligno through the valley of the
+Tiber, with mountain views on each side. Perugia stands grandly on the
+top of her hills, while on one side rises like an advanced guard the
+spire of San Pietro, and on a spur to the west Santa Giuliana; but the
+city is not so picturesque from this point, because one sees the
+modern buildings on the great Piazza Vittor Emanuele. On the left we
+saw the outside of the famous Etruscan tomb of the Volumnii, and soon
+after passed the pretty village of Ponte San Giovanni, getting a
+glimpse of the Tiber.
+
+From the railway one has a good view of Assisi, clinging to the side
+of Monte Subasio, and the station is close to the church of Santa
+Maria degli Angeli; but we were bound for Foligno, and did not stop
+here to-day. As the railway circles round it we noted the splendid
+mass made by Subasio in this chain of mountains.
+
+We passed by Spello, perched on a spur of the great hill, but it was
+disappointing to find that, after this, the valley broadened out into
+a plain, so that Foligno stands tamely on level ground. It does not
+seem to be much visited, though it is a quaint little town, and has,
+we heard, a tolerable inn.
+
+On our arrival we were attacked by vociferous drivers and guides, so
+we took one of the dirty little carriages and drove up an avenue past
+the huge statue of Niccolo Alunno, a native of Foligno, to the Piazza.
+We were hardly out of our vehicle when up rushed a wretched-looking
+man, his bare chest showing red and hairy through the opening of his
+dirty shirt, while a huge piece of green oilskin covered his
+shoulders. "Ecco, Ecco, it is not possible the Signorine can find
+their way," he shouted. "I only can show them Foligno."
+
+As he continued to persecute us, and our time was short, we submitted,
+and followed his guidance.
+
+The outside of the cathedral fronting the Piazza is curious. Two
+monsters, lions in red granite, guard the portal; one of these
+creatures has an eagle in its mouth. Above the doorway is a curious
+sort of arcade; the door-heading itself has been recently restored
+with the emblems of the evangelists. There is nothing to see inside
+this church. Opposite it is a quaint old building, and on the right is
+the Tribunale del Commune.
+
+We had to wait some time here while the keys were fetched; we then
+followed the custode up an old stone staircase to an ante-chapel to
+see the frescoes of Ottaviano Nelli. We went on into the little
+chapel; here the frescoes have been restored. They represent the life
+of the Blessed Virgin, from her birth to her Assumption, and are full
+of interest.
+
+Coming out, we followed our ragged, repulsive-looking guide down a
+street close by, and saw the Palazzo Deli, a handsome building,
+designed, it is said, by Baccio d'Agnolo. There are three other
+churches; in one of them, San Niccolo, is a Nativity by Alunno; the
+figure of San Joseph is very fine. One of the statues in front of the
+choir, a female saint, has her feet bound with brass; the sacristan
+told us that this had been done to preserve them from the devotion of
+worshippers who had already kissed away the ends of the saint's toes.
+The frescoes in Santa Maria infra Portas, a very old church, are
+mostly ancient, but completely faded. Raphael's beautiful Madonna di
+Foligno, now in the Vatican, was once in the church of Santa Anna in
+this town.
+
+We greatly regretted that we could not drive on to Montefalco, a
+picturesquely placed little town, with many good pictures by Umbrian
+painters; there are several also said to be by Benozzo Gozzoli.
+
+We took another little carriage, standing in a side street, and had a
+very pleasant drive back to Spello, between vineyards and olive
+groves, eating our luncheon on the way. Spello looked very attractive
+as we approached it, its white houses gleaming in the sunlight against
+the green hill on the side of which it stands.
+
+We entered the town under a quaint and ancient gateway, the Porta
+Veneris of Hispellum, for Spello is an old Roman town, and the ancient
+walls and some of the gates have been preserved. This gate has three
+figures outside it, a picturesque fountain stands near, and to-day
+beside it sat a group of handsome peasants, eating and drinking in the
+sunshine.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA VENERIS, SPELLO.]
+
+We thought the steep old street was full of pictures for a sketcher as
+we drove up to the Piazza, on which is the Cathedral Santa Maria
+Maggiore. Entering, we were at once struck with the remarkable early
+fifteenth-century canopy, the work of an Umbrian sculptor, Rocca di
+Vicenza; it is made of the stone of the country called Cacciolfo, and
+has a polished surface. The four pillars are in pairs; in front of two
+of them the artist has introduced portraits of himself and his wife;
+beyond, right and left, are Madonnas by Perugino. The sacristan told
+us that there is a still finer specimen of the sculptor Rocca di
+Vicenza's work at Trevi. On the opposite side of the church is the
+Capella del Sacramento, the work of Pinturicchio; three of the walls
+and the ceiling here are covered with beautiful frescoes in delightful
+harmony of colour. On one side is the Annunciation, with the name and
+portrait of the painter, on the other walls are the Adoration and the
+Disputa; this last is a very interesting picture, and is also signed.
+On the ceiling are painted the sibyls, and the spaces between are
+filled with rich, harmonious colour.
+
+  [Illustration: PINTURICCHIO, SPELLO.]
+
+We could gladly have stayed much longer in this chapel, for the
+frescoes seemed to us finer specimens of Pinturicchio's work than
+anything we had seen at Perugia. In the sacristy is a beautiful
+Madonna by this painter. The mortuary chapel has a quaint pair of
+doors in perforated wood-work; near the west door we saw a curious
+square bas-relief of ancient work, on two sides of it is carved an
+olive-tree, and on another side a man on horseback. It looked like an
+old burial urn.
+
+The way was so steep for driving, that from the cathedral we walked on
+in search of the woman who had the keys of the church of San Andrea.
+She, however, being busy, handed us over to a young fellow with a face
+as lovely as Raffaelle's, and with those wonderful blue eyes, which
+have in them the glow of an Italian sky, not to be seen in more
+northern regions.
+
+But at San Andrea, while we were looking at the Pinturicchio behind
+the high altar, a very courteous and intelligent priest came into the
+church. Seeing us, he kindly removed the cross which obstructed our
+view of the best part of the altar picture, the child San John the
+Baptist, who sits writing on his scroll at the feet of the Blessed
+Virgin. This figure is supposed to be Raffaelle's work. St. Francis
+and St. Lawrence are on one side, St. Andrew and St. Gregory on the
+other; the embroidery on St. Lawrence's vestments is wonderfully
+painted, but as a whole this picture is not nearly so good as the
+frescoes by the same master in the cathedral.
+
+The priest pointed out to us a graceful arcade surrounding the front
+and ends of an altar. This was discovered some years ago, concealed
+beneath a much larger altar which had been placed above the chest
+containing the bones of San Andrea; he told as that when the bones
+were sought for, in order to remove them, the arcade was brought to
+light. The priest also showed us a fresco on the wall of the nave, and
+graphically related how he himself, only a few months before, had
+discovered it under the whitewash when the church was being cleaned
+for a festa. Who knows how many treasures still lie concealed on the
+church walls of these out-of-the-way towns; it must be owned, however,
+that the newly found fresco at Spello is not artistically a treasure,
+nor nearly as interesting as was the story of its discovery owing to
+its graphic telling.
+
+From San Andrea our blue-eyed, gentle-spoken young guide led us to the
+top of the town, crowned by the deserted Capuchin convent. "They have
+sent all the brothers away," he said sadly; "there is but one left,
+and he may not live in the convent, he may only come up in the
+afternoon, and see the schoolboys play in the garden." There is a
+pathetic look about the deserted, peaceful old place. From the
+platform in front of it we enjoyed a splendid view; before us on one
+side was the ever-present Subasio, towering over all, and on the top
+of the hill behind stood Perugia, looking at this distance like some
+giant castle.
+
+At our feet in the green valley was the amphitheatre of Spello; not so
+perfect as that at Fiesole, but with clearly defined tiers of grassed
+seats rising one above another.
+
+Porta Augusta is another interesting gateway. We came slowly down the
+steep street, getting constant peeps, between tall, grey houses, of
+the blue mountains around us. At one of these breaks in the wall a
+group of peasants sat, some spinning, some idling, beneath a vine that
+stretched on a trellis from house to house, the light filtering
+through the leaves became a golden green before it fell on the merry
+souls in the by-street below. The men of Spello look fine, robust
+fellows, and the women are very tall and erect.
+
+One handsome grey-haired dame met us as we came down the ladder-like
+street; she was spinning from a distaff in her hand. "Dio," she held
+it out to my companion, "che brutta lavoro!"
+
+"Would that I could do it," was the prompt answer, and the old dame
+went off chuckling with delight.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA AUGUSTA, SPELLO.]
+
+The little town is like an eyrie high up in the air, the houses
+nestling here and there for shelter behind the grey walls.
+
+We saw so many bits by the way in Spello, that it seemed as if one
+might spend some pleasant days in such an exquisitely placed spot; but
+we could not spy out any possible lodging; and, after all, it is an
+easy distance by rail or carriage from Assisi or Foligno.
+
+Coming home by train to Perugia, we travelled with a pleasant-looking
+Italian lady and her sad-faced husband. She also seemed sad, and
+constantly put her handkerchief to her eyes; we fancied she was
+affected by some deep sorrow, and felt sympathy for her. The train
+presently stopped at a station; her distress increased, she clasped
+her hands, and entreated her husband to get out of the carriage and
+see after the poor little "angiolo."
+
+He gently refused, and at this she sobbed, and almost howled with
+anguish; then, burying her face in her handkerchief, she leaned back
+and refused to be comforted.
+
+At the next station we heard the sharp yelping of a little dog, and
+then she cried out so loudly for the "povera bestia" that we began to
+understand. Seeing we were interested, she sat up, pocketed her
+handkerchief, and explained. "The officials have taken my dog from me,
+and have shut it up. Dio! the sweet angel would not hurt a soul," she
+said, with a fresh flow of tears; "its cries break my heart. It is a
+cruelty beyond belief."
+
+At this her husband left the carriage, looking much ashamed of
+himself. When he came back he tried to pacify his still weeping wife.
+
+"The dog is all right, cara mia," he said.
+
+"Cara mia," however, would not listen, and she actually sobbed and
+cried all the way to Perugia, where we left her on the platform with
+her pocket-handkerchief rolled into a ball, and pressed close to her
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE HEAVENLY CHOIR OF PERUGIA
+
+
+  [Illustration: POTS AT WINDOW.]
+
+We had greatly desired to see the façade of the Oratory built in
+honour of San Bernardino of Siena, and we went in search of it. Going
+past the cloisters of the cathedral, we traversed the street beyond
+them: on one side is a fragment of an old palace, on the other a
+quaint series of ancient arches, one within the other, full of
+striking effects of light and shade.
+
+A street descends steeply from this portal. We noted here, and in many
+of the old house-fronts, carved brackets, for holding flower-pots,
+built out from the walls, their grey stone making a pleasant contrast
+to the brilliant red and orange of the flowers blossoming in pots
+placed within these hoary receptacles. We sometimes saw metal rings
+instead of stone brackets fastened into the wall, so as to hold a
+flower-pot.
+
+A wealthy Englishman, staying in our hotel, became so enamoured of the
+quaint effect created by these stone brackets, that he told us he was
+resolved to transport some of them to the front wall of his
+newly-built London dwelling. He went to the owner of a house
+possessing several of the brackets, and offered him a round sum for a
+couple of them. The owner professed himself delighted with the offer;
+he would most willingly gratify the English Signor's fancy.
+
+  [Illustration: VIA SANT' AGATA.]
+
+"The Signore Inglese must, however, understand," he said, with a
+twinkle in his heavy-lidded dark eyes, "that these articles are not
+individual,--they are the same as the nose on the face, fixtures. To
+possess the brackets, the Signore Inglese must purchase the entire
+front of the Palazzo, it is built all in one piece." This was too much
+for even an English collector; he was obliged to quit Perugia without
+acquiring even one of the much-desired brackets.
+
+As we went along, we saw, outside the door of an old grey house, a
+pretty, ragged, fair-haired child, jumping and dancing on her little
+bare feet, chattering, as it seemed, to the doorpost. She was trying
+to reach the knocker, and was talking merrily to the flies on the
+wall, by way of amusement while she waited.
+
+Near the Church of S. Agata we inquired for the house of Perugino, but
+this Via de' Priori so winds and twists that we were told we were too
+far north, so we turned at a sharp angle, and after a little came to a
+silent open space in front of a church, the Chiesa Nuova.
+
+Down an arched passage close by, and up a side street on the right, we
+reached Via Deliziosa; in this Perugino's house is marked by a tablet.
+There is nothing special in the appearance of the dwelling; the hilly
+street in which it stands is grass-grown, and weirdly silent.
+
+We went back again to seek for San Bernardino, and descended into a
+very old quarter of the city, the projecting claw which on this side
+overlooks the deep valley below Porta Susanna, and forms one point of
+the Cupa. We had to pass by the last remaining fortress of the nobles,
+the tall brick Torre degli Scalzi; behind this are remains of the
+Etruscan wall.
+
+Close by we saw another church, Madonna di Luce, a good example of
+Renaissance work, gay with a scarlet and gold curtain, in readiness
+for to-morrow's festa; then, by a quaint little street with flights of
+brick steps leading down into most picturesque side-turnings, we came
+in sight of a small house, its grey stone balcony screened from the
+sunshine by a vine-wreathed pergola.
+
+  [Illustration: MADONNA DI LUCE.]
+
+In a few minutes we reached the convent of San Francesco, beside which
+is the matchless façade of the chapel or oratory of San Bernardino
+of Siena.
+
+  [Illustration: FAÇADE OF SAN BERNARDINO.]
+
+The detail of this façade is even more beautiful than we had expected;
+the colour of its rosy marbles and terra-cotta adds warmth to the
+exquisite sculptures. These seemed to us finer, both in design and
+execution, than any Della Robbia work we had seen. We were glad to
+find this opinion endorsed by Mr. Perkins in his Tuscan Sculptors. The
+façade is the work of Agostino Ducci or Gucci, of Florence.
+
+  [Illustration: ANGEL, SAN BERNARDINO.]
+
+A circular arch, almost as wide as the façade, surmounts two
+square-headed entrance doors; these are surrounded by delicately
+carved ornament in low relief. Above the door is a frieze, on which
+are represented events in the life of San Bernardino; over it, in the
+centre of the tympanum, which is deeply recessed within the arch, is a
+Vesica, formed by tongues of flame containing a figure of the saint,
+said to be the best existing likeness of him. Four flying angels
+placed diagonally on either side of the Vesica seem to float as they
+offer their musical sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Six of them
+are playing various instruments; the expression in each countenance
+is varied. Some of the faces are very lovely, especially the two
+praying with uplifted heads; the others seem to be chanting hymns of
+praise to the music of their respective instruments. The disposition
+of the angels' robes is perfect; its studied grace reminded us of Lord
+Leighton's drapery, the whole effect being as artistic as it is
+original.
+
+  [Illustration: HEADS OF CHERUBIM, SAN BERNARDINO.]
+
+  [Illustration: ANGELS, SAN BERNARDINO.]
+
+Filling up the rest of the tympanum, so as to make a background to the
+angels, there are the quaintest heads of cherubs cradled in lovely
+wings, carved in full relief. Some of these heads are missing, but
+those which remain are exquisite studies of baby faces, each with its
+own special expression, some roguish, others sweet and loving; one of
+them seems to suppress a sob. There is infinite variety among them;
+and all are so very human that they are doubtless transcripts from
+fifteenth-century Perugian babies.
+
+Winged creatures are carved in the spandrels of the arch; and slightly
+below on either side is an angel within an arched niche, over which is
+a pediment, the mouldings and soffits showing delicately sculptured
+ornament; they are repeated below, and there are still other angels of
+the Heavenly Choir, playing musical instruments; these are on the
+broad pilasters that support the arch; some are in pairs, with very
+beautiful faces. The arrangement of their draperies is especially
+remarkable.
+
+  [Illustration: ANGEL PLAYING, SAN BERNARDINO.]
+
+In all these figures and faces, besides the beauty of expression,
+there is a marvellous mingling of quaintness and grace; they are so
+life-like that one almost listens for the sound of their instruments,
+in meet accompaniment to their chants, or to the hymns of the
+cherubs, who above and beside them are singing a chorus of praise. The
+Oratory is surmounted by a pediment, and in its tympanum we again find
+angels and cherubs. On the fringe of the pediment are the carved
+words--
+
+     AUGUSTA PERUSIA MCCCCLXI.
+
+The illustrations help the reader's appreciation of this gem of
+Perugia; mere words can only sketch, without giving an adequate idea
+of its beauty.
+
+The authorities of the city were eager to show their appreciation of
+the wonderful reformation effected in its morals by the preaching of
+San Bernardino; only a few years after his death, the building of this
+beautiful memorial was begun, and seems to have been completed about
+1462.
+
+Bernardino's father was governor of Massa; in the year 1380, when
+Saint Catherine died in Siena, the future preacher was born in the
+little town. Early left an orphan, he was tenderly reared by three
+aunts, all excellent women. He, unlike his great prototype, seems not
+to have shared the fashionable vices of other youths of the period; he
+was from an early age bent on following, so far as he could, the
+example left him two hundred years earlier by Saint Francis of Assisi.
+
+He spent some time in that convent of Fiesole which educated Fra
+Angelico and others, ardent to revive in their generation the work of
+St. Francis, which had suffered eclipse. Various reasons have been
+given for this, chief among them being the pagan tendency of the
+Renaissance teaching, and also the frequent visitations of plague,
+which seem almost to have emptied the convents, sweeping off the monks
+and nuns who gave up their lives to tend the sick in hospitals. In
+most of the Italian states and cities the descendants of devout
+Christians had become fierce and brutal, as unrestrained in appetite
+as they were murderous and lawless in deeds. Some of these have
+already been narrated. Princes and nobles strove to surpass the
+citizens in evil-doing by the hideous tragedies they enacted. This had
+been especially the case for many years in Perugia, whose inhabitants
+had come to be designated by the epithet "ferocious": they were so
+given up to every sort of crime.
+
+Bernardino was deeply stirred by the evil report that reached him from
+all parts of the country; he had already been received into the Minor
+Conventual Order of San Francis, and had signalised his courage by
+nursing and ministering to the plague-stricken inmates of the hospital
+in Siena. This had injured his health, but he gladly obeyed the
+commission given by his superior, to journey through a certain part of
+Italy, preaching as he went.
+
+Already the evangelising movement was in the air: in France, a
+Spaniard, San Vincent Ferrier, had reaped a bountiful harvest of
+souls. Bernardino determined by God's help to evangelise his country,
+and to rescue souls from evil by the winning power of love. He decided
+to begin his crusade in Umbria, in the powerful city of Perugia, so
+notorious for the crimes of its bloodstained nobles and the frivolity
+and vanity of their women.
+
+Bernardino lodged in a convent outside the city gate, and went every
+morning to preach in the Piazza Pubblico. Crowds had flocked to hear
+his first sermon, but he had a consciousness that this was mere
+excitement, and that the souls of his listeners were yet to be won.
+One day he told his congregation that he proposed before long to show
+them the Evil One. This announcement sent the multitude crazy with
+excitement; the throngs of his listeners were doubled. But for some
+days after Bernardino preached only in an ordinary fashion.
+
+Still the people believed he would keep faith with them, and each day
+brought a larger crowd of expectant listeners. At last, one morning,
+Bernardino said, "I am now going to fulfil my promise; I will show you
+not one devil only, for there are several here." Then, raising his
+voice, "Look at one another, you will each see Satan in your
+neighbour's face; every one of you does that Evil One's bidding." He
+then pointed out seriously, and with much pathos, the sins that
+reigned among them, and implored his hearers to renounce their evil
+practices. The effect of his words was wonder-striking. Families who
+had lived in hatred of their fellow-citizens for more than a
+generation, hurried forward, and, clasping the hands of their
+once-detested foes, begged forgiveness for wrongs committed; in more
+than one instance, with halters round their necks, they besought
+pardon for the evil they had wrought. Bernardino saw that the devotion
+of the city was roused, and, turning to the women, he commanded them
+to cause two huge fires to be lighted on the Piazza.
+
+"Set a pattern to your men," he exclaimed; "prove the reality of your
+penitence; cast into the flames the gauds by which Satan tempts you to
+ensnare mankind to their ruin; bring hither your cosmetics, your
+perfumes, your false tresses, and the garlands with which you deck
+them, your sumptuous robes, all the vanities you possess, and cast
+them into the flames."
+
+Sobbing and weeping, the women rushed off to obey him; they soon
+returned laden with the vanities denounced by the preacher, and, like
+the Florentines many years later, they cast their prized adornments
+into the huge fires.
+
+An old chronicler relates that one noble dame cherished a long false
+tress of singular beauty, which had always commanded admiration; she
+felt that this would prove a worthy offering. Taking it from its
+casket, she was about to hurry with it to the Piazza; she again
+looked at it.
+
+No, she could not make the sacrifice, the tress was too lustrous, too
+lovely; more than all, it became her so rarely. Her heart failed her.
+She put it back in the casket, with a smile of contempt at her own
+superstition; she was closing the lid, when suddenly the beauteous
+tress sprang up and struck her violently on the cheekbone. She cried
+out with pain and terror; then, forcing the temptation into the casket
+and closing the lid, she fled back to the Piazza, and flung the
+treasured lock into the flames.
+
+For a while after this famous preaching, peace and devotion returned
+to the hill-city; then came sad outbreaks and dissensions, and
+Bernardino, hearing the disturbing news, returned to Perugia. He
+exhorted his former penitents to seek after the grace and the love
+which had once been granted them, and at the close of the year 1425 he
+once more left them in peace one with another; while he went to
+preach elsewhere in Umbria, and finally to Gubbio, to Viterbo, and to
+Orvieto.
+
+Two years later, when preaching in Siena, he held up the conversion of
+the people of Perugia as an example to be followed by the Sienese.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SAN PIETRO DE' CASINENSI
+
+
+The most remarkable church in Perugia is the church, at the end of the
+southern point of the city, attached to the convent of San Pietro;
+below it is the gate named after San Costanzo, said to have been the
+first Bishop of Perugia. On the opposite side of the way from the
+convent wall is a pleasant public resort, shaded by trees, called
+Passeggiata Pubblica. From this point, looking down the steep road,
+one gets a delightful view of the near valley and distant Apennines,
+framed in by the arch of Porta Costanzo. This view goes by the name of
+La Veduta. La Veduta and a lovely country walk beyond the gate are
+associated with the memory of that accomplished artist and delightful
+companion, Lord Leighton. He dearly loved the old hill-city; in its
+delightful quiet he used to write his lecture for the Royal Academy
+students. One of his favourite walks was to go out by the Porta
+Costanzo, and along the lovely lanes beyond it, grown over with
+honeysuckle, wild gourd, and an abundance of wild myrtle.
+
+The ancient church of San Pietro, with its very picturesque exterior
+and campanile, serves as a conspicuous landmark in the country over
+which it gazes. It is said to be the oldest church in Perugia, and to
+be built on the site of an Etruscan temple; it was certainly in old
+days the first cathedral. Built by Pietro, a saintly abbot of the
+monastery in the tenth century, it seems to have remained for a long
+period almost untouched; in the fourteenth century the campanile was
+considered one of the wonders of Italy. A century later it was
+restored and decorated with rich Renaissance work, some of which is
+very fascinating and interesting. Then came a warlike abbot, resolved
+to convert the very salient tower of San Pietro into a fortress to
+overawe the surrounding country; and also to use it as a means of
+defence against the ever-turbulent people of Perugia, and the despots
+who were always quarrelling among themselves in order to attain
+supreme power in the city.
+
+  [Illustration: LA VEDUTA, PERUGIA.]
+
+The campanile was still further injured by Pope Boniface the Ninth,
+who also wished to construct an ordinary fortress on the site of the
+beautiful tower. Finally, the monks rebuilt it at a great cost. It was
+then struck by lightning, and severely damaged. For a long period of
+time the injuries caused by lightning were so frequent that it was
+feared the entire building would suffer ruin; then at last the idea of
+a lightning conductor suggested itself. This saved the campanile, and
+it has since remained in its present condition.
+
+We went up the steps in the convent wall, and entered the old church
+of San Pietro from the courtyard, by a doorway with a deeply carved
+heading in marble. The interior is at once rich and fascinating, and
+every subsequent visit we made to it revealed many treasures.
+
+Some of the Perugino pictures in the sacristy are worth examination,
+but the large altar-piece he painted for this church was carried away
+to Paris by Napoleon Bonaparte. The choir books can be seen here,
+illuminated by the monks of San Miniato, near Florence. There are
+several pictures in the church; in one of the aisles is a painting by
+the early Umbrian master, Benedetto Bonfigli. The ancient, dark grey
+columns on either side of the nave are much older than the church,
+having been brought here from the curious old church at Porta San
+Angelo, near the most northern gate of Perugia. We had already seen
+sixteen of these columns in the ancient round church; they are
+supposed to date from a very early period. The altar tomb of the
+Baglioni, by Fieado, is in San Pietro; but the most remarkable feature
+of this church is its choir. The stalls and their seats are full of
+exquisitely carved wood-work, and the doors at the east end are
+marvellous specimens of intarsia work. The sacristan shows them with
+great pride, and then opens the doors which lead on to the balcony
+behind.
+
+Below us we see a very lovely picture: the fertile valley and its
+surroundings of richly-tinted hills, while in front is Assisi,
+clinging to the side of rugged Monte Subasio. It is said that three
+citizens of Perugia escaped by means of this balcony from the Pope's
+Swiss guards, when, less than fifty years ago, the Swiss forcibly took
+possession of the convent. The delicate work of the eastern doors was
+executed by Fra Damiano of Bergamo; it is singularly beautiful;
+perhaps the finding of Moses in the bulrushes is one of the most
+curious subjects depicted.
+
+The choir seats and stalls were done by Damiano's brother, Stefano da
+Bergamo. They are worth a very careful examination, for, besides the
+intarsia on the backs and seats, and the fine carving of the
+poppy-heads, notable both for subject and execution, there are,
+between each stall, wonderful and beautifully-modelled creatures. Now
+we see a beast like a crocodile, and next it a harpy; then an
+elephant, a dolphin, a sphinx, and so on; an infinite variety, almost
+every creature is different, and the carving of each is most artistic.
+
+We saw many treasures in the church, before we went out into the
+cypress-bordered garden of the convent, and again enjoyed the lovely
+view from the top of its high wall,--the view which wearied Popes and
+other great and jaded personages have taken pleasure in gazing at when
+they came to Perugia for refreshment.
+
+An intelligent-looking priest showed us the garden. He said it was
+kept in order by the boys belonging to the convent. This formerly
+sheltered a reformatory for lads sentenced to prison for their first
+offence. It is now, I believe, used as an Agricultural College. We had
+previously noticed the reformatory boys at work on the olive fields
+outside the town gates, and had admired the picturesque effect of
+their blue uniforms and straw hats against the silver grey of the
+leafy background.
+
+They had then come trooping into the cloisters, and on close
+inspection they did not look so interesting as we had thought them;
+some of them, however, had simple, honest faces, and as they passed
+into the cloister they smiled and raised their hats to the Fra. Most
+of the bigger fellows had an ugly scowl, and went in with bent heads,
+without any greeting.
+
+The Fra told us the lads behaved fairly well; his trouble was to find
+suitable employment for them when they were discharged from the
+reformatory. He said he greatly approved of English laws, especially
+in regard to the working class. "The English are so good to
+foreigners," he said.
+
+He asked us what would be the cost in London of a working-man's board
+and lodging. We told him that we had in England already too many boys
+of this sort, for whom it was difficult to find employment; we,
+however, gave him an average of the expenses he inquired about. This
+seemed to alarm the good Padre; with lifted hands he said, "Such a
+plan would prove far too costly, it would teach the lads expensive
+habits of living." But he thanked us courteously for our information.
+When we left the convent garden we stood again enjoying the view over
+the lovely valley, under a glorious sunset which glowed on the distant
+hills. It seemed to us that splendid sunsets were another and special
+charm of Perugia.
+
+We had meant this evening to visit the Etruscan sepulchres of the
+Volumnii, discovered only about sixty years ago, and within a walk of
+the San Costanzo gate; but San Pietro, even in this short visit, had
+proved such an interesting study, that we saw we must defer our walk
+to the ancient tomb.
+
+We were, however, told that, without much adding to the length of our
+walk, we should considerably increase its charm, if, instead of
+passing out by the Porta Costanzo, we turned aside by the Porta San
+Pietro, or Romana, as it is called, and quitted the city by the little
+gate at the bottom of the descent. This is indeed a delightful walk
+under the old grey walls, and from it one has a perfect view over the
+lovely country and the purple hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE TOMBS OF THE VOLUMNII
+
+
+  [Illustration: GIRL'S HEAD.]
+
+A few days later, as we went along a lane, with grassy flower-pied
+banks, and with purple hills as background to the sunlit glory which
+surrounded us, we recognised the delightful landscape so frequently
+used by Perugino. The way was rather long, but there was more in it to
+interest than to tire us. We at last arrived at the dark descent
+beside the road, which forms the entrance to the sepulchre of the
+Volumnii. Many years ago there was supposed to be a necropolis
+existing in this hill, and on excavation several small cells were
+discovered. In more recent years an ox was seen suddenly to stumble
+on the hill above, and to be unable to rise. Going to help it, beneath
+the hole into which the creature had thrust its foot a subterranean
+arch was revealed, and subsequent excavation brought to light the
+wonderful, long-closed tombs of the Etruscan Volumnii.
+
+We went down some rugged steps to the mouth of the gloomy cavern, and
+found ourselves in a dark passage-way, with stone benches on either
+side. The weird, mysterious atmosphere of the Etruscan vault is
+indescribable. Several chambers or cells, in this underground house of
+the departed, branch out on either side of the dark vaulted passage,
+but we saw them in such semi-darkness, that by the light of a single
+torch it was very difficult to make out details. As we went along the
+dark vault, our guide raised his torch on high. In a moment we seemed
+to be in an enchanted cavern, where the silent inhabitants were
+guarded by strange forms; gorgon heads, owls, and serpents stared at
+us from roof and walls. We could fancy that, as we passed by, the
+snake heads seemed to dart from the walls, to bristle and hiss; and
+the grand Medusa-faces overhead looked down on us full of dire
+warning, when at the end of the passage we entered the tomb of the
+Etruscan family. Here are the Volumnii sitting in a group, realistic
+terra-cotta figures guarding their urns, just as they have been
+guarding them for perhaps two thousand years.
+
+Aruns Volumni, the father, reclines on his sarcophagus, which is
+guarded by two furies; on his left his daughter sits on her urn, and
+on his right is his son. Their faces look dull and uninteresting, but
+they seem aware of their own importance. The fourth figure of the
+group, seated next the son of Aruns, is Veilia, his fair young wife.
+She has an exquisite face, and one is not surprised to learn that she
+died young; she must have felt isolated among such unsympathetic
+family surroundings. Her face and those of the majestic solemn-eyed
+Medusas are the most interesting treasures of the tomb. All the faces
+and figures of the Volumnii are intensely life-like; Aruns himself has
+a purse-proud expression.
+
+Coming out into welcome fresh air and daylight, we saw that the
+entrance to the tomb was fringed by a profusion of maidenhair fern,
+growing between the blocks of travertine. A weird-faced child, with
+dark eyes shining through a tangle of dusky hair, showed a brilliant
+gleam of white teeth as she offered us tufts of this fern ruthlessly
+torn out by its roots. She seemed the uncanny guardian of the place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another walk with an outlook less splendid than that of the Veduta and
+others, yet with a special charm of its own, was a great favourite
+with us. To reach it one has to go past the interesting old church of
+San Ercolano, instead of turning up beside it, till some iron gates
+are arrived at; outside these, the way was blocked on the right, so we
+turned leftwards, and followed the course of the picturesque old wall;
+ancient houses rise above it, and the wall itself is crowned with
+flowers in pots and stone vases. Here and there we saw vine-wreathed
+loggias; then, at the far end of a sudden turn, there came into view
+Monte Luce, with its old church and convent, and grand blue hills
+rising beyond. I believe the church is really called Santa Maria
+Assunta; it is the bourne of a yearly pilgrimage at the time of the
+great cattle fair, which takes place on the green down across the
+road.
+
+We passed through the open convent gate into a quaint and peaceful
+scene, a small grassed quadrangle closed in by a wall and the
+sacristan's house; facing us was the west front of the church, with a
+large window under its low gable. The church wall itself is checkered
+with squares of red and white stone. The two green doors, under a
+double arch, were almost as vivid in colour as the lizards basking
+between the stones. On the right was a low and singularly massive
+campanile; its huge blue and white clock-face giving a peculiar
+quaintness to the place. There is a projecting side chapel below, with
+slit-like windows; beyond this is a cloister walk, its low tiled roof
+supported by solid white-washed piers. This cloister goes on to the
+angle where the convent buildings adjoin the church, and extends from
+this angle along the southern and eastern sides of the little green
+square to the entrance gates; on one side is an upper storey, reached
+by a flight of bricked steps.
+
+A woman, sad and quiet-looking, but with a sweet expression on her
+olive-hued face, showed us the church, and the little choir of the
+Sisters behind the high altar. She told us how the nuns from the
+suppressed and desecrated convent of Santa Giuliana "had been driven
+to take refuge in this blessed house of Santa Maria Assunta." She
+added with a deep sigh, "Who knows what will happen next?"
+
+It seemed sad that such a peaceful home as this should be threatened.
+
+A few steps beyond this church brought us to a low wall; here we sat
+and enjoyed the distant view framed in by tall trees. It differs from
+any other point in Perugia, in having a more varied foreground. This
+is broken up by green hills, with bright-looking country houses
+nestling among gardens and orchards, and surrounded by dark trees;
+behind are the ever-beautiful Apennines; between, in mid distance, is
+that mingling of colour created by the luxuriant vegetation of this
+fertile valley. It was varied on this evening by cloud-shadows cast on
+its mellowed sunny glow.
+
+While we sit enjoying all this beauty, the Angelus sounds in sweet
+harmony with the scene; three, four, five, then one long drawn-out
+solemn note.
+
+From the frequent campaniles the bells call one to another, and give
+deep-toned musical response across the green hollows that vandyke
+themselves up the walled hillside into the town; the brilliant sunset
+showing in bold relief the salient balconies of a Palazzo not far
+away.
+
+We came back into the city by another gate, and lost our way. Finally,
+however, we turned up a very steep street, and then down flights of
+steps by the church of San Fiorenzo. There is here a curious old wall
+with a garden above it; a workman told us it was the curate's garden.
+
+In the lingering gleams of sunlight, oleander blossoms overhead were
+glowing masses of colour against the grey stone wall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE VIA APPIA
+
+
+The Oratory of San Bernardino is near to gardens, orchards, and drying
+grounds. Beyond the convent of San Francesco the ancient wall goes
+northward, and then turns east towards the Porta Augusta, but this
+afternoon we went southwards.
+
+A short walk down a steep narrow street beneath an archway led us out
+of the low-browed passage of the Etruscan Porta Susanna on to the wall
+itself. This rises up directly from La Cupa, as the indentation which
+the valley here makes is called. The wall follows the curves of the
+hills, always keeping close to the edge of the descent, and, as I have
+already said, where an angle is sharply turned a bold round tower
+stands out sentinel-wise against the blue sky.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA SUSANNA]
+
+Below the wall the fertile dell was literally covered with vines,
+olives, fig and mulberry trees; plots of blue-green cabbage and
+shining lettuce covered bare spaces of brown earth. In winter a
+torrent flows through the Cupa.
+
+To-day the long range of hill on the left looked red-brown, variegated
+with green and grey; behind its shoulder a more distant mountain
+showed opal; tall regular houses of the ancient city rose one behind
+another on the right, and the last brick tower, that of the Scalzi,
+rose above them all.
+
+The wall makes here an inward angle before it goes out far away
+westward to another point of the star-shaped hill, and here the view
+becomes more beautiful. The outlines of the mountains cross, and
+reveal through the openings yet another ridge behind, and this farther
+ridge looks a delicate opal, while the sunbeams become less powerful.
+On the right the hills stretched in two purple undulating lines,
+between them a rosy vapour moved slowly, deepening in tint as it rose
+towards the orange-coloured clouds. Masses of grey now sent up
+warnings from below, and partly obscured the rosy vapour; southward
+the grey took a lurid tinge, and across it floated pale phantom-like
+cloudlets. The far-off hill, as we looked southward, had become a
+purple-blue, while the town in the space between climbed upwards in
+terraces, the houses bowered in vines and garden blossoms.
+
+This is not so extended a prospect as some others that are to be had
+from the walls of Perugia, but I am inclined to consider it one of the
+most interesting, from the double view it offers of the town and of
+the quaint formation of the steep-sided, triangular valley, with its
+mysterious depth of vegetation below.
+
+We kept along the wall for some distance, then our road led us away
+from it between old stone garden walls, supports for vines and figs,
+and brilliant orange begonia blossoms which peep above them. Quaint
+side-streets looked tempting on our left. Going up one of these, we
+found a portion of Etruscan wall with an opening in it of the same
+period of stone-work.
+
+The street beyond mounted steeply to where a brick arch spanned it: on
+one side a flight of broken steps led up to a tall house above the
+wall; a loggia, corbelled out from between the house and the grey
+pointed arch, was filled with charming foliage and flowers; an iron
+crane projected from the balcony over a brick water-tank beside the
+broken steps. The variety of form and colour was most vivid against
+the shadow within the arch; its two projecting imposts were massive
+slabs of travertine, and beside one of these, gleaming out of the
+shadow, was a little shrine with a nosegay of freshly-gathered
+flowers.
+
+In and out of narrow streets, up and down quaint steps, we reached at
+last the Ivory Gate, the Etruscan Porta Eburnea,--that very
+quaintly-placed old gate, from which a steep road goes down into the
+country.
+
+We had here an extended view of the wall, curving grandly forward to a
+projecting point, and completely obscuring all view of La Cupa; the
+point itself crowned by a most picturesque round tower, standing out
+vividly from its background of purple hills.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA EBURNEA]
+
+The road from Porta Eburnea looked attractive. On this special day it
+was thronged with peasants going home from market. Some of the women
+stopped outside the gate; taking off their boots, they slung them over
+their shoulders, or put them in their baskets; then, with brown bare
+feet and legs, they went down the steep dusty road with rapid,
+swinging steps. Most of these bare-footed women wore handsome coral
+necklaces; and yet shopkeepers asked from eighty to three hundred
+francs for a string of these beads. Just outside the gate a man and
+several boys were playing some game with walnuts.
+
+  [Illustration: OUTSIDE PERUGIA.]
+
+Coming home one evening from the twisting way behind the cathedral, we
+reached a lofty arched opening with "Via Appia" printed on one side.
+The arch itself has a house above it; a second arch within, with grey
+projecting imposts, shows a broad steep descent,--a long flight of
+shallow brick steps, so undecided as to the course they shall take
+that they curve first one way and then another, before they reach the
+bottom of the descent.
+
+Some way down, a viaduct supported by three broad arches comes out
+beside the stone-edged brick steps, while transversely right and left
+are stone walls; that on the right is high and massive, and from its
+grey-green stones were hanging long garlands of white-blossomed caper
+plant.
+
+Beyond, just before the wall joins some old stone houses, we saw a
+little pergola covered with the tender green of the vine. From the
+deep hollow into which the steps descend the town rises up in front,
+and as we go down, the old houses on our left, with gardens and
+orchards, stand at a great height above us, looking black against the
+glowing sky.
+
+  [Illustration: VIA APPIA AND TOWN.]
+
+From this viaduct is an extended view over many curious roofs covered
+with semicircular tiles, frosted with gold and silver lichens and
+patches of green moss. First comes a series of gardens, green with
+vines and fig-trees; beyond these, among the grey houses and trees,
+appears the great modern building of the University. Beyond it is the
+silk factory of Count Faina; behind all are the purple hills.
+
+Instead of crossing the viaduct we went down to the bottom of the
+seemingly interminable brick staircase, catching sight through the
+viaduct arches on the left of a succession of pictures: cottages
+backed by trees with children in front at play, all in a vivid effect
+of light and shade, framed in by the low, broad arches.
+
+This brought us finally on to a road leading back into the town,
+spanned on the left by another broad arch of the viaduct. Through this
+a group of feathered acacias glowed golden-green in the sunshine
+against picturesque houses backed by the hills.
+
+The pointed arch on the right looks quaint, from the contrast of its
+huge grey stones and small many-shaped windows, mostly open; some of
+them gay with scarlet flowers; one window had a faded green curtain,
+drawn half across; a bird-cage hung outside it. Behind the curtain the
+olive-hued face of a woman peeped out.
+
+Through the arch was a strong effect of golden light and blue-purple
+shadow; while we looked behind, there came a donkey, driven by a
+merry-eyed, bare-footed lad, dragging a cart heaped with brushwood. A
+little way on along the road is the mosaic pavement discovered several
+years ago in some Roman baths. The pavement is in singularly good
+preservation, and the design is very remarkable. Orpheus, a colossal
+black figure on a white ground, sits with outstretched arm, while a
+lion, a tiger, an elephant, a hippopotamus, stags, a rhinoceros, a
+horse, birds of various kinds, a snail, a monkey, a tortoise, and
+other creatures are drawn towards him from all sides.
+
+  [Illustration: ARCO DELLA CONCA, PERUGIA.]
+
+A handsome dark-eyed girl kept on sweeping dust from the mosaic, and
+was eager to point out that the brick-work on one side has not been
+examined, and probably hides a good deal more of the pavement, as yet
+unexcavated. The girl was so bright and good to look at, that she
+seemed quite a part of the show. Turning through the arch, we very
+soon reached Piazza Grimani, which has on one side the Palazzo
+Antinori. Close by is the wonder of Perugia--the Etruscan gateway, or,
+as it is called from the inscription set over it by the Romans when
+they took the city, the Porta Augusta. It was growing dusk, and the
+effect of this grand mass of stone-work was stupendous. On each side
+of the arched gateway are massive towers,--the upper part of the
+structure is less ancient than the towers are; one of them is
+surmounted by a loggia. Some of the blocks of stone in the Etruscan
+part of the wall are enormous, many of them four feet long, and
+within the gloom of the arch is the wall, built on the same gigantic
+scale.
+
+As we went home through the narrow, dark Via Vecchia, we saw a very
+quaint scene. In a long, dark room, dimly lighted by two oil-lamps
+hanging from the ceiling, a man and woman were selling soup and cold
+meat at a sort of counter. The brown characteristic faces and shining
+eyes of their ragged customers told out wonderfully as occasional
+gleams from the lamps above singled them from the semi-darkness. In
+this street we saw many examples of the walled-up doors by which the
+dead had been formerly carried out, closed up, so that the living
+might never pass by the same way.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA AUGUSTA, PERUGIA.]
+
+Our next view of Porta Augusta was by daylight. We had been told by
+some one staying in Perugia where to seek a special point of view from
+the old walls near this arch. The Porta Augusta is even finer in full
+light, which reveals the immense strength of its construction. When
+one considers that these great blocks of stone must have been brought
+from a long distance, it is sad to think of the poor slaves whose
+labour brought them and set them in their places for their Etruscan
+masters. Near here must have been the house of that chief citizen who,
+seeing the Romans, headed by Octavius Cæsar, masters of his native
+city, and that there was no longer a hope of freedom from the detested
+yoke, set fire to his dwelling, and burned himself and his whole
+family therein, heedless that the blaze spreading in all directions
+destroyed the chief part of Etruscan Perugia.
+
+Instead of following the Via Lungari, or Garibaldi, on this occasion,
+our instructions sent us down a narrow street in a parallel direction,
+until we were stopped by the inward curve of the city wall. Just
+before we reached this, our way was blocked by two wine carts laden
+with barrels of new-made wine, and drawn by a pair of huge
+cream-coloured oxen, with soft dark eyes and long horns reaching from
+one side of the street to the other. I delight in these splendid
+creatures; they look so gentle, and though so huge they seem
+unconscious of their power. They moved on at last, and permitted us to
+reach our bourne.
+
+The Porta Buligaia was certainly the most beautiful point we had yet
+seen, and we felt very grateful to the great artist who, knowing every
+street of Perugia, had so kindly told us how to take this walk; for
+the little narrow street opposite the Porta Augusta had hitherto
+escaped our notice, although we had spent so many weeks in Perugia.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA BULIGAIA.]
+
+Just before the old wall reaches the Porta it curves into a trefoil,
+and goes down steeply to the fertile valley. Through the open, green
+doors of the gate the road winds beside the grand wall, which, covered
+with greenery, strikes forward to the north, tall grass atop waving
+like pennons among the trees above it.
+
+The inner wall sends out a long flank to reach the gate, and above,
+level with its top, is a vine-covered pergola with quaint gabled
+houses behind it; these command a grand view over the hills which
+circle round in shades of exquisite blue, fading at last to opal.
+Plots of maize glow through a grey mist of olives; the vines, swinging
+from tree to tree, are golden-green. As the road goes down beside the
+wall beyond the gate, it passes a white-walled cottage nestled in
+trees. The view tempted us along this road, and soon a path, bordered
+by a black handrail, mounted on the left beside a caper-wreathed wall
+of stones: following it, we crossed a sort of farmyard, where an
+enormous gourd vine lay atop a brick wall; huge pumpkins were sunning
+themselves among enormous leaves.
+
+Beyond this, towards Perugia, the land was richly cultivated; maize
+and vegetables, fruit-trees and vines, covered every scrap of ground.
+Here and there a tangled bit of hedge served to prop the luxuriant
+vines; there was no primness anywhere, and yet the ground seemed well
+cultivated.
+
+Going on, the way curved, and the view became still more extended; at
+last we found ourselves in the road again, and went on till we reached
+the extreme northern point of Perugia--Porta San Angelo.
+
+  [Illustration: PORTA SAN ANGELO.]
+
+Some little way outside is the convent of San Francesco, and just
+within the gate, from which, up a side path, there is another
+delightful view, we came to the round church of San Angelo, or San
+Michele. This is very ancient, and is said to have been formerly a
+pagan temple dedicated to Vesta. The lower part is round, the upper
+eight-sided, but the interior is circular. The upper portion is
+supported by a circle of sixteen dark-grey columns; anciently there
+were three circles of these columns. All but one of the two outer
+circles have been taken away to other parts of Perugia: we had already
+seen some in San Pietro, and there are two in one of the palaces on
+the market-place; one still remains in the second circle at San
+Angelo. This interior is very interesting. In it is a well-preserved
+sacrificial altar, and the woman who guided us explained with much
+unction how the victims were formerly sacrificed. She also showed us
+some horrible instruments of torture, and another altar, said to be
+Roman. There is a curious bas-relief on the wall near the sacristy. We
+had already seen this church on a festa, when, the altar blazing with
+candles, the gaily-dressed people kneeling in front of it and between
+the surrounding circle of pillars, had a very picturesque
+effect,--marred, it is true, by the presence of sundry dogs among the
+worshippers, and the extremely cracked and untuneful sounds proceeding
+from the music gallery. Our brown-faced, withered guide was full of
+talk; when we got into the sacristy, she confided to me she had been
+foolish enough to marry late in life; then, her man had managed so
+badly that he died and left her to take care of herself. "Ah, yes,"
+she said, "and there is more than myself, there is a boy, and he is
+nine years old; he eats well,--the Signora knows how a boy eats at
+nine? Dio! he is voracious; then he must be taught, and school costs
+money, much money! and yet, Dio! what a thing it is to have schooling!
+I can neither read nor write, and can earn but little; I wish my son
+to do better than I, and yet, Signora, I am not sure if it is wise."
+Her keen black eyes twinkled at me.
+
+I suggested that she must be right in giving her son some schooling.
+She sighed heavily, and darted another keen glance at me out of her
+hungry dark eyes.
+
+"Yes, the Signora is right; but if I spend money in teaching my son I
+can have none for myself. Dio! what can become of me when these"--she
+stretched out her brown, capable-looking hands--"can no longer work
+for me? Holy Virgin! I know not." She gave another heavy sigh, and
+again she looked wistfully at me.
+
+I said that if she did her duty by her son he would be sure to take
+care of her hereafter, but at this her face showed me that we took
+different views. She shook her head.
+
+"It ought to be so, Signora," she said, "but it is not; Dio, I have
+lived in the world many years, and I have not found that men are what
+they ought to be. No! not one.--Pardon me, Signore," she looked
+deprecatingly towards my companion. "The Signora has as much money as
+she wants, and she does not hear the truth; she sees the best side of
+people, they show the worst to us poor ones."
+
+Poor woman! I hastened to assure her that I was not in the happy state
+she fancied. I felt ashamed at giving her my modest fee, and said I
+wished it could have been larger; but evidently she was not greedy,
+she clasped both her brown hands round my arm and squeezed it, while
+she poured forth effusive thanks. Then she went back to the heap of
+stones near the entrance of the cave where I had found her, sitting
+like a hungry spider in wait for an inquiring fly, in the shape of a
+traveller.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE WAY TO ASSISI
+
+
+We had for years desired to make a pilgrimage to Assisi, and now,
+across the lovely valley the sight of the little white town clinging
+to Monte Subasio, veiled by grey and purple vapour, was a daily
+reminder of our wish. Some places stamp themselves into the heart, and
+while life lasts the longing to revisit them increases, till
+realisation quenches desire. A visit to such a haunt of delightful
+memories as Assisi requires time, so we waited till a few days could
+be spared.
+
+  [Illustration: GIOTTO.]
+
+It was very early morning when we drove down from Perugia along the
+Assisi road, a road bordered by the silver and gold of olive-groves
+and vineyards. Fragrant, dewy freshness lay on everything; even when
+the sun rose higher, and blazed fiercely down on us, we had become so
+absorbed by the surrounding scenery and its associations that we did
+not seem to feel the brilliant heat.
+
+Now and then, between the leafy trees on our right, we had glimpses of
+yellow Tiber on its way to Rome. Francis Bernardone must also have
+enjoyed these glimpses as he walked to and from Assisi with some
+favourite disciple, perhaps along this very road.
+
+St. Francis did a far greater work for his contemporaries than any
+reformer of the later Renaissance period. He did not attack popes and
+bishops, or find fault with everything and everybody who differed from
+his special ideas: he used the most powerful means by which to
+influence mankind,--he lived the life he preached. He had been
+accustomed to luxury and every form of self-pleasing,--he gave up all
+to follow the way of the Cross, from love to his Saviour. In that
+brutal and licentious age, the beginning of the thirteenth century,
+his example seems to have been irresistible. The life of poverty,
+obedience, and chastity enjoined by his rule sounded utter folly
+when first proclaimed to the multitude; but it says something in
+favour of those times that, when the first outcry ceased, and his
+fellow-citizens witnessed the harmony that existed between his life
+and his teaching, he was left comparatively unmolested, and his work
+was not materially interfered with. Though he died at forty-four, he
+lived long enough to see his Order recognised by Holy Church and by
+secular potentates, and to know that its widely spread communities
+were firmly established wherever they had planted themselves.
+
+It may be said of St. Bernard and St. Dominick, that they also
+practised all they preached, but one feature peculiar to St. Francis
+is not chronicled of those other revivalists,--his idea of life was a
+very happy one. In the century that followed, Boccaccio did not teach
+joy as a duty one whit more strenuously than the Poverello did,
+although the two men's ideas of the source of joy were so opposite.
+
+One remembers the recorded talk about joy, of that which fails to
+make, and of that which _is_ the true root of happiness, between
+Francis and Fra Leone,--a talk which continued for two miles, while
+the master and his disciple walked out from Perugia to Assisi.
+
+At last Fra Leo, called by Francis "the little sheep of God," cried
+out: "Father, tell me, I pray thee, wherein can perfect happiness be
+found?"
+
+Whereupon Francis made his well-known answer, recorded in the eighth
+chapter of _I Fioretti_ ("The Little Flowers of St. Francis").
+
+As we drove along we remembered that the hills looking down on us, now
+varied by exquisite cloud-shadows, had listened to cheerful lays,
+improvised in the Provençal tongue by Francis as he trudged along this
+road. He did not have his hymns rendered into Italian verse, so that
+they might be understood by the people, until he needed them to help
+his teachings; his sympathy with human nature taught him the power of
+music in creating fervent devotion.
+
+Reading the _Fioretti_, one learns that, in spite of the severe rule
+he followed, Francis enjoyed his life; there must have been a singular
+power of fascination in the man, who could always, wherever he went,
+change sorrow into joy. He rejoiced in the beauty of nature, and went
+singing along the dusty way, between the olive-trees and the
+grape-laden vines, which then, as now, probably bordered the road on
+either hand; he rejoiced in every trial laid on him, as a fresh
+offering he could make to his God.
+
+Francis sang till the birds came fluttering round him to share his
+gladness, mingling their songs with his. At Bevagna, a place south of
+Spello, he preached his famous sermon to these winged disciples, and
+bade the swallows cease their disturbing twitter.
+
+He loved all dumb creatures, and strove to care for them, calling them
+his brothers and sisters; at Gubbio he tamed a wolf, till then the
+terror of the place. Once, meeting a peasant who had an armful of wild
+turtle-doves, he took them from the man, lest they should be killed or
+ill-treated, and, bringing them home to La Portioncula, he caused
+little nests to be made for the gentle birds, bade them live
+peacefully, and increase and multiply according to the will of God.
+
+As we drove along the lovely valley, filled now with golden light
+varied by purple shadow, its glorious background of hills in every
+delicate shade of blue, with spaces between, an opal gauze in the
+sunshine, and villages nestling beside the tree-shaded Tiber, we saw,
+hard by, the grey-peaked bridge, so ancient looking, that Francis may
+one time or another have gone singing across it; and we felt that such
+a mind could not have lived amid so much beauty without becoming
+interpenetrated by it.
+
+He is so entirely incorporated with Assisi and its surroundings, that
+one cannot describe the old town without now and again referring to
+the timeworn tale, so beautifully told by Monsieur Paul Sabatier.
+
+Our two hours' drive between vines and olive-trees backed by grand
+purple hills had been lovely. The grapes were almost ripe, pale gold
+in colour, thickly hanging from tender green garlands, which stretched
+from one tree to another and linked them together. In some fields
+long-horned oxen were ploughing the stiff lumpy land between the
+vines; here and there golden stalks of maize lay on the rich brown
+soil. The sun-touched summits of Subasio and his brethren looked like
+radiant clouds; the pure invigorating air was delightful.
+
+  [Illustration: CONVENT AND CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO.]
+
+As one nears Assisi, the two salient points in the view are, on the
+left, high up the mountain side, the great convent of San Francesco,
+with its double churches; on the right, at the foot of the ascent to
+the town, is seen the dome of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
+
+The body of this church was built in the sixteenth century over the
+original chapel, the Portioncula, in which St. Francis and his
+disciples worshipped, and in which Santa Chiara and so many others
+took the vows of the Order, and devoted themselves to lead lives of
+poverty, chastity, and obedience.
+
+Huge Subasio had been in front of us all the way, but we could now
+distinguish clearly the long stretch of white houses clinging midway
+to the side of the mountain; and above the houses, the campaniles and
+spires of Assisi, while towering high over the road, supported by a
+double row of lofty arches, are the convent, and the two churches of
+San Francesco.
+
+In a picture it would be difficult to give an adequate idea of the
+approach to Assisi,--certainly word-painting cannot describe it.
+Probably the thrill caused by the associations and surroundings of the
+town intensifies the charm.
+
+The varied colour of the hills on either side of us had become more
+exquisite. Now we had in full view the scene described by Dante as
+the birthplace of San Francesco, for the town seems a part of the
+
+     "Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold
+     Are wafted through Perugia's eastern gate,
+     Upon that side where it doth break its steepness most, arose
+     A sun upon the world"--
+
+                             Cary's Translation of _Il Paradiso_.
+
+For miles round, this building of San Francesco makes a striking
+landmark, and as long as it stands it bears witness to the strange and
+beautiful story of the youth who gave up all that seemed to make life
+worth living, to save not only his own soul, but those of others.
+
+There was no tardy justice in the recognition given to his holy life,
+and the benefits worked by his discipline. In 1228, two years after
+his death, Francesco Bernardone was canonised by Pope Gregory IX.--the
+tried friend who knew the life as well as the work of El Poverello--as
+St. Francis of Assisi was called, and the building of the Lower Church
+was begun.
+
+Before the century ended this church and the upper one had become a
+great centre of art-workers; in a sense, we may look on Francis of
+Assisi as a source of inspiration to both Giotto and Dante; they were
+all three originators and purifiers.
+
+Dante's description in the _Paradiso_, or rather the story which he
+makes St. Thomas Aquinas relate concerning Saint Francis, shows that a
+lapse of centuries has not in any way altered the high esteem in which
+he was held less than a century after his death. Dante was born only
+thirty-nine years later; and as he certainly visited Assisi, he must
+have been well acquainted with all the details of the saint's history.
+It may have been in his exultation at the triumphs achieved by his
+friend Giotto's frescoes at Assisi that the poet writes, after
+mentioning Cimabue, "And now the cry is Giotto's."
+
+Our driver stopped at the foot of the hill, and told us we had better
+begin our pilgrimage at the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. We
+had, however, planned to begin the wonderful story at its first
+chapter, and to visit the saint's birthplace, also the scene of his
+final renunciation of the world. So we bade honest Checco drive us on
+to the Hotel Subasio beside the hill, where we dismissed our carriage,
+and looked at the room allotted to us.
+
+We then climbed the bit of ascent, and feasted our eyes on the outside
+of the churches of San Francesco.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE TOWN, ASSISI.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ASSISI--SAN FRANCESCO
+
+
+As we mounted the hill the great shrine had seemed to rise higher and
+higher above us; in the flaming sunshine the olives looked a pale
+silver against the deep blue sky. When at last we took the way to the
+monastery, we seemed to have reached a deserted town. Assisi was still
+and lifeless; the very inn was asleep. Flies and gnats, however, made
+us sharply feel that the heat gave them extra thirst, and that we were
+a boon in this absence of human life.
+
+  [Illustration: STATUE OF ST. FRANCIS.]
+
+We had been told that the Lower Church of the monastery is best seen
+in morning light, so, instead of beginning our pilgrimage with the
+first chapter of the saint's story, in Chiesa Nuova, at the top of the
+town, we turned to the cloister of San Francesco, and passed along it
+to the terrace, on to which the beautiful porch opens.
+
+To-day this porch was full of exquisite effects of light and shadow;
+near it is Fra Filippo's massive and finely proportioned campanile.
+The name of the architect of the church is unknown; but it seems
+fairly attested that the campanile was built by Fra Filippo Campello,
+who later on became the architect of the church erected by the
+Assisans, on the site of San Giorgio, in honour of Santa Chiara, or
+Clara, the first female convert of St. Francis, the foundress of the
+"Poor Clares."
+
+  [Illustration: THE TOWER, SAN FRANCESCO.]
+
+It is strange that the name of the great architect who designed this
+beautiful church and monastery should be doubtful, especially as San
+Francesco is said to be almost the first Gothic church built in
+Italy, and remains to this day one of the purest and most beautiful in
+style, free from that admixture of Renaissance work which robs so many
+Italian churches of the reverence and religious inspiration created by
+our English and so many French cathedrals. At San Francesco the very
+walls are sermons in stone; while, especially in the Lower Church, the
+rich beauty of colour calls out a perpetual hymn of praise.
+
+The offerings made by pilgrims from all parts of Italy at the tomb of
+Francis in San Giorgio had, in the space of two years, amounted to a
+sum large enough to defray the expense of building this Lower Church.
+
+We went in by the porch to the atrium; coming from the brilliant
+sunshine outside, all seemed so dim that we feared we should not make
+out the frescoes that cover, with mellow, delicious colour, the walls
+and low vaults of nave and side chapels.
+
+One seems to breathe colour in the atmosphere of this Lower Church;
+the very air is painted, as light comes in through the stained glass
+windows, most of which are worth a careful study. There are
+interesting tombs in this first part of the church, before one enters
+the nave; one of the tombs resembles in its arrangement Giovanni
+Pisano's beautiful monument to Pope Benedict XI. at San Domenico,
+Perugia, but the Assisan tomb is wholly inferior in execution. As we
+stood looking up the nave, we realised how truly this church embodies
+the life and work of Francis Bernardone; it is a house of prayer and
+praise. Its exquisite beauty, both of architecture and colour,
+inspires the joy so continually preached by Francis, in which he
+lived, despite his ascetic privations and self-denying labour for the
+good of souls.
+
+It is impossible to describe, or even to name, except generally, the
+numberless frescoes which enrich the walls and the vaultings of the
+transepts and chapels; the golden-starred, blue roof of the nave
+absorbs the light, but it adds to the mysterious beauty of the church.
+
+  [Illustration: ENTRANCE DOOR TO LOWER CHURCH, ASSISI.]
+
+Perhaps the first thing that one admires on entering the nave is the
+richly-coloured cross-vaulting above the high altar, and that between
+the choir and transepts. There are four chapels on the right, and only
+two on the left side of the nave; between these two are the
+sacristies. There can be no doubt that in the original plan these
+chapels did not exist.
+
+The foundation of the church was laid in 1228; evidently the walls
+when completed were covered with frescoes by some very early painters,
+who failed to satisfy the taste of the Franciscans; for one can make
+out portions of old fresco work near the entrances to the chapels, the
+wall here having been removed when these additions were made to the
+original building.
+
+This took place before Cimabue and Giunta Pisano and then Giotto and
+his pupils came from Florence; followed by the Lorenzetti and Simone
+Martino, from Siena, to make the basilica the burnished jewel it is
+to-day. A harmony of blue and scarlet, of green and gold, fills one's
+sight as one looks onward to the high altar.
+
+We went up to the right transept; here is the famous Madonna of
+Cimabue. Above the arch of the chapel within the transept is a
+beautiful fresco by Giotto, of the Annunciation, part of a series by
+that painter of the Infant Life of our Lord, from the Annunciation to
+the Finding the Holy Child in the Temple; the figures in these
+frescoes all tell their own story, and are full of beauty and dignity.
+The Annunciation over the arch leading to the chapel is especially
+lovely.
+
+There is also another series of Giotto frescoes on the wall of this
+transept; in one a child is falling from a window; there are sweet
+faces among the women who kneel in front. St. Francis meets the child
+as its body is being taken to burial, and restores it to life. The
+other two frescoes also deal with restoration to life. Our guide said
+that one of the faces in these was a likeness of Giotto Bondone. In
+this Lower Church are many frescoes by Giotto's pupils, notably by
+Taddeo Gaddi and by Giottino, who have done very fine work on its
+walls. Within the chapel, beyond the Annunciation, is an interesting
+series of frescoes, which represent the story of St. Nicholas; these
+are said to be the work of Giotto's best pupil, name unknown, some of
+whose work is also in the Upper Church. The truth to nature in the
+conception, and the simplicity of this master's work, make the study
+of it most fascinating; its breadth of treatment gives it a peace and
+dignity which the solemn stiffness of Cimabue fails to inspire.
+
+Giotto must have been young when the Franciscans summoned him to
+adorn the walls of their basilica, for his work there is supposed to
+have been completed in the early years of the fourteenth century, and
+he was not born till 1265.
+
+It is well known how the great artist Cimabue, on his way from
+Vespignano, a village some miles north of Florence, found among the
+hills a shepherd lad of ten years old, named Giotto Bondone, sketching
+on a bit of stone, and how the great Florentine was, on close
+inspection of the sketch, so impressed by the truth to nature shown in
+the boy's likeness of one of his sheep, that he thenceforth adopted
+Giotto as his pupil, and took him to Florence, where for ten years the
+youth worked in Cimabue's atelier.
+
+It is strange that the painter should have so greatly admired the
+simple love for and the truthful rendering of nature which
+characterises his protégé's work, for Cimabue himself clung to the
+stiff drawing and unlovely ideals of Byzantine art, overlaid with
+gold and jewels. The most striking feature in Giotto's work is the
+life-likeness of his figures and faces and their surroundings; and the
+natural and simple way in which he portrays action. The faces are
+seldom as lovely as those of the Sienese painters in this church, but
+there is no exaggeration about Giotto. Ruskin says "his imagination
+was exhaustive without extravagance."
+
+At Assisi one seems to trace his progress from these early paintings
+in the right transept, to the very excellent series on the Life of St.
+Francis in the Upper Church. Time has probably lent its mellowing
+help, but the rich yet soft harmony of colour is beyond the power of
+word-painting,--it takes complete possession of the gazer.
+
+The left-hand transept contains the chapel of San Giovanni. The
+Franciscans confided its adornment to Pietro Lorenzetti of Siena, who
+covered the walls with scenes from the Passion. The colour is rich
+and remarkable, but the design is frequently exaggerated. In the
+fresco of the Crucifixion, however, the figures beneath the cross are
+beautiful, especially those of the Madonna, of St. John the
+Evangelist, and St. Francis.
+
+Another very interesting chapel, also on left side of nave below the
+grille, which at great functions is closed, dividing the nave from the
+transept and the high altar, is that dedicated to St. Martin, filled
+with lovely frescoes by Simone Martini of Siena, representing the life
+and miracles of Martin of Tours. The faces and figures are delightful,
+so is the colour; the story of the saint is admirably told.
+
+There are also beautiful frescoes by Simone Martini, or Simone Memmi,
+as this Sienese painter is often called, between the entrances to the
+chapels of the Sacrament and that of St. Mary Magdalene. Many others
+by Giotto and his pupils are in the various chapels.
+
+When we had looked at some of these, we went back to the high altar,
+and, standing there, beneath that glorious vaulting overhead, we found
+it difficult to realise that we were actually on the place so filled
+with memories of the three great revivalists of purity, for in their
+respective generations Francis Bernardone, Dante, and Giotto strove to
+regenerate Italy.
+
+After a while, as one stands gazing at the great lunettes overhead,
+one can picture the two friends, Dante and Giotto, on the space now
+occupied by the high altar,--the imagination of the poet aiding the
+skill of the painter to perpetuate the teaching of the Spouse of
+Poverty.
+
+The tomb of St. Francis is in an open crypt below the high altar; this
+crypt is called by the Assisans the Third Church; the neighbouring
+peasants frequently attend the early mass celebrated here.
+
+Owing to the care with which Brother Elias, who succeeded Francis as
+Vicar-general of the Order, secreted the urn containing the remains
+of the saint, they were not discovered till the year 1818. A tradition
+had been circulated, and was firmly believed in, that a third very
+beautiful church had been built underground, and contained the body of
+the founder.
+
+This successor of Francis, Fra Elia, was doubtless proud and
+ambitious; his grasping worldliness and irreligion greatly injured the
+repute of the Franciscan community, but in this special case he acted
+wisely. Perugia had determined to possess herself of the precious
+body, which drew pilgrims from all parts of Europe to make offerings
+at its shrine; Elias knew this, and therefore, when the basilica was
+completed, and the saint's remains were removed from their tomb at San
+Giorgio to the new church, he buried them secretly, and surrounded
+them by a strongly cemented underground wall of masonry, which
+effectually baffled all attempts to discover them, though the
+Perugians made several attacks on Assisi for that sole purpose.
+
+In 1818 the Assisans made a more skilful and sustained excavation. At
+the end of two months, spent in piercing the rock on which the church
+is built, and the solid wall of masonry which seemed part of the rock
+itself, the urn was discovered. The excuse for Elias is that he
+considered the presence of the saint's body to be the honour and glory
+of the city of Assisi, to say nothing of the wealth accumulated by
+offerings at the shrine.
+
+Overhead is the culminating glory of the church, the frescoes on the
+four central lunettes of the vault, sometimes considered to be
+Giotto's finest work at Assisi. They represent, in allegory, the
+poverty, the obedience, and the chastity enjoined by the saint, and
+embodied by him in the rule of his Order. The fourth spandrel
+represents St. Francis in Glory.
+
+Probably the poet and the painter stood together on this very spot.
+Tradition says that Dante aided his friend in the conception of these
+grand designs. The marriage of Francis to the Lady Poverty seems to
+prefigure the lines in the _Paradiso_, for Giotto had finished his
+work at Assisi before those lines were written.
+
+In the next compartment, a monk, a nun, and a lay-brother of the Order
+are seen taking the vow of chastity; they are supposed to represent
+Bernard di Quintavalle, the wealthy noble who became the first
+disciple of St. Francis; Santa Chiara, who wears the robe of the
+Second Franciscan Order; the lay-brother, in a Florentine garb, is
+thought to be Dante. The Virtue, guarded by angels, looks out from a
+tower above. There are many other figures, mortals, angels, and
+demons, who indicate in various ways the constant struggle and
+mortification attendant on the Franciscan calling. Some of the angels
+with beautiful faces are busily engaged repelling the spirits of the
+world, the flesh, and the devil, who strive to tempt the neophyte, a
+naked youth who is being baptized by two angels in a font in middle
+distance. The good angels hurl the devils over the rocks into depths
+far below.
+
+The third fresco, Obedience, is also full of allegorical figures, and
+the Virtue wears the Franciscan robe. The fourth fresco shows St.
+Francis in Glory, surrounded by throngs of fair-haired angels, who
+sing hymns of perpetual praise. The truth to nature in these figures
+is remarkable, some of the faces are beautiful.
+
+One might fill many pages with detailed descriptions of the frescoes
+on the walls and vaulting of this gemlike church. It takes several
+days even to see them, and therefore it is wiser to spend some time in
+Assisi, so as to examine them in their best light.
+
+So wonderfully picturesque is every part of this Lower Church, that it
+is very difficult to give any idea of such a storehouse of early
+Italian art, for both Upper and Lower Churches seem to have been a
+rallying-ground for Giotto and his pupils, for the early Sienese
+masters, and for others following after Cimabue, Giunta Pisano, and
+the very early painters of Italy.
+
+Fra Antonio, the sacristan, was a most kind and intelligent guide:
+pointing out to us the portrait of Francis, attributed to Giunta da
+Pisano, he took us into the sacristy, and let us see strips of old
+embroidery mounted on frames. The faces in this embroidery were
+beautifully rendered, and the colour was delightful. The Fra told us
+that some English ladies from Perugia had so greatly admired the old
+lace in the vestiary that he felt sure we should also like to see it;
+among it was some very fine point de Venise, used to trim surplices. I
+forget how old he said it was; some of the vestments were exquisitely
+embroidered.
+
+  [Illustration: THE SMALL CLOISTER, SAN FRANCESCO.]
+
+Then he opened a door, and we saw the quaintest little cloister,
+surrounded by the grey convent walls; the garden, in its grass-grown
+quadrangle, was seemingly left to itself. We spied out rosy cyclamen
+blossoms dotted among the grassed hollows of the rough ground, and our
+kind Fra, tucking up the skirts of his cassock, for at San Francesco
+the Franciscan habit is not worn, the conventual garb takes its place,
+stepped into the quad, and gathered a bunch of blossoms, which he
+presented to me, with tufts of maidenhair fern from the low wall of
+the cloistered garden. He asked my companions to come and dig up roots
+of both cyclamen and maidenhair.
+
+"The Signori may as well have them," he said, with a sigh, "as those
+who set no store by them."
+
+He was very kind, but we wondered what St. Francis would have thought
+about the change of costume and the comparative comfort of these
+guardians of his burial-place.
+
+We went back into the basilica, and up a staircase which led to the
+east end of the Upper Church, built some twenty-one years after the
+Lower one. It is a beautiful and graceful example of early Gothic. The
+Pope's chair, near which we entered, is in red marble; the high altar
+at that time was surrounded by a screen, mass being no longer said
+there.
+
+  [Illustration: CLOISTER-GARDEN, SAN FRANCESCO.]
+
+Cimabue and other old painters have covered the walls in this part of
+the Upper Church with frescoes, many of them grand and impressive in
+design, though they have greatly suffered from so-called restoration
+by unskilful hands, while damp has damaged others. Some of the
+subjects are from the Old Testament, others from events in the life of
+our Lord; the general effect is, however, rich and harmonious. The
+long series taken from the life of St. Francis, along the lower part
+of the nave, is very interesting. There are twenty-eight subjects,
+chiefly painted by Giotto; the rest are said to be executed by that
+pupil of the Florentine master who painted the legend of St. Nicholas
+in the Lower Church. Giotto's fine series in this Upper Church
+portrays the saint's history, and contains, I believe, the best work
+executed by the artist in the basilica; it is much later in date than
+some of his other Franciscan frescoes. The painter is said to have
+taken as his guide Father Bonaventura's Life of St. Francis. As this
+writer was born during the lifetime of Francis, and was later on
+commissioned to write the saint's Life, his narrative may be
+considered reliable. The painting of the various scenes is masterly,
+and the detail in the interesting events here depicted, the
+architecture especially, is rendered in a very striking manner.
+
+These frescoes are so lifelike, that they stamp yet more strongly into
+the mind the impression created by a visit to Assisi, the truth of
+the wonderful conversion and subsequent life of Francesco Bernardone.
+
+One of the most striking incidents in this conversion is illustrated
+in the fourth fresco of the series, in which the saint is shown
+praying before the crucifix in San Damiano. Those who have read the
+beautiful _Vie de Saint François d'Assise_, by Monsieur Paul Sabatier,
+will understand the meaning of this fresco, though it has been so
+sadly injured by damp. For those who have not enjoyed this privilege a
+short sketch of the saint's life is here added.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Francis Bernardone was born at Assisi in 1182, his father being a rich
+merchant called Pietro Bernardone. His mother, Madonna Pica, is said
+to have been better born than her wealthy husband, who travelled,
+according to the custom of the time, from one city and castle to
+another, journeying sometimes as far as France, with his company, and
+the goods he had to sell. He does not seem to have taken Francis with
+him; he preferred that the youth should remain at home, and use his
+singular power of making friends among the wild and dissolute young
+nobles of Assisi.
+
+Now and again Pietro would ask for his son's help in his warehouse,
+but this was seldom. He wished the young fellow to distinguish himself
+among these prodigals, and therefore gave him liberal means, so that
+he might join in all their sports and amusements, in their banquets
+and night revelries.
+
+The whole world of this period seems to have abandoned itself to every
+form of sin and pleasure. There was no discipline, no self-restraint
+to be found; might meant right. Self was everywhere worshipped,
+especially among the nobles and the wealthy.
+
+Francis and his companions did not lack bravery. They joined the
+Assisan troops in resisting an attack made by the rival and far more
+powerful city of Perugia; the Assisans were defeated, and Francis,
+with some of his friends, was for months imprisoned in a Perugian
+dungeon. This gave him leisure for reflection.
+
+Soon after being liberated, he fell ill of a fever, and could not
+return to his former life. He had already begun to see it with new
+eyes, and during his slow recovery fell into a strange melancholy;
+rousing from this, he decided to lead a military life. He would, he
+told himself, perform daring feats of valour; so, when a very
+distinguished knight asked him to take service with the Pope's troops,
+then warring in Apulia, Francis eagerly accepted the proposal.
+
+The night before the two friends started, Francis dreamed that he saw
+his father's warehouse, usually stored with bales of silk, and gold
+and silver stuffs, filled with lances and military accoutrements both
+for men and horses. He awoke in great delight. He considered this
+dream a good omen for the success of his expedition, and rode joyfully
+next day to Spoleto. A version of this dream is given on fresco No. 2,
+by Giotto, in the Upper Church. At Spoleto his fever returned, and he
+heard a voice telling him he had completely mistaken the meaning of
+his dream, and that he must at once return to his father's house.
+Francis obeyed, but on his return his father and his fellow-citizens
+were disgusted by his apparent cowardice in turning back.
+
+Francis had always been charitable to the poor, flinging liberal
+largesses to them as he rode about the country, sumptuously dressed
+and with his horse richly caparisoned; he now awoke to the conviction
+that the poor and suffering were his fellow-creatures, and merited a
+more personal and tender treatment than he had bestowed on them.
+Hitherto he had so dearly loved his gay companions, that he grudged
+every moment spent away from them; he even hurried over meals with
+his father and mother, so that he might the more speedily rejoin his
+frivolous friends. Now, after his return from Spoleto, he often went
+to a grotto, in a wood near Assisi, and prayed there; he saw less and
+less of his companions, he even sold some of his rich clothing that he
+might have more to give to the poor. In his father's absence he would
+clear the table of all food left on it, and give it among his poor
+friends. He had always been extremely dainty and fastidious in his
+habits and tastes, and he especially shrank from contact with any of
+the numerous lepers who, since the return of the Crusaders, had become
+a plague along the high-roads of Europe. One day he met a leper, and,
+after giving him an alms, turned abruptly away; on reflection, this
+seemed to him cruel and uncharitable. Soon afterwards he paid a visit
+to the lazar-house, spoke kindly to the inmates, and gave each leper
+a special alms, kissing their hands as he did so. More than once, when
+he met a poor man and had not a coin with him, he would bestow an
+article of his own clothing on the beggar.
+
+His gay friends became greatly troubled at his changed behaviour. They
+dearly loved his sweet, fearless nature, and his winning charm of
+manner. They could not spare him from among them, for they looked on
+him as their leader.
+
+They reproached him with his absence, and implored him to return to
+them. Francis announced that he was going to give them a banquet, and
+did so; there was every possible luxury, the table was magnificently
+decked, and he was chosen lord of the feast. But though he was
+cheerful, he was quieter, less full of wild revelry than he had
+formerly been, and when they all left the feast, instead of leading
+his companions into the streets of Assisi, as he had formerly done, he
+lingered behind, till they had to retrace their steps so as to join
+him.
+
+They asked what ailed him;--was he thinking of marriage?
+
+He remained silent awhile, then he said:
+
+"You have guessed rightly: I intend to espouse that most beautiful of
+brides, the Lady Poverty. No longer will I waste my time and dissipate
+my substance on follies."
+
+They stared in unbelief, then they treated it as a jest, but when they
+found he was in earnest, they jeered at their idolised leader.
+
+When Pietro Bernardone learned that Francis had broken with his former
+associates, he became furious. Already greatly angered by the report
+of his son's visits to the lazar-house, and by other instances of the
+young fellow's charity, he could not pardon this public act of folly.
+
+So long as his son shared the pursuits of the dissolute nobles who
+had so greatly admired him, so long as he was to be found in their
+company, the arrogant, purse-proud merchant, keenly desirous to
+better, as he considered, his son's position in the world, had been
+lavish of his money to the spendthrift; though even in those wild days
+instances are recorded of the younger Bernardone's goodness to the
+poor and suffering.
+
+He therefore sent for Francis.
+
+"You are welcome," he said, "to spend my money as you please, even to
+the half of it, provided you spend it in the company of noble lords,
+so as to bring you, in return, praise and honour. I covet for you
+distinction, and you well know that it can only be gained from the
+world; not one soldo will I give you to bestow on vile lepers, or on
+churches and priests. You are idle, I hear; you spend all your time in
+praying."
+
+This tyranny greatly troubled Francis, though it seems to have helped
+his inward convictions by turning him more and more from the
+temptations to worldliness.
+
+From this time forth the young fellow's domestic life became a daily
+martyrdom, except when his father was absent for weeks together in
+pursuit of business. But on Pietro's return he always began to
+persecute his son. This, joined to the mental suffering endured by
+Francis in his struggle after truth, had greatly affected the young
+convert's health.
+
+Outside the Porta Nuova, in the midst of a wood, was the little ruined
+church of San Damiano, served by one poor priest, who dwelt in a
+miserable hermitage beside it. Francis had made acquaintance with this
+priest, who, on his side, was hospitable to the friendless youth, for
+not only his former companions, but the Assisan citizens sided with
+his father in condemning Francis's behaviour. Frequently the younger
+Bernardone would spend all night on his knees in the old church of
+San Damiano.
+
+He was one day kneeling here in prayer when he heard a voice calling
+him. He listened, and heard it distinctly bid him seek a closer walk
+with God; it told him henceforth to devote himself to the restoration
+of God's ruined houses in Umbria. At that time, owing partly to the
+continual warfare and brigandage under which the country groaned; also
+to the frequent visitations of the plague, which carried off so many
+monks who tended the stricken hospital patients, some religious houses
+were almost bereft of their inmates, very few monks were left to
+repair and keep in order the churches and chapels of Umbria, and many
+of these were therefore sadly dilapidated.
+
+Francis felt transported out of himself, his doubts and difficulties
+seemed to vanish before this direct call from heaven. In his religious
+fervour he resolved to quit his father's house, now a scene of daily
+persecution. He would in future devote himself to the building up of
+ruined shrines, and he would begin with the chapel of San Damiano. In
+a fresco by Giotto in the Upper Church, Francis is seen kneeling
+before the crucifix listening to the voice. The crucifix still exists,
+but it has been removed from San Damiano to Santa Chiara. A part of
+this fresco is almost obliterated by damp. Perhaps the most
+interesting fresco of the series is that in which Francis renounces
+the world before the bishop and the people of Assisi.
+
+After he had vowed at San Damiano to devote himself to the reparation
+of ruined churches and shrines, he remembered that he had no money
+wherewith to begin his labours. The remarkable gift he possessed,
+decision of character, now impelled him to put his resolve into
+instant action.
+
+He hastened back to Assisi, made into a bundle some rich stuffs, his
+own property (not, as has been said, goods belonging to his father),
+then, bent on speedily repairing the fabric of San Damiano, Francis
+rode off along the valley, to the thriving commercial town of Foligno,
+only a few miles away. In the market of Foligno he sold all he
+possessed, even the horse he rode, with its trappings, and joyfully
+returned on foot to San Damiano, with a bag full of money.
+
+The arrogance and avarice of Pietro Bernardone were known throughout
+the country-side, his quarrels, too, with his son's new ideas were by
+this time public property; so that, when Francis toiled joyfully up
+the hill to the chapel, and offered his bag of money to the priest,
+the good man refused to accept it, warning the young enthusiast that
+such a gift would greatly anger the rich merchant, his father. At this
+refusal Francis flung his purse into the window nook of the chapel,
+and, turning to the priest, begged him to feed and lodge him in his
+humble dwelling.
+
+Pietro was at home, and after a while became anxious at his son's
+continued absence; he went to look for him at San Damiano. Francis,
+however, guessing at his father's anger, had already found a safe
+hiding-place in the wood. When he heard Pietro's fierce reproaches, he
+trembled; he then termed himself a coward to prove thus unworthy of
+the call he had received.
+
+He resolved to go back to Assisi, and announce to his father his
+choice of a vocation. His long mental struggle, his nights spent in
+prayer and fasting, his weeks of severe discipline, had greatly
+changed his appearance; his clothing was soiled and torn, his face
+pale and emaciated. When he trudged into Assisi, the town children
+failed to recognise him, and, excited by the sight of this strange
+beggar, they surrounded him, crying out, "A madman, a madman!"
+throwing stones at him.
+
+The outcry called his father to his house door; he saw and recognised
+his son. The furious merchant seized Francis by the collar, dragged
+him into the house, which stood on the site of Chiesa Nuova, and,
+after a severe flogging, flung him into a cellar. Here the young
+ascetic was rigorously imprisoned till Pietro again left home for one
+of his business journeys.
+
+He had no sooner gone than Madonna Pica released and tried to comfort
+the son she so dearly loved. Francis soon bade her adieu, and returned
+to San Damiano.
+
+But when Pietro came home again, and found his son absent, it is said
+that he gave his wife a beating before he hurried off to the ruined
+chapel in the wood.
+
+This time Francis did not try to hide himself; but when his father, in
+a torrent of reproaches, told him he must quit the country, because he
+had brought such disgrace on his family, the young fellow respectfully
+answered:
+
+"Henceforth God is my only Father; I cannot obey any other."
+
+Pietro again broke into furious accusation. He had lavished a fortune
+on Francis, he said, and this was the return he got for it.
+
+For answer, his son pointed to the bag of money which still lay in the
+window nook.
+
+Bernardone eagerly seized it. He swore that he would appeal to the
+justice of the law to punish his son.
+
+He did appeal. Francis was cited to appear before the magistrate. He
+refused to obey the summons; he had put himself, he said, under the
+protection of the Church.
+
+When Bernardone heard of this answer he appealed to the Ecclesiastical
+Court; but the Bishop's answer to the angry father was a warning. He
+said that if Pietro really wished to punish his son for being good and
+pious, his only resource was to persuade Francis to give up all claim
+to his patrimony, or he could, if he chose, disinherit him.
+
+Francis was summoned to the Bishop's palace, on the Piazza Santa
+Maria Maggiore. He found the place thronged by the excited citizens of
+Assisi. The Bishop, at that time well disposed towards the young
+fellow, advised him to end the quarrel with his father by renouncing
+all claim to his inheritance.
+
+When Francis heard this counsel, his face beamed with joy. He stripped
+off his clothing, rolled it into a bundle, and laid it and the few
+coins he still possessed at the feet of the Bishop. He then turned to
+the wonder-struck citizens of Assisi:
+
+"Mark all of you," he said, "I have given back my possessions to
+Pietro Bernardone; I once called him father, hereafter I address
+myself altogether to our Father which is in Heaven."
+
+Pietro pushed forward; he snatched up the money and the clothing.
+
+This drew a loud murmur from the Assisans, for the rich merchant's
+arrogance and avarice had alienated his fellow-townsmen; he had grown
+to be unpopular.
+
+The compassionate Bishop at once flung his own cloak over the youth's
+shivering shoulders; his charity drew forth a pitying chorus of
+approval. The people, who had hitherto despised Francis as a fool, saw
+him suddenly in a new light; they marvelled at this singular proof of
+self-abnegation.
+
+Thus the first-fruits of his mission were reaped from the impression
+created in many of these bystanders, who during the past two years had
+scornfully witnessed and mocked at his good deeds and his devout life.
+
+The reality of the scene represented in this fresco is marvellous; it
+at once tells its own story. The compassionate Bishop puts his cloak
+round the naked youth, who holds up his hands in the act of
+renunciation, while the stern-looking Pietro bustles forward to snatch
+at the money and clothing, and also apparently to strike a blow at his
+son, but is held back by a wealthy-looking fellow-citizen in an
+ermine-lined cloak and tippet.
+
+In another fresco Francis is preaching to the birds at Bevagna; in
+another we see the arid summit of La Vernia above the Casentino
+valley, where, in his later years, he is said to have received the
+Stigmata. Another fresco full of beauty and interest is called "The
+Mourning of the Nuns of San Damiano." It shows how, after the saint's
+death, his body was carried past the convent of San Damiano, on its
+way to sepulture at San Giorgio; the saintly Clara had been for some
+years Abbess of the little convent in the wood, and she and the Poor
+Clares, her Sisters, wept over the body of their beloved founder.
+
+These frescoes, and the thoughts they recall, are deeply interesting,
+and yet the Upper Church is not so delightful as the Lower one is,--at
+least, we did not find it so fascinating, although, in addition to the
+frescoes, the painted windows are full of beauty; there is rather too
+much light; one misses the rich mellowness of atmosphere which fills
+the Lower Church with a dim mystery of splendid colour, especially one
+misses the work of the Sienese painters.
+
+The way to La Vernia, judging by the fresco, must have been terribly
+rugged. The favourite resort of St. Francis, when he retired from the
+distractions of life at La Portioncula, to give himself more fully to
+prayer and contemplation, was Le Carceri; the cells are still to be
+seen in a ravine on the side of rugged Monte Subasio, some way north
+of San Damiano. Le Carceri is a series of caves in the solid rock,
+containing the monks' cells; it is backed by a wood, and has the hill
+torrent before it. The walk there from Assisi is full of beauty, and
+it is not a very long way from Piazza Nuova, leaving Assisi by Porta
+Cappucini. Here the saint had frequent talk with the birds in the
+woods near Le Carceri; the ilex tree is still shown on which the
+winged disciples perched while Saint Francis talked with them.
+
+  [Illustration: OUTSIDE SAN FRANCESCO]
+
+It was at Le Carceri that he invited the nightingale to try which
+could sing longest to the praise and glory of God. Brother Leo
+declined to join in this trial, but the saint and the nightingale sang
+on through the night, till Francis, completely exhausted, had to yield
+victory to the bird.
+
+While we stood gazing at the frescoes, thinking of all these things,
+Fra Antonio said softly:
+
+"The Signora and the Signori have now seen all I can to-day show
+them."
+
+We longed to linger, but already the kind man had given us much of his
+time; he quaintly added, "It is, moreover, my dinner-hour."
+
+Then we took leave of the kind Fra, and said we would come again. We
+went out by the west door under the fine window, and rejoiced in the
+very lovely view before us. We wished our guide a good appetite, and
+he stood watching us as we went down one flight of the double range of
+steps leading from the Piazza of the Upper Church to the Lower one.
+
+We were tired when we came out into the sunshine, and we sat down in
+the shade opposite a fountain, at the foot of the steps.
+
+A girl came presently up the hill behind us, her bare feet white with
+dust. She carried on her red-kerchiefed head a tall copper pitcher
+with dinges which bespoke it the worse for wear; her skirt was short
+and dark, and the light blue bodice laced up behind showed a white
+undervest. In a minute she began to run fast, deftly balancing the
+tall pitcher. Then we saw behind her a long-legged lad, evidently bent
+on arriving first at the fountain. The two figures seemed to fly along
+the dusty road; the lad outran the girl, and, when she reached him,
+panting and choking with laughter, he had the courtesy to fill her
+pitcher for her, and helped her in raising it to her head.
+
+  [Illustration: SAN FRANCESCO, THE UPPER CHURCH.]
+
+It is wonderful how these women can so surely support the loads they
+carry on their heads; the burden is sometimes a huge round basket,
+three feet across, full of grapes or heavy vegetables.
+
+We rarely saw a man thus burdened; he seems to content himself in
+Italy, as he does in France, with looking on and admiring, while the
+women do the work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ASSISI--IN THE TOWN
+
+
+Our little hotel, the Albergo Subasio, is close to San Francesco, and
+from its windows commands a most exquisite view of the valley and the
+richly-tinted hills. If time served, one could spend hours in enjoying
+the beauty of this landscape, so full of colour and of variety.
+
+We passed by San Francesco, and up the long, solemn street which it
+seems to guard. Grass grows freely between the stones that pave the
+street, which mounts very steeply; farther up were shops, but all were
+full of silence. No one seemed to be alive within the dark openings on
+either side, though from the wares displayed it was evident that
+inhabitants were not far off; doubtless all sound asleep at this time
+of day.
+
+At the top of the street on either side are tall old grey palaces; one
+of these, on the right, has a projecting roof, supported by long and
+beautifully-carved brackets. This is the Ospedale, with its curious
+door. On the left is the Palazzo Allemanni; over every door and window
+is the legend, _In Domino confido_.
+
+The blue mountains, each range paler and more exquisite in tint as it
+rose behind another, were seen through a glimmering veil of
+sparsely-planted olives, and seemingly ended the street we were
+mounting; but, going on, we presently came out on the Piazza di
+Minerva.
+
+Here is a fine, very ancient portico, supported by five columns of
+travertine, once the front of a temple to Minerva. Behind it is the
+more modern church of Santa Maria della Minerva. We were now on the
+site of old Roman Assisi, for the Forum lies below the Piazza, and one
+goes down steps to it. Formerly a flight of steps in front of the
+temple led to the Forum, and the effect must have been very fine; now
+the artificially raised ground of the Piazza takes away from the
+apparent height of the portico, which has no longer so lofty a
+position in the general view as of old. It seems a pity that the space
+round it is not clearer.
+
+Up a turning not far from the Temple of Minerva we came to the
+cathedral of Assisi, San Rufino, built by Giovanni da Gubbio in
+twelfth and early part of thirteenth century. It has an interesting
+brown façade and a picturesque campanile; its three fine doorways and
+rose windows are full of beauty, but the interior is comparatively
+modernised, although a triptych by Niccolo da Foligno is worth seeing.
+There are many frescoes and pictures in Assisi, by Matteo da Gualdo,
+Tiberio di Assisi, l'Ingegno, and one at least by that rarely found
+master, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. There are some in the small church of San
+Paolo, near the Temple of Minerva, some in the Palazzo Pubblico, and
+elsewhere. Beyond the Piazza Grande is the house wherein Metastasio
+was born.
+
+But we found it difficult to detach our interest from Francis
+Bernardone, who is truly the moving spirit of Assisi, and, turning
+downwards to the right, we were soon in the little square of Chiesa
+Nuova. We knocked at the church door, and, after some delay, a very
+old monk, wearing the Franciscan habit, opened it.
+
+He only nodded or shook his head in answer to our questions. The
+interest attaching to Chiesa Nuova lies wholly in the fact that it
+stands on the site of the Bernardone house. The shop of El Poverello's
+father is still preserved in the Via Portici. The high altar in Chiesa
+Nuova is supposed to occupy the place of the saint's bedchamber; a
+side-chapel on the right is an unaltered room of the house, that in
+which his mother, Madonna Pica, dreamed her wonderful dream. The door
+is still standing at which, in her vision, the angel appeared to her,
+with the tidings that her expected child would be born in a stable;
+this is said to be a later invention of the Franciscans. There is a
+dark cave in the church, said to be part of the cellar in which his
+father imprisoned Francis to cure him of his so-called fanatical
+follies. It looked dismayingly dismal. He was probably flung in here
+on his return from San Damiano. The little Piazza before the church
+was not that which witnessed the young saint's renunciation of the
+world, and heard his memorable vow. That scene took place in front of
+the now decayed romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore, near the
+Bishop's palace. This was one of the churches partly restored by St.
+Francis, who rebuilt its eastern end. It was probably on the Piazza
+here that Francis flung down money and clothing, and, sheltered only
+by the Bishop's mantle, borrowed the serge garment of a rough
+countryman, and began his new life.
+
+Francis, when he left the Piazza, was free. He at once set to work to
+repair San Damiano, begging bricks and other needful materials from
+the more charitable of the citizens. He next restored another chapel
+in the neighbourhood; this completed, he fell to work on the wayside
+shrine to which his mother had often taken him as a child, the
+well-known chapel of the Little Portion of St. Mary, or, as it is to
+this day called, La Portioncula.
+
+It belonged to the Benedictine abbey on the heights of Subasio, whence
+a priest occasionally came down the mountain to celebrate mass for
+worshippers. Francis found much comfort in this service, and it was a
+delight to him to restore with his own hands the little building to a
+weather-proof condition.
+
+One day the Gospel read by the officiating priest greatly impressed
+Francis; it seemed to him that the life he was leading could not be
+altogether pleasing to God, because its aim was only the saving of his
+own soul: he ought surely to incite others to share the light he had
+received. From this time there began in him that intense hunger after
+souls which was, next to his love of God, the chief motive-power of
+his life. He had once been pre-eminent in folly, and by his
+vainglorious and prodigal example had led many souls to sin: he was
+bound, he decided, not only to submit himself joyfully to every trial,
+as a means sent to subdue his will and his self-pleasing nature, but
+he must try to prevail on others to follow the same discipline.
+
+His character seems to have developed with every fresh demand on his
+exertions, a development caused not so much by impulse, as by a humble
+feeling that he had not done nearly enough to prove his penitence.
+
+He walked to Assisi, and began to preach in its streets. He at once
+attracted listeners; disciples soon followed.
+
+The first of these was a wealthy noble, called in the _Fioretti_ and
+elsewhere in connection with Francis, Bernard di Quintavalle. This
+nobleman, also called in the _Fioretti_, "Bernard of Assisi, who was
+of the noblest and richest and wisest in the city," wisely began to
+take heed unto St. Francis,--how exceeding strong must be his contempt
+of the world, how great his patience in the midst of wrongs, because
+albeit abominated and despised for two whole years by everyone, he
+seemed yet more patient; Bernard began to think and to say to himself,
+"This could not be, unless the Brother has the fulness of God's
+grace." He invited the preacher that evening to sup and lodge with
+him, and St. Francis consented thereto.... Thereat Bernard set it in
+his heart to watch his sanctity, wherefore he let make ready for him a
+bed in his own proper chamber, in the which, at night-time, ever a
+lamp did burn. And St. Francis, for to hide his sanctity, when he was
+come into the chamber, incontinent did throw himself upon the bed, and
+made as though he slept; and likewise Bernard, after some short space,
+did lie him down, and fell to snoring loudly.... St. Francis, thinking
+truly that Bernard slept, rose up from his bed, and set himself to
+pray ... "My God, my God" at intervals through the night. When morning
+came, Bernard professed himself ready to become a follower of the new
+teaching. Francis, though overjoyed in his heart, told his convert
+that this was a task so great and difficult that it behoved them to
+seek for Divine guidance in the matter. He proposed that they should
+go together to the Bishop's house, and find there a good priest he
+knew; and, after mass had been said for them, that the priest, at the
+request of Francis, should open the missal thrice and read each time
+the words at which it opened.
+
+At the first opening the words were, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and
+sell that thou hast," etc.
+
+At the second opening the words were, "Take nothing for your journey,"
+etc.
+
+At the third, "If any one will come after me, let him deny himself,
+and take up his cross and follow me."
+
+Bernard at once obeyed Christ's words: he sold all his possessions,
+distributed his money among the poor and suffering, and went to live
+with El Poverello, as Francis was called, in a small hut not far from
+the lazar-house. The house of Bernard still stands, also the room in
+which the friends talked; it is now called Palazzo Sbaraglini, and is
+in the same street as the home of Clara Scifi.
+
+The next convert who came to seek Francis in the hut, to ask leave to
+share his labours in tending the lepers, was the learned Pietro di
+Cataneo, a canon of the cathedral of San Rufino. The third was Fra or
+Fratello Egidio, called in English "Brother Giles," a poor labourer,
+who proved to be one of the most remarkable of the group termed by
+Francis his "Knights of the Round Table." Egidio seems to have been
+willing as well as able to set his hand to any work he was asked to
+do. Besides helping to tend the lepers, these men begged their daily
+bread in the streets of Assisi, and Francis preached constantly,
+sometimes in several adjacent villages the same day, so fervently that
+crowds flocked to listen.
+
+The number of penitents soon increased, and, seeing this, Bishop Guido
+of Assisi, at first so kind, grew jealous of the new power of the
+penitent brothers. He advised Francis to join either the Dominican
+community, or the Benedictines, a branch of whom had already
+established themselves on the heights of Subasio.
+
+"Your present life," the Bishop said, "is impracticable."
+
+Francis answered that, "as the Bishop knows, money is at the root of
+all quarrels, therefore I and my brother penitents, wishing to live in
+peace, prefer to be without it."
+
+As time went on the number of penitents increased. Francis was
+perplexed how to dispose of them; he felt also that if he could gain
+the Papal sanction the power of his mission would be strengthened. He
+resolved to make a pilgrimage to Rome, in order to ask Pope Innocent
+the Third to consider his Rule, and to give it his approval.
+
+Eleven of the brothers went with him cheerfully to the Imperial City,
+singing hymns of praise as they walked. They were received very
+coldly: it was considered that such a dusty, travel-soiled handful of
+men, with so small and insignificant a leader, could not have the
+capacity to found a new Order, and that its Rule of Poverty,
+Obedience, and Chastity was unseemly and preposterous.
+
+But when at length Francis was admitted to the Pope's presence,
+Innocent saw in the face of his suppliant something that pleaded too
+powerfully to be resisted, and, after a little more delay, against the
+advice of his worldly, pleasure-loving cardinals, he gave his sanction
+to the objectionable Rule, and named the new community, The Order of
+Brothers Minor.
+
+They quitted Rome as soon as they could; they seem to have suffered
+much privation on their homeward journey, so that they were glad, as
+they approached Assisi, to find and take refuge in a small, empty
+dwelling at Rivo Torto, near the leper-house.
+
+They established themselves here, but their number increased so
+rapidly that they soon outgrew their quarters, and were shown that
+they were unwelcome guests.
+
+When he found that he and his followers could no longer live by
+themselves at Rivo Torto, Francis went to Guido, the Bishop of Assisi,
+and begged to be allowed the use of an oratory, or of any chapel, in
+which he and his brethren could say the Hours of Prayer. He was told
+that no such building could be allotted him; and, almost weeping with
+earnestness and baffled hope, Francis climbed the side of Subasio till
+he reached, near the top, the abbey of the Benedictines. As this side
+of the great hill belonged to the Abbot, the kindly man, who seems to
+have fully sympathised with Francis, granted him the chapel of "the
+Little Portion of St. Mary," to have and to hold for his own.
+
+At once the overjoyed Francis and his disciples, as has been said, set
+to work and built themselves huts to dwell in, near their place of
+worship.
+
+Next to the rapidity with which the new Order made its way, its most
+remarkable feature was its social aspect.
+
+In those days, when the haughty nobles and the still more haughty
+Church dignitaries seem to have ignored the existence of the
+peasantry, we find in the Franciscan brotherhood, from its beginning,
+a complete union of all classes. Its first four members were a canon,
+a nobleman, a rich merchant's son, and a labourer.
+
+The Palazzo Scifi, in which the future Santa Chiara (the first member
+of the Second Order founded by St. Francis) was born, is only a very
+short distance from the church, afterwards built on the site of the
+old San Giorgio, and called, in memory of the Abbess of the Poor
+Clares, Santa Chiara.
+
+On his return from Rome, when it became public talk that he had
+received tonsure, with the Pope's sanction to his Rule for the Order
+of Brothers Minor,--Frati Minori, as they were called,--Francis found
+himself in much higher favour with the Assisans.
+
+Instead of the street preaching he and his Brothers had daily
+practised, he was offered the pulpit of San Giorgio; but that church
+was found too small for the multitudes who flocked to hear El
+Poverello, he was therefore invited to preach in the cathedral of San
+Rufino. This was considered a great honour, and it fixed public
+attention on the founder of the new brotherhood.
+
+It was in San Rufino that this beautiful young girl, named Clara
+Scifi, daughter of the powerful Count Favorini Scifi, as despotic as
+he was powerful, heard the new preacher. Listening with rapt attention
+to these new doctrines of Poverty, Obedience, and Chastity for the
+love and glory of God, and in imitation of his life, the girl
+contrasted this teaching with the life lived around her. This new way,
+the way of the Cross, opened out to her a new revelation.
+
+At that time, her father, a cruel and violent despot, had just laid
+his commands on her, his elder daughter, to wed a young noble of
+Assisi. While the girl listened to the saintly preacher, her heart and
+mind were deeply stirred; she determined to ask the Poverello's advice
+in her trouble. How could she follow out the purpose that had formed
+in her heart, that of leading the life he pictured, if she wedded the
+husband destined for her by her father. Her mother, the Lady Ortolana
+del Fiume, a daughter of the Fiumi, those hated enemies of the
+Baglioni of Perugia, and rivals of the Nepi of Assisi, was a devout
+and good woman. But Clara shrank from consulting her on this subject,
+lest she might breed discord between her parents; she therefore opened
+her heart to her aunt, Bianca Guelfucci, who seems fully to have
+sympathised with her niece's perplexity.
+
+Francis was sorely troubled when the trembling girl sought him out at
+the Portioncula, and begged him to advise her. He said she must not
+act rashly, she must prove the reality of her vocation before he could
+counsel her to take the veil, and thus withdraw herself from her
+parents' guardianship. He bade her wrap herself in a sackcloth robe,
+with a hood drawn over her head so as to conceal her face, and thus,
+clad like a mendicant, beg her bread from door to door through the
+town of Assisi. Clara did this secretly; but it only added to the
+fervent strength of her vocation, and finally Francis consented to her
+wish.
+
+On the night of Palm Sunday the girl quitted the Scifi Palace, and,
+accompanied by her aunt Bianca Guelfucci and a waiting-maid, went
+rapidly out by the Porta Nuova, and across the starlit plain. As they
+drew near the little brown chapel, surrounded by a thick wood, they
+heard the Brothers of the Poor chanting a Psalm, and, waiting till
+this had ceased, the trembling Clara knocked on the door and asked
+leave to enter.
+
+Francis bade her come in, and he questioned her a little, then bade
+her kneel; she obeyed, and took the vows he prescribed, after which he
+cut off all her golden hair and laid it as an offering on the altar.
+When her companion had wrapped her in the veil and sackcloth garment
+of the Order, El Poverello led her and her aunt, through the dark
+night, to the way they had to follow to reach the convent of the nuns
+of San Paolo, about an hour's distance from Assisi. He told her that
+she would there be safe from persecution.
+
+This Second Order of Franciscans was called, when Clara had
+established herself at San Damiano, the Sisterhood of "the Poor
+Clares." Her sister Agnes soon joined Clara, provoking the stormy
+displeasure of her father and her uncle, who was savagely cruel in his
+treatment of this young girl. The church of Santa Chiara was built
+after Clara's death by Fra Campello, in red and cream-coloured marble.
+It has a graceful campanile, and the flying buttresses are very
+remarkable; they spring completely across the pathway beside the
+church.
+
+The building was begun in the year after Santa Clara's death, but the
+nuns remained at San Damiano for fifteen years longer; then the body
+of their foundress was removed to Santa Chiara, and they took up their
+abode in the convent adjoining the church. There are interesting
+pictures in this fine building, especially in the chapel of San
+Giorgio, and by this date the chapel probably contains the famous and
+very ancient crucifix brought here from San Damiano, before which
+Francis was kneeling when he heard the voice bidding him rebuild the
+ruined houses of God. This crucifix was, I think, when we saw it, in
+the convent of Santa Chiara, but we heard that it would be placed by
+the altar of the chapel.
+
+Santa Chiara was built on the site of the old church, San Giorgio, the
+first burial-place of Francis, but it is not clear how much of the
+original edifice was spared by Fra Campello when he designed the new
+building; there is much mention of the older church in the _Life of
+Francis Bernardone_. Clara was buried in the chapel of San Giorgio,
+but her tomb there was not discovered till 1850.
+
+There was great rejoicing in the town at this discovery; her remains
+were carried through Assisi with much splendour of ceremonial, and
+were followed by an immense procession. The coffin was reburied in a
+crypt made to receive it in front of the high altar, reached by a
+double flight of steps. The public are permitted to go down to view
+the body of the saint in a glass case; candles are ever burning before
+it.
+
+We did not, however, visit the crypt, and our gentle-faced conductress
+seemed surprised by our lack of devotion.
+
+When we set out to visit San Damiano, and again passed by the church
+of Santa Chiara, we noticed the contrast of colour between the
+rose-tinted church and the brown convent walls.
+
+We followed the road till it reached a gate on the brow of the hill.
+Here is a lovely view over rugged hill and fertile valley, wilder and
+more picturesque than any we saw from Perugia. A breeze had sprung up;
+now and again a light purple cloud-shadow varied the rosy tint of
+Subasio, already darkened in places by ravines that gaped in his
+rugged side, while the glint of a mountain rill showed here and there
+like a stray gem on the grassy tufts that helped to mark its course.
+Leaving the gate, we went down the steep descent on the right, between
+silvery veils, the deep valleys being clothed with olive-groves;
+their pale leaves gleamed in the sunshine against bright green
+berries, and ancient trunks so gnarled and shrunken that we wondered
+at the abundant crop of fruit overhead. Huge brown patches glowed like
+velvet on these grey trunks; and through the silver veil we saw ranges
+of hills in varied shades of blue, a more delicate tint indicating the
+valleys that lay between them.
+
+There was not anywhere a hope of shade, unless we climbed the bank and
+walked on the rough ground under the olive-trees, but these did not
+grow closely enough to give shelter worth having, and the road under
+foot being fairly smooth, we trudged downhill in the sunshine.
+
+The way proved longer than we expected. At last, concealed among
+trees, we found San Damiano.
+
+We rang a bell beside the entrance; after a long pause, our summons
+was answered by a beautiful young Franciscan, who showed us about
+very courteously. He first took us into the quaint little chapel, and
+pointed out an ancient crucifix; he told us how an angel had come
+during the night, and had carved the unfinished head of the figure. He
+showed us on the right of the entrance the hole below the window into
+which St. Francis flung the money gained at Foligno by the sale of his
+possessions; also, he showed the little cracked bell with which Santa
+Chiara summoned her Sisters to prayer.
+
+It is interesting to learn that, though she ran away from her father's
+house at night to adopt a religious life, Clara's mother, the Lady
+Ortolana, after Count Scifi's death, was received into the Second
+Order, and joined the community under her daughter's rule, then called
+the Poor Ladies of San Damiano.
+
+Behind the little chapel is the choir of the nuns, left just as it was
+when Santa Chiara died. The refectory on the other side of the
+cloisters is also unaltered, and above it is the dormitory of the
+nuns; at the end is Clara's cell. Every step makes the poetic history
+more real. There is still the little garden in which this sweet, brave
+woman took daily exercise, and tended the flowers she so dearly loved.
+
+When we came out we found the artist of our party sketching. Beside
+him was a small boy about seven years old, a curiosity as to clothing.
+He had on part of some ragged knee-breeches, the remains of a shirt,
+and a portion of a straw hat; he seemed a bright, intelligent little
+fellow. He was very much interested in the sketch, and delighted to be
+talked to in his own language. Between his praises he held out a grimy
+little hand, in a saucy, smiling way.
+
+Said the artist, "How much would you like, my man,--would a hundred
+lire suit you?"
+
+The urchin grinned all over. "Si, Signore, I should much like a
+hundred lire, but I would take less!"
+
+We went back up the olive-bordered hills to the pleasant little inn,
+which seems to hang over the lovely valley behind the house. Just
+before reaching Hotel Subasio there is a picturesque view looking
+upwards, the great convent and churches of San Francesco towering
+above us.
+
+Even apart from the touching interest with which the story of St.
+Francis invests the little town, Assisi is delightful, so many
+churches and religious houses exist there, full of picturesque charm
+is the exquisite setting of landscape beyond and around them.
+
+Wherever one looks between the old grey houses, one sees the valley
+full of rich colour, and the far-off, softened outlines of the hills.
+The town on market-days is very bright and cheerful.
+
+It is a steep climb up to the old grey castle, the Rocca di Assisi; it
+sits there crowning the hill like a falcon in its eyrie, the little
+town beneath its feet; and what a wonderful prospect it dominates!
+
+To the west is Perugia, on its group of hills; eastward glistens many
+another town, sometimes sheltered in a hollow of the hills, sometimes
+standing out as Foligno does on the plain beyond.
+
+Behind the castle there is the wildest of ravines; Monte Subasio is
+full of strange nooks and glens, of which the most interesting is that
+of Le Carceri, the group of cells built in the mountain caves by
+Francis and his brethren. He retired here for prayer and penance when
+he found his life at the Portioncula distracting. Close by is the
+little mountain stream of the Tescio, and the ilex-wood in which
+Francis held discourse with the nightingale.
+
+In thinking and writing about St. Francis, one forgets the history of
+Assisi. Till the Roman invasion of Umbria, this history seems chiefly
+traditional. Dardanus is said to have built Assisi before he built
+Troy; in consequence of a dream that came to him while he lay sleeping
+on the slope of Subasio, he founded the famous Temple of Minerva, and
+the city grew up round it.
+
+Goethe greatly displeased the Assisans by journeying to their city
+only to see this temple; he passed by San Francesco without so much as
+entering the church.
+
+The number of subterranean passages leading to the Rocca from all
+parts of the town seems to prove that the little city greatly needed
+shelter from surrounding foes.
+
+From the time that the Etruscans possessed themselves of a large part
+of Umbria, and built the city of Perugia, Assisi was constantly
+persecuted by this powerful neighbour, till the Romans overspread the
+country, conquering the Etruscans, and the grim, hitherto unconquered
+city of Perugia, burning most of it to the ground.
+
+In the Middle Ages, Assisi had frequently to submit to the despotism
+of great leaders of Condottieri and others who bore rule in
+Perugia,--Galeazzo Visconti, Biordo Michelotti, Forte Braccio of
+Montone, Nicola Piccinino, Sforza, and others. Before these, however,
+Charlemagne is said to have taken the city and utterly destroyed it.
+After its destruction, the citizens built walls around their new town,
+they also built the castle on the hilltop. This was at one time
+occupied by Frederick Barbarossa, and then by Conrad of Suabia and
+other despots.
+
+The two noble houses of the Fiumi and the Nepi, one being Guelph and
+the other Ghibelline, though less bloodthirsty than the Baglioni and
+the Oddi of Perugia, seem to have been constantly at strife till the
+advent of St. Francis, who prevailed on them to live more peaceably.
+
+Later on there was again terrible strife and carnage in Assisi, and
+when his lordship the Magnifico Gianpaolo Baglione took upon himself
+to settle matters, famine and misery almost destroyed the inhabitants
+of the brave little city. Miss Lina Duff Gordon, in the chapter called
+"War and Strife" of her charming _Story of Assisi_, gives a vivid
+account of this siege.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ASSISI--SANTA MARIA DEGLI ANGELI
+
+
+It is better, perhaps, after visiting Chiesa Nuova, to go next to St.
+Mary of the Angels at the foot of the hill, instead of visiting San
+Francesco, the saint's memorial church; for at the Portioncula, within
+the walls of Santa Maria, Francis lived and worked and died. Most of
+the Brothers whose names have come down to us were received into the
+Order within the walls of the little chapel.
+
+The vast baldness of Santa Maria's nave, rebuilt less than a hundred
+years ago, in consequence of the damage caused by an earthquake, was
+very uninteresting, but at the east end is the brown Portioncula, the
+home of Francis and of his first followers; for the little chapel
+remained uninjured when the earthquake shattered the walls of the
+outer church.
+
+The dark walls of the Portioncula are covered with votive offerings,
+and over the entrance is a fresco by Overbeck. Looking within, it is
+difficult to imagine how the events recorded in the _Fioretti_ could
+have found room to happen in the tiny place.
+
+On the right is a chapel, the site of the cell of St. Francis; his
+portrait is over the altar, and there are frescoes of his companions.
+Our guide, a Franciscan, looked as if he had come direct from the
+thirteenth century, but he had not brought thence the warm, loving
+glow that must have radiated from the founder of his Order.
+
+The great interest of the place is its story. The Portioncula was a
+well-known shrine, and had existed for years before Francis restored
+it from its ruinous condition. It has been told how, when he was a
+child, the saint was often taken by his mother to the little chapel,
+and prayed there beside her. Two years after he renounced his home and
+his father, Francis was kneeling here in prayer when he received his
+second inspiration. According to his biographers, he hastily rose,
+and, taking up a bit of cord near at hand, tied it round his waist, as
+the outward badge of the Order of Poor Brethren.
+
+Our guide's scanty hair stood erect, and his red-veined blue eyes
+stared at us, as the Gorgons did in the Etruscan tomb. At first he
+would scarcely speak. He may have thought heretics would not
+appreciate his information. When we came to the little rose-garden
+outside the Chapel of the Roses, and talked to him about flowers, he
+thawed; he told us how an unbelieving English traveller had begged a
+rose-tree, so that he might try it in English soil, and how next year
+the Englishman had written to say that the rose-tree was covered with
+thorns; whereas at Santa Maria degli Angeli, these roses, brought here
+from St. Benedict's monastery near Subiaco, have been thornless ever
+since the day when St. Francis carried the original bushes from the
+Benedictine garden at Il Sacro Speco, and planted them here.
+
+Our guide said we ought to pay our next visit when the roses were in
+blossom, "a sight to be met with in no other place." He took us into a
+chapel, where, under the altar, is the den into which the saint
+retired for penance--a most wretched hole; then we went into the
+sacristy, to see a Perugino. In another little chapel is the portrait
+of El Poverello, a very remarkable face, painted on a plank which once
+formed part of the saint's bed. There is a terra-cotta statue of him
+by Andrea della Robbia.
+
+We went back to the church, and looked again at the Portioncula. In
+it Clara, or Chiara, took the vows, and here her beautiful hair was
+shorn from her head by St. Francis. Other memories of Santa Chiara
+cling about this church of Santa Maria. Perhaps the Third, or
+universal, Order was here determined on. The space outside has never
+been built on, because it was here that the memorable meeting took
+place between Clara and St. Francis, in answer to her repeated
+petitions that they might eat bread together. The meeting is very
+quaintly described in _I Fioretti_. Clara had often asked for this
+privilege; this time the Brothers seconded her request, and Francis
+granted it. He had, as soon as was possible, obtained for her the
+little church of San Damiano, and had built up little huts beside it
+for her and the poor ladies, who so soon joined her community. Clara
+passed the rest of her life among the Sisters, and died Abbess of the
+"Poor Clares" of San Damiano.
+
+The community of Brethren met on the open space twice yearly; the
+great chapter of the Order convened by St. Francis eleven years after
+its beginning, recorded in the _Fioretti_, took place on this vacant
+ground. The number of the brethren must have increased very rapidly,
+for several thousands came over the hills and along the valleys from
+far-off parts of Italy to look their founder in the face, and to
+receive his instructions and his blessing. Among others came San
+Dominic, with some of his followers, and the Bishop of Ostia, Cardinal
+Ugolino, afterwards Pope Gregory IX.
+
+The space occupied by Santa Maria must have been covered by the
+village of huts built by St. Francis and his Brothers. In an old map,
+these huts are shown built at regular distances on three sides of the
+Portioncula; among them is one larger than the rest, probably the
+Refectory or the Infirmary of the Brothers. Doubtless they lived here
+a happy family life, though Francis began early to send them out to
+found branches of the Order in other directions. The first sent away
+from the nest-like home was Bernard of Quintavalle, to Bologna; here
+he had to suffer insult and persecution, but he soon won many converts
+by his preaching, and established a community of Brothers Minor in
+that city, over which Francis appointed him guardian. This enterprise
+was repeated over and over again, with success, till, in his hunger
+after souls, several years later, El Poverello set forth with a couple
+of Brothers to Damietta to convert the Soldan, who is said to have
+permitted him to visit the Holy Sepulchre. His visit failed in its
+object, but it is spoken of by Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Acre, as a
+fact.
+
+He was never tired of exhorting his brethren to live joyfully, so as
+to make others happy. Their cares and the sorrow for sin which would
+from time to time beset them, they should, he told them, pour out to
+God in their prayers; he also exhorted them to live always according
+to the Rule of the Order.
+
+The Popes seem to have troubled him by their persistent efforts to
+persuade him to alter the extreme simplicity of this Rule, and to
+assimilate his teaching with that of the other Orders. But St.
+Francis, always most humble and gentle in his denials, pleaded so
+earnestly and so sweetly for the original lines on which he had begun,
+that he succeeded in gaining his point both with Innocent the Third,
+and his successor Honorius. Even his dear friend Ugolino, the Cardinal
+Bishop of Ostia, tried hard, when he succeeded to the Papacy as Pope
+Gregory the Ninth, to convince El Poverello that union with the
+Dominican Order would be a gain to the Church, but the saint's sweet
+humility at last conquered Ugolino. These discussions, however, which
+made needful journeys to and from Rome, involved much loss of time,
+as well as mental weariness, and wore out his decreasing strength.
+
+He was, after a time, constantly suffering, but always cheerful and
+uncomplaining. His greatest trial seems to have been the tendency he
+saw, especially in the more recent converts, to relax the strictness
+of the Rule in regard to Poverty; when he heard, during a journey
+which would take him past Bologna, that larger and more comfortable
+houses had been built for the Brethren there, he at once showed his
+displeasure by passing by the city without stopping to greet the
+Franciscans therein.
+
+He always returned with fresh joy to the Portioncula, and his life
+there with his dear sons; a hard life, supported by the work of their
+own hands.
+
+The gentle saint seems to have had plenty of dignity when called on to
+rebuke a wrongful act; we see this in his dealings with one of his
+early converts, Brother Juniper, that delightfully simple but most
+indiscreet of the Minor Brothers, yet of whom Francis said, after
+pondering on his simplicity and patience in the hour of trial:
+
+"Would to God that I had a whole forest of such Junipers."
+
+Indeed, on that day Brother Juniper was in sad disgrace with the other
+monks. He was visiting a sick Brother, and, being afire with the love
+of God, asked the sick man with much compassion, "Can I do thee any
+service?"
+
+Replied the sick man:
+
+"Much comfort would it give me if thou couldst get me a pig's
+trotter."
+
+Straightway cried Brother Juniper:
+
+"Leave that to me; you shall have one directly."
+
+So he went and took a knife from the kitchen, and in fervour of spirit
+ran through the wood in which certain pigs were feeding; he threw
+himself on one of them, cut off its foot and ran away. Returning to
+the house, he washed and dressed and cooked the foot; and when, with
+much diligence, he had prepared it, he brought the foot right lovingly
+to the sick man.
+
+And the sick man ate it up greedily, to the great comfort and delight
+of Brother Juniper, who with glee told his invalid how he had made
+assault upon the pig.
+
+Meanwhile the swineherd, who saw Brother Juniper cut off the foot,
+went and told all the story to his lord, who, when he was ware of it,
+came to the house of the Brothers, crying out that they were
+hypocrites and thieves and knaves.
+
+"Why have ye cut off my pig's foot?" he shouted.
+
+At the noise he made, St. Francis and the Brothers came out, and with
+all humility the saint made excuses, and promised to make reparation
+for the outrage.
+
+But for all that he was no whit appeased, but with much insult and
+threats went away from the Brothers, full of anger.
+
+And St. Francis bethought him, and said within his heart, "Can Brother
+Juniper in his indiscreet zeal have done this thing?"
+
+He called Juniper to him secretly, and said:
+
+"Didst thou cut off the foot of a pig in the wood?"
+
+Whereat Brother Juniper, not as if he had committed a crime, but as if
+he had done a deed of charity, answered cheerfully:
+
+"It is true, dear Father, I cut off that pig's foot. Touching the
+reason why, I went out of charity to visit a sick Brother." He then
+narrated the facts, and added, "I tell thee, Father, that, considering
+the comfort given by the said foot to our Brother, if I had cut off
+the feet of a hundred pigs as I did of one, in very sooth methinks God
+would have said, 'Well done.'"
+
+Whereat St. Francis said very severely, and with righteous zeal:
+
+"Brother Juniper, why hast thou caused so great a scandal? Not
+without reason doth this man complain of us; he is perhaps already
+noising it in the city. Wherefore I command thee, by thy obedience,
+that thou run after him till thou come up with him, and throw thyself
+on the ground, and confess thy fault, promising to make such
+satisfaction that he may have no cause to complain of us, for of a
+truth this has been too grievous an offence."
+
+Brother Juniper marvelled much at the words, being surprised that
+anyone should be angry at so charitable a deed. He answered:
+
+"Doubt not, Father, that I will straightway pacify him; why should he
+be so disquieted, seeing that this pig was rather God's than his, and
+that great charity hath been done thereby?"
+
+Francis was constantly journeying about, preaching in all the villages
+through which they passed, as well as in the castles which frowned
+down on them, founding new houses of the Order in and near the larger
+towns; he travelled great distances, and carried everywhere with him
+the element of joy, showing it forth in the lovely hymns which he and
+his Brothers carolled along the high-road to lighten the fatigue of
+their journeys.
+
+Reading the _Fioretti_, one feels intimately acquainted with several
+of the Brothers Minor,--with gentle Fra Leone, "the little sheep of
+God"; with Fra Rufino, styled by Francis "one of the three most holy
+souls in the world"; with Fra Masseo, who seems, in one recorded
+instance, to have affected incredulity in regard to the saint's
+humility.
+
+In those days the Portioncula and its village were surrounded by a
+wood, and St. Francis often said his prayers therein; one day as he
+came from them, he was met at the entrance of the wood by Fra Masseo
+of Marignano, a man of much sanctity, discretion, and grace, for the
+which cause St. Francis loved him much.
+
+Said Masseo, "Why to thee? Why to thee? Why to thee?"
+
+Quoth Francis, "What is thy meaning?"
+
+Brother Masseo answered:
+
+"I say, why doth all the world come straight to thee? and why do all
+men long to see thee, to hear thee, and obey thee? Thou art not a man
+comely to look at, thou hast not much learning, thou art not noble:
+whence is it, then, that to thee the whole world comes?"
+
+Hearing this, St. Francis, all overjoyed in spirit, lifting up his
+face to Heaven, stood for a great while wrapped in meditation.
+
+Anon returning to himself again, he knelt him down, and rendered
+thanks and praises unto God; and then with great fervour of spirit he
+turned him to Brother Masseo, and said:
+
+"Wilt thou know why to me? Wilt thou know why to me? Wilt thou know
+why to me the whole world doth run? This cometh unto me from the eyes
+of the most High God, which behold in every place the evil and the
+good: for those most holy eyes have seen among sinners none more vile,
+none more lacking, no worse sinner than I.... Therefore hath He chosen
+me to confound the nobleness and the strength and the greatness and
+the beauty and wisdom of the world, to the intent that men may know
+that all virtue and all goodness come from Him, and not from the
+creature, and that no man may glory in himself; but whoso will glory
+may glory in the Lord."
+
+He often told his Brothers they must never forsake the Portioncula,
+which he and they also so dearly loved. But his strength was almost
+spent, and when he was only forty-two, two years before his death, he
+appointed Brother Bernard vicar-general of the Order, so that he might
+give himself up more completely to meditation and prayer before the
+end came.
+
+He had founded a community near Rome, and appointed a good and
+discreet Guardian thereto; but this Brother seems to have had some
+difficulty in controlling the outbreaks of Brother Juniper, who had
+been sent to this Roman home.
+
+There came a time when all the other Brethren had to go out.
+
+Quoth the Guardian, "Brother Juniper, we are all going out; see to it
+that when we return you have cooked a little food for the refreshment
+of the Brothers."
+
+Replied Brother Juniper, "Right willingly; leave that to me."
+
+Said Brother Juniper to himself, "It is a pity that one Brother should
+always have to be in the kitchen, instead of saying prayers with the
+rest. Of a surety, now that I am left behind to cook, I will make
+ready so much food that all the Brothers will have enough for a
+fortnight, and the cook will have less to do."
+
+So he went with all diligence into the country, and begged several
+large cooking pots; he got also meat, fowls, eggs, vegetables, and
+firewood in plenty; then he put all the eatables in the pots to cook,
+to wit, the fowls with their feathers on, the eggs in their shells,
+and so with the rest.
+
+After a while the Brothers came back to the home, and one of them
+going to the kitchen, saw many great pots on an enormous fire; he sat
+him down and looked on with amazement, but said nothing, watching the
+care with which Brother Juniper did his cooking, and how he hurried
+from one pot to the other. Having watched it all with great delight,
+the Brother left the kitchen, and, finding the other Friars, said to
+them:
+
+"I have to tell you Brother Juniper is making a marriage feast." But
+the Brothers took his word as a jest.
+
+Presently Brother Juniper lifted the pots from the fire, and rang the
+dinner bell. The Brothers sat down to table, and he came into the
+refectory with his dishes, red-faced with his exertions.
+
+Quoth he, "Eat well, and then let us all go and pray: no one need
+think of the kitchen for a while; I have cooked enough food for a
+fortnight."
+
+And Brother Juniper set his stew on the table. But there is not a pig
+in the whole countryside that would have partaken of it.
+
+Then Juniper, seeing that the Brothers did not eat thereof, said:
+
+"These fowls are strengthening for the brain, and this stew is so good
+it will refresh the body." But while the Brothers were full of wonder
+at his simplicity, the Guardian was wroth with the waste of so much
+good food, and reproved him roughly.
+
+Then Brother Juniper threw himself on the ground and humbly confessed
+his fault, saying, "I am the worst of men."
+
+After this he went sorrowfully out of the refectory. The Guardian,
+touched by his humility, asked the Brethren to be kind to Juniper, who
+had, with good intentions, erred through ignorance.
+
+Such pity had Brother Juniper for the poor, that when he saw anyone
+ill-clad or naked he would at once take off his tunic, and the cowl of
+his cloak, and give it to the beggar.
+
+Wherefore the Guardian commanded him that he should give to no poor
+person his tunic or any part of his habit.
+
+Now it happened that a few days after, he met a poor man half-naked,
+who asked alms for the love of God.
+
+"I have nothing," quoth he, "I could give thee save my tunic, and my
+Superior hath enjoined me not to give it to anyone, but if thou take
+it off my back I will not say thee nay."
+
+He spoke not to the deaf, for straightway the poor man pulled his
+tunic off his back and went away with it.
+
+And when Brother Juniper returned to the house, and was asked what had
+become of his tunic, he answered--
+
+"A poor man took it off my back and went away with it." His charity
+had become incessant.
+
+More than once our gentle saint had visited La Vernia, a bleak and
+rugged mountain some four thousand feet above the Casentino valley. On
+these occasions, his friend the Count Orlando Cattani of Chiusi, had
+caused a hut to be built for him near the hilltop. On this last visit,
+Francis felt a pressing need of solitude, so that he might more
+entirely give himself to prayer. He took with him the three men who
+are said to have written the charming sketch of him, called, in the
+French version of it, _La Légende des trois Compagnons_, Fra Leone,
+Fra Masseo, and Fra Angelo.
+
+When they had travelled for two days, Francis became so weak he could
+go no farther, so the Brothers found a peasant with an ass, and
+persuaded him to lend it to their teacher. In doing this they gave his
+name, Francis of Assisi.
+
+The peasant was greatly impressed, for, throughout Italy and beyond,
+this name was a name of power; some way up the mountain of La Vernia,
+or, as it is also called, Alvernia, the peasant leading the ass said
+to its rider:
+
+"I hear that you are Francis of Assisi; well, then, I will give you a
+bit of advice: Try to be as good as people say you are, and then they
+will not be deceived in you."
+
+For answer Francis scrambled down from the ass's back, and, kneeling
+before the amazed peasant, he thanked him with all his heart and soul
+for his counsel.
+
+There is a plateau at the hilltop surrounded by pines and huge
+beech-trees, but before reaching this the whole party was so exhausted
+by the long climb in the heat of August sunshine, that they sat down
+to rest beneath the spreading branches of an oak-tree. The birds,
+accustomed to live in solitude, came fluttering round them, and
+settled especially on the shoulders and head of St. Francis.
+
+When they reached the top, Francis bade his companions stay in their
+customary refuge while he went on by himself. He seems to have stayed
+alone, in a shelter contrived by the Brothers, for forty days, during
+which Fra Leone brought every night and morning some bread and water,
+which he left at the door of the refuge. A falcon used to tap at the
+door at dawn to awaken St. Francis. He is said to have received the
+vision of the Stigmata here on Michaelmas Day, and soon afterwards,
+leaving two of the Brothers in charge of the retreat on the mount, he
+took a touching leave of them, and of the place itself. He thanked the
+birds who had so lovingly welcomed his arrival, and especially Brother
+Falcon, as he termed it, for his daily summons.
+
+He then took his way, on horseback this time, with as little delay as
+possible, accompanied by his devoted Leo, till he reached the
+Portioncula, sorely exhausted and full of pain. Still he was bent on
+starting at once for the south, and seeking to win fresh souls for
+Christ. His strength rapidly decreased, and his sight had begun to
+fail him. He was advised to make a journey to Rieti, where Pope
+Honorius, being driven out of Rome, was then staying, The Pope had
+with him a famous doctor, who it was hoped might cure St. Francis. But
+he had not much faith in earthly remedies, and declined to go to
+Rieti; when, however, St. Clare and some of the Brethren pressed him
+to spend a little time of rest and refreshment at San Damiano, he was
+glad to go there.
+
+Though he was in constant suffering, he seems really to have enjoyed
+this visit. Saint Clare had caused a willow hut to be built for him in
+her garden, and though at night rats and mice tormented him, his
+joyousness and his poetic power returned with their early vigour; for
+it was during these weeks of peaceful outer life, though blind, and
+suffering from hæmorrhage of the lungs, that he composed his famous
+Canticle.
+
+It happened that one day, while seated at table in the refectory of
+San Damiano, before the meal began, Francis seemed all at once to be
+wrapped in a kind of ecstasy. When he roused from this, and became
+fully conscious, he exclaimed, "May God be praised!"
+
+He had just composed the Canticle of the Sun.
+
+       "Altissimu, onnipotente, bon signore,
+     tue so le laude, la gloria, e l'onore et onne benedictione.
+     Ad te solo, altissimo, se konfano
+     et nullu homo ene dignu te mentovare.
+
+       Laudate sie, mi signore, cum tucte le tue creature
+     specialmente messor lo frate sole,
+     lo quale jorna, et illumini per lui;
+     Et ellu è bellu e radiante cum grande splendore;
+     de te, altissimo, porta significatione.
+
+       Laudato si, mi signore, per sora luna e le stelle,
+     in celu l'ài formate clarite et pretiose et belle.
+
+       Laudate si, mi signore, per frate vento
+     et per aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo,
+     per le quale a le tue creature dai sustentamento.
+
+       Laudato si, mi signore, per sor acqua,
+     la quale è multo utile et humele et pretiosa et casta.
+
+       Laudato si, mi signore, per frate focu,
+     per lo quale enallumini la nocte,
+     ed ello é bello et jucundo et robustoso et forte.
+
+       Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra matre terra,
+     la quale ne sustenta et governa
+     et produce diversi fructi con coloriti flori et herba.
+
+       Laudato si, mi signore, per quilli ke perdonano per
+         lo tuo amore et sostegno infirmitate et tribulatione,
+     beati quilli ke sosterrano in pace,
+     ka da te, altissimo, sirano incoronati.
+
+       Laudato si, mi signore, per sora nostra morte corporale,
+     da la quale nullu homo vivente po skappare;
+     guai a quilli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali;
+     beata quilli ke se trovarà ne, le tue sanctissime voluntali,
+     ka la morte secunda nol farrà male.
+
+     Laudate et benedicete mi signore, et rengratiate
+     et serviteli cum grande humilitate."
+
+The following is the almost literal rendering by Matthew Arnold:--
+
+     "O most High, almighty, good Lord God, to Thee belong
+     praise, glory, honour, and all blessing!
+
+     Praised be my Lord God, with all His creatures; and
+     specially our brother the Sun, who brings us the day, and
+     who brings us the light; fair is he, and shining with a
+     very great splendour: O Lord, he signifies to us Thee!
+
+     Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the
+     stars, which He has set clear and lovely in heaven.
+
+     Praised be our Lord for our brother the wind, and for air
+     and cloud, calms and all weather, by the which Thou
+     upholdest in life all creatures.
+
+     Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very
+     serviceable unto us, and humble, and precious, and clean.
+
+     Praised be my Lord for our brother fire, through whom Thou
+     givest us light in the darkness; and he is bright, and
+     pleasant, and very mighty and strong.
+
+     Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which
+     doth sustain us, and keep us, and bringeth forth divers
+     fruits and flowers of many colours, and grass.
+
+     Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one another
+     for His love's sake, and who endure weakness and
+     tribulation; blessed are they who peaceably shall endure,
+     for Thou, O most Highest, shalt give them a crown!
+
+     Praised be my Lord for our sister the death of the body,
+     from whom no man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth in mortal
+     sin! Blessed are they who are found walking in Thy most
+     holy will, for the second death shall have no power to do
+     them harm.
+
+     Praise ye and bless ye the Lord, and give thanks unto Him,
+     and serve Him with great humility."
+
+He lingered many weeks at San Damiano, being greatly refreshed by the
+sweet peace he found there, and his gentle and sympathetic talks with
+his early convert, St. Clare, who seems to have been as capable and
+practical as she was good and holy. After a while she persuaded him to
+journey to Rieti, and take the advice of the doctors.
+
+At Rieti all those who had previously known him were greatly shocked
+by the change in his health. The doctors seem to have tormented him by
+their efforts to restore his sight, even branding his forehead with
+red-hot irons; Francis bore all with the utmost patience and
+sweetness, striving to conform himself to the pattern set by his
+Divine example.
+
+When he at last set forth to return home, he could go no farther than
+Assisi; Bishop Guido had sent him a pressing invitation to stay in his
+palace, while a strong guard was appointed to protect him on the way,
+the fame of his sanctity having made him so precious that it was
+feared an attempt might be made to capture his poor suffering body.
+
+His four most devoted followers nursed him through the weeks that
+followed, these were Leo, Angelo, Masseo, and Rufino.
+
+He remained some months at Assisi, and amid his worst sufferings
+poured out such hymns of joy and thankfulness, that Fra Elia, who
+doubtless was already coveting the power that would so soon be in his
+grasp, remonstrated with the dying saint.
+
+Sick persons, Elia said, were expected to edify others by their
+resigned and saintly demeanour, not by singing so loud that they could
+be heard outside the palace walls. Francis had often asked his
+companions to join in his songs; his own sweet voice had become
+feeble.
+
+He had more than ever need of joy, for with the best intentions one of
+his most saintly companions was troubling his peace by recounting the
+changes worked in the simplicity of the Rule which Francis so dearly
+cherished: how larger monasteries were erected for the increasing
+communities, instead of the small, roughly built houses which he had
+always prescribed as suited for the abodes of begging friars; friars
+vowed to possess nothing of their own. Francis listened, but he had
+already seen these changes: he bade the Brother have faith and trust
+in God, and never to forsake the Rule or the Portioncula.
+
+Soon after this he expressed a wish to return to the little shrine if
+he had power to make the journey, adding quaintly:
+
+"I cannot go so far afoot, my Brothers; you must be good enough to
+carry me."
+
+Half-way to the Portioncula he bade his bearers stop. Raising his
+hand, he gave his last blessing to the town of Assisi, which he could
+no longer see because of his blindness.
+
+Soon after his arrival he asked Fra Leo to summon by letter the Lady
+Jacoba dei Settesoli, a widow who lived in Rome, being the mother of
+two Roman senators. He knew her devotion to him, and to the
+Franciscan Orders, and he feared she would grieve if he did not bid
+her farewell.
+
+Just as the letter was finished, a trampling of horses was heard
+outside, and Madonna Jacoba appeared; she had felt anxious about her
+beloved teacher, and had set forth of her own accord to see him.
+
+She was only just in time; very soon afterwards, having dictated his
+testament and received the last rites, he passed away.
+
+All Italy mourned him, but the grief of the people of Assisi was
+indescribable. On the way to his burial place in San Giorgio the
+procession stopped outside San Damiano, so that Clare and her Sisters
+might come forth and take a last farewell of their revered Father.
+
+The death of St. Francis has been well told by Miss Lina Duff Gordon
+in _The Story of Assisi_.
+
+The more one studies the life of this gentle saint, who lived and
+worked for the love and glory of God; the devotion shown in his
+ardour to save souls; the practical help he gave to all; his complete
+abnegation of self, and the happiness which he showed to be the duty
+of every one, the more one wonders at the frequent persecution of
+Franciscans. They seem to be best off at La Vernia. When we at last
+drove away from Assisi, along the dusty roads, which, to those who
+read the _Fioretti_, are full of flower-like memories of the
+sweet-natured saint and his favourite companions, Fra Leone, Fra
+Egidio, Fra Masseo, and others, the sun was setting gloriously;
+Subasio glowed like a carbuncle as it reflected the gold and scarlet
+splendour opposite, and while this glow faded slowly into purple, the
+long line of the houses of Assisi blushed like a rose beside the
+mountain. We watched till the purple became a rich grey, painted with
+pale brown tints, while the sky just above the ridge of hills was
+palest green, changing into yellow above. Long lines of purple barred
+these delicate tints, and on the bluer, now cool, sky opposite lay
+rounded masses of white cloud with grey under-edges.
+
+It was dark before we drove up the steep road into Perugia, and
+reached our comfortable quarters in the Hotel Brufani.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ADDIO PERUGIA
+
+
+September had nearly fled, yet the leaves in the Tronto garden had
+hardly begun to change colour; the air, however, was now extremely
+cold as soon as the sun had departed. The wine-carts which daily
+thronged the streets warned us that the vintage would soon be over.
+
+Day after day, as we looked from our windows in early morning, we saw
+flocks of sheep with their attendant shepherds, and herds of goats
+coming down in great numbers from the mountains. They trooped past our
+windows, and took their way along the dusty road towards the Maremma.
+
+The poor, tired herdmen looked picturesque in ragged thin trousers
+and patched coats; they wore high-peaked hats, and had a sort of
+make-believe appearance as they trudged along on foot behind their
+beasts. Every now and then came a padrone mounted on a mule, sometimes
+on a horse, with quaint trappings; he always carried a long pole and a
+huge roll of green baize in front of him. We did not see any women or
+children, but we were told that the shepherds take their families
+along with them in these spring and autumn migrations, for they will
+go back to the hills as soon as winter is over. As we watched them we
+felt sadly that we too must soon say goodbye to Perugia.
+
+One of our last walks was to Monte Luce; and, coming back towards
+Perugia, we stopped and watched the sun set; as it sank behind the
+purple, bleak hills the sky above them was blood-red; higher up,
+stretched in long broad lines, was a mass of greenish slate-coloured
+clouds. On the right these were reft, and showed a sea of golden
+glory; while, still higher, clouds of paler grey sailed over a rosy
+veil that stretched itself across a sky of luminous green. As we went
+on, the blood-red tint paled and faded; the clouds above took a darker
+hue, and loomed, with storm-laden, broken edges, over the deep valley
+that lay between where we stood and the projecting bastion, a view
+crowned by the weird tower of San Domenico. This stood up in startling
+vividness against the almost appalling gloom that had so quickly
+gathered.
+
+Around us the view opened widely, the triple range of hills showed a
+sullen grey of differing tints; on some of them, where the light was
+lurid with a tawny tinge, it was plainly raining; yet, although
+thunder seemed imminent in the humid clouds that hung lower and lower
+over the valley, we were told that probably there would not be a storm
+at Perugia. Certainly, we had perfect atmosphere and perfect weather.
+The hill-city seemed to us in all ways very healthy--a place where
+winter and spring, summer and autumn, might alike be spent with charm
+and profit by those travellers who love the nature and art of Italy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+LAKE THRASYMENE AND CORTONA
+
+
+The most interesting part of the journey to Cortona is the view of
+Lake Thrasymene, with its reedy shores and islands, near the
+picturesque little town of Passignano.
+
+  [Illustration: OLIVE BRANCH.]
+
+As one leaves the station below Cortona, and mounts the hill to the
+grandly placed town, Thrasymene comes in sight again, and adds much to
+the beauty of the landscape. It is almost worth while to go to Cortona
+for the sake of the drive up from the station, and the exquisite view
+from the city walls, ponderous marvels of stone-work. But Cortona is
+not a desirable place to sleep in. The inn, when we stayed there, was
+not at all comfortable, and although the town is placed at such a
+height, the moss growing outside the houses tells how damp is the
+atmosphere.
+
+If Perugia had seemed ancient, Cortona appeared antediluvian.
+According to the old historians, Perugia sent soldiers to fight
+against Troy, but Cortona boasts of having given birth to Dardanus,
+the founder of Assisi.
+
+It was late afternoon when we reached the top of the hill, and when we
+took our way from the inn through the hilly, twisting streets to the
+Porta Colonia, the sun had already set, although the sky still glowed.
+
+Lake Thrasymene looked pale and weird against the olive landscape.
+Before us was a deep valley backed by a warm, purple mountain ridge;
+behind us was the stupendous Etruscan wall. We followed the course of
+this down the steep descent, for Cortona is built on the side of a
+rocky hill which yet towers above it. The blocks of travertine in
+the wall are even larger than those at Perugia. Nestling between them,
+we found a wealth of ferns; ceterach and several delicate aspleniums
+growing freely among these grim records of past ages.
+
+  [Illustration: OLIVE-TREES, LAKE THRASYMENE.]
+
+Suddenly, while we were stooping to look closely at the ferns in the
+fading light, there came to us, as if from the clouds, a full-voiced
+chant; deep organ notes swelled above the sweet tones of treble
+voices.
+
+We looked up and saw that a convent is built above the walls. We stood
+for some time on this side of the hill listening to the aerial music.
+Behind us was the deep purple of the valley,--the vast plain below was
+changing into a brown olive, a wild, desolate-looking expanse; but
+there was overhead a peculiar clearness of atmosphere.
+
+The young moon hung high above the convent towers; its light helped us
+to find our way over the rough ground, till at last we reached one of
+the city gates, and went back through the dark streets to our inn.
+
+There was not a deserted or sleepy look about the place. People were
+gossiping and trafficking in the streets, and there were plenty of
+customers in the shop we went into.
+
+Our bedroom at the inn looked alarmingly dismal; large and lofty, it
+contained an enormous four-poster with a heavy, dark green canopy and
+curtains. Everything looked and smelt damp; but when we asked to have
+the bed aired, our host said, "Such a thing is impossible at this time
+of year."
+
+Next morning we found a busy market on the hilly Piazza. The town hall
+is here, and some women spreading out orange and scarlet handkerchiefs
+in the loggia above gave colour to the scene; but the people looked
+somewhat squalid and dirty after our bright Perugians; moreover,
+Cortona folk are indifferent and sometimes uncourteous to strangers.
+
+  [Illustration: PALAZZO COMUNALE, CORTONA.]
+
+We turned into a side street to see a fine palazzo; then, crossing
+the market-place, went on to the Palazzo Pretoria. The walls of this
+building, both in the street and those round the inner quadrangle, are
+curiously decorated with small shields bearing the arms of ancient
+magistrates; they reminded us of the Bargello walls in Florence.
+
+We went upstairs, and were told that the custode of the museum was not
+in, but if we waited he would be sure to come soon. We had, however,
+to send more than one messenger in search of him before he appeared.
+There are many Etruscan and some Roman antiquities in this museum, but
+its chief treasure is the famous candelabrum. This holds sixteen
+lamps; between each lamp is a head of Bacchus, while eight satyrs and
+eight sirens, placed alternately, form a marvellously rich border.
+Within this circle is represented a fight with wild animals, then
+waves and fish, with a Medusa's head as centre. The colour of the
+candelabrum, an exquisite mingling of blue and bronze, is beautiful.
+Near it is a painting on stone--a female--said to be very ancient.
+
+  [Illustration: BRONZE CANDELABRUM.]
+
+After the museum we went into the cathedral; the pictures painted by
+Luca Signorelli for his native town are here. Luca was born at
+Cortona, and was a pupil of Piero della Francesca. Near the choir is a
+beautifully carved marble tomb, in which the people believe the Consul
+Flaminius was buried after the battle of Thrasymene.
+
+We had not time to visit the baptistery opposite, which also contains
+pictures by Luca and by Fra Angelico. We were anxious to see the view
+from the church of Santa Margherita, above the town. Her statue stands
+just outside the cathedral; a little dog crouches at her feet.
+
+Margherita was not a native of Cortona; she lived for pleasure only;
+on her repentance she entered a Franciscan convent here, and passed a
+life of charity and holy penitence for her sins. Her conversion is
+said to have taken place on the sudden death of one of her lovers.
+
+As he left her house, accompanied by his little dog, he was
+assassinated. The little dog came back to Margherita's house, and by
+its cries attracted her notice; it then pulled at her gown, till it
+induced her to follow to where her lover lay dead. For this reason
+Santa Margherita is always represented with a little dog beside her.
+
+We went along the road past the platform, where there is a fine view
+over the Chiana valley, and turned in to old San Domenico to see the
+pictures. The campanile of this church is a picturesque feature of
+Cortona. We could only see two of the pictures, neither of them very
+remarkable. Another was being restored, the custode said. The walk
+from this point up to Santa Margherita was delightful. The sunshine
+was brilliant, and the air had a delicious touch of autumn crispness.
+The way beside the wall is steep, but there are constant views over
+the country, and gradually, as we mounted, Lake Thrasymene revealed
+itself in pale blue-green loveliness; a projecting hill, however,
+partly blocks the view, and only allows about half of the lake's grand
+expanse to be seen. The yellow turf was gay with wild flowers, some of
+them rare specimens. When we at last reached the church, we were
+rewarded for our climb.
+
+Santa Margherita was designed and probably built by Niccolo and
+Giovanni Pisano, but it has been very much restored; the view from
+its platform is magnificent. In front is a screen of tall cypresses,
+between which the purple hills show exquisitely. The spacious church
+originally designed by Niccolo Pisano has been re-modelled, but there
+is a beautiful monument to Santa Margherita by Giovanni Pisano. Santa
+Margherita's tomb reminded us of Pope Benedict's at Perugia. The saint
+lies sleeping with her little dog at her feet; in a bas-relief she
+yields her soul to angels, who bear it to Heaven.
+
+The Fortezza behind the church is said to command a still finer view,
+but we were quite satisfied to sit on the flowery turf enjoying the
+surpassing loveliness below us. Hills and valleys, far-reaching
+plains, the still lake, and the sky overhead, seemed to vie with one
+another in beauty, yet to blend into such perfect harmony that the
+sensation of gazing was one of complete repose.
+
+Down a long, long flight of irregular steps we found our way to the
+quaint little church of St. Nicholas. While we sat gazing we had
+watched a woman go down these steps, so we felt sure they would lead
+us somewhere; they took us to the queerest little up-and-down village
+imaginable, a village of mendicants; every one begged of us, the
+children being very pertinacious.
+
+One bright-eyed monkey of a boy, with bare brown legs and feet, and a
+red cap stuck over one eye, followed us down the broken way, dancing
+and chattering as he came. All at once he stopped and pointed to three
+younger children, sitting in a mud pool outside a cottage door, even
+more ragged and dirty, but quite as bright-looking as he was.
+
+I asked him if he had a father or a mother, but he shook his head.
+
+"Oimè, Signora!--io son padre di famiglia," he said, with a merry
+laugh, and he pointed again to the black-eyed urchins.
+
+We joined in his laugh; his face and his tiny outstretched hand were
+irresistible. He shouted for joy when we dropped a coin into it; after
+this, at the end of every turning we passed, there was our
+bright-eyed, dirty little beggar, with outstretched brown hand and the
+sauciest of smiles. When we shook our heads at him he capered away,
+the soles of his slender brown feet almost as high as his head.
+
+The little church of San Nicola is hidden away among the houses, with
+a quaint little grassed cloister court in front of it, and a row of
+ancient cypresses. On one side is a little cloister walk; a
+vine-covered pergola supported itself by filling up the small space
+inclosed. In the church is an altar picture, painted on both sides,
+this is said to be one of the last works of Luca Signorelli. The
+fresco, said also to be his, has been much restored. This little
+church belonged to a confraternity, and the seats still remain along
+the sides of the front court in which the Brethren have sat in
+council, or from which they have enjoyed the view over the wall that
+borders this quiet cloister.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As we drove rapidly downhill to the station, we looked at the country
+through a silver veil, for the olive-trees are larger here than at
+Perugia, and they literally cover the first part of the steep
+descent,--so steep that the road has to descend by terraces zig-zagged
+along the side of the hill.
+
+We had told our red-haired, blue-eyed driver to take us to the
+Etruscan grotto, and he presently stopped at a rough break, with large
+stones placed so as to form irregular steps.
+
+The man was in fear lest the horse should run away, and was greatly
+excited. He went on chattering patois to that effect; but though I
+told him I was quite able to climb up by myself, he would stand at the
+top of the steps hauling me up with one hand and flourishing his whip
+with the other, as if he were performing a circus feat.
+
+We left him there, and presently entered a solemn grassed avenue of
+gigantic cypresses, their pale grey stems gleaming in the sunlight.
+This avenue slopes upward, and at the end the ruined grotto shows
+between the lines of tall dark trees; it is very curious, circular in
+form, with neatly finished compartments in it for the urns. These have
+all been taken away; only part of the circular top of the sepulchre
+remains, lying near the ruined stone; but even in its fractured state
+it is very impressive; alone on the hillside, screened from the
+immense prospect before it by a surrounding of olive-trees. As we
+drove down to the railway, far below us, it seemed to us it had been
+quite worth while to stay at Cortona for the sake of this wonderful
+drive down the steep hillside; but the town is probably safer from
+damp in August than we found it in October.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+     Alunno, Niccolo, 75.
+       Statue of, 81.
+
+     Angelus, the, 136.
+
+     Apennines, 7.
+
+     Assisi, way to, 165.
+       Albergo Subasio, 176.
+       Carceri, le, 224.
+       Chiara Scifi, or S. Clare, conversion of, 244.
+       Churches--
+         S. Chiara, 249.
+         S. Damiano, 214-216, 252, 283.
+         S. Francesco, campanile, 180.
+         Lower church, 179.
+         Cloister garden, 201.
+         Upper church, 202.
+         S. Giorgio, 233.
+         S. Maria degli Angeli, 172, 260.
+           Rose garden, 262.
+         S. Maria Maggiore, 234.
+         Nuova, 233.
+         S. Paolo, 233.
+         Cathedral of S. Rufino, 232.
+       Fra Egidio, 240.
+         Elia, 194.
+         Leone, 168.
+         Masseo, 273.
+       S. Francis, birth and parentage, 206;
+         dream of, 208;
+         visits lazar house, 210;
+         breaks with his friends, 211;
+         his father's anger, 213;
+         goes to S. Damiano, 214;
+         conversion of, 215;
+         markets at Foligno, 215;
+         renounces the world, 221;
+         converts Bernard and others, 237;
+         goes to Rome, 241;
+         gains Pope's sanction to Order of Brothers Minor, 242;
+         lives at Rivo Torto, 242;
+         preaches in S. Rufino, 245;
+         founds second Order the Poor Clares, 248;
+         visits the Soldan, 266;
+         his last visit to La Vernia, 280;
+         vision of the Stigmata, 282;
+         visits S. Chiara, 283;
+         composes Canticle of the Sun, 284;
+         visits Bishop Guido, 289;
+         returns to the Portioncula, 291;
+         Madonna Jacoba di Settesoli visits him, 291;
+         he dies, 292.
+       Brother Juniper, 268, 276, 279.
+       Palazzo Sbaraglini, 239. Scifi, 244.
+       Piazza S. Maria Maggiore, 221.
+       Porta Cappucini, 224. Nuova, 214.
+       La Portioncula, 235, 243, 247, 260, 265, 268.
+       Rocca di Assisi, 255.
+       Roman Assisi, 232.
+       Temple of Minerva, 231.
+       Tomb of S. Francis, 193.
+
+
+     Baglione, Astorre, 48, 49, 52, 53.
+       Atalanta, 47, 58, 59, 62.
+       Gianpaolo, 56-58, 60, 61, 63, 65.
+       Grifonetto, 50-53, 55, 59, 61, 62.
+       Simonetto, 48.
+
+     Baglioni, the, 45-47.
+
+     Bergamo, Damiano and Stefano da, intarsia by, 126.
+
+     S. Bernardino of Siena, 33, 37.
+
+     Bevignate, Fra, 33.
+
+     Bonfigli, Benedetto, 5, 73.
+
+
+     Cacciolfo, 87.
+
+     Cimabue, 190.
+       Frescoes by, 202.
+
+     Cortona, 299.
+       Candelabrum, 307.
+       Cathedral, 308.
+       Church of S. Domenico, 310.
+         S. Margherita, 310.
+         S. Nicholas, 313.
+       Etruscan grotto, 315.
+       Palazzo Pretoria, 307.
+
+
+     Dante's mention of Assisi and of S. Francis, 175.
+
+     Ducci, Agostino, 105.
+
+
+     Foligno, 81.
+       Cathedral, 82.
+       S. Maria infra Portas, 83.
+       S. Niccolo, 83.
+       Palazzo Deli, 83.
+       Tribunale del Commune, 82.
+
+     Forte Braccio, 39, 43, 44.
+
+     Fra Angelico, 75, 112.
+
+
+     Giotto, 188.
+       Frescoes by, 188, 192, 195, 205.
+
+     Guidalotti, Abbot of S. Pietro de' Casinensi, 42.
+
+
+     Keys of Assisi and Siena, 34.
+
+
+     Lorenzetti, Pietro, of Siena, 191.
+
+     Lorenzo, Fiorenzo di, 73, 74, 233.
+
+
+     S. Margherita, 309.
+
+     Martini, or Memmi, Simone, of Siena, 192.
+
+     Matarazzo, 46, 54, 64.
+
+     Michelotti, Biordo, 42, 43.
+
+     Montefalco, 83.
+
+
+     Nelli, Ottaviano, frescoes by, 82.
+
+
+     Perugia, 1.
+       Belle arti Albergo, 10.
+       Bellucci, Signor, 17.
+       S. Bernardino of Siena, 111-118.
+         Oratory of, 97, 105, 111.
+       Betti, Signor, 15, 16.
+       Brufani hotel, 10.
+       Cappella del Cambio, 72.
+       Charms, 17-20.
+       Churches--
+         S. Agata, 101.
+         S. Angelo, 158.
+         S. Bernardino, 105.
+         S. Domenico, 23.
+         S. Ercolano, 14, 133.
+         S. Lorenzo, 35.
+         Madonna di Luce, 102.
+         S. Maria Assunta, 134.
+         S. Maria Nuova, 40.
+         S. Pietro de' Casinensi, 119.
+         S. Severo, 38.
+       Corso, 32.
+       Cupa, La, 138.
+       Daybreak at, 11.
+       El gran tradimento, 54-57.
+       Etruscan wall, 15.
+       Fontana Borghese, 79.
+       Fonte Maggiore, 33.
+       Griffin, 34.
+       Market, 24.
+       Monte Luce, 134.
+       Mosaic pavement, 148.
+       Palazzo Antinori, 151.
+         Baglione, 14.
+         Canonica, 33.
+         del Capitano del Popolo, 27.
+         Pubblico, or Comunale, 32, 34, 35.
+       Passeggiata Pubblica, 119.
+       Perugino, 4, 5, 73.
+         House of, 101.
+       Piazza del Duomo, 32, 35, 41.
+         dei Gigli, 38.
+         Grimani, 16.
+         Monte Sole, 38.
+         del Papa, 36.
+         Sopra Mura, 24.
+         Vittor Emanuele, 14.
+       Pinacoteca, 69, 75.
+       Pope Benedict XI., statue of, 24.
+         Boniface, 123.
+         Julius III., statue of, 36.
+         Paul III., 13, 66.
+       Porta Augusta, 151, 152.
+         Buligaia, 156.
+         Costanzo, 119, 129.
+         Eburnea, 142.
+         Marzia, 13, 15.
+         S. Pietro, 129.
+         S. Angelo, 158.
+         Susanna, 13.
+       Sala del Cambio, 69, 70.
+       Tombs of the Volumnii, 130.
+       Via Appia, 143.
+       Women, 28, 29, 30.
+
+     Piccinino, Nicola, 44.
+
+     Piero della Francesca, 69, 73.
+
+     Pinturicchio, 87-89.
+
+     Pisano, Giovanni, 33, 34, 184.
+
+     Pisano, Nicolo, 33.
+
+     Ponte San Giovanni, 80.
+       Sunsets, 128.
+       Veduta, La, 119.
+
+
+     Raffaelle, 3, 4.
+
+     Rocca di Vicenza, 87.
+
+     Rossi, 34.
+
+
+     Sabatier, Monsieur Paul, 171, 206.
+
+     Sanzio, Giovanni, 3.
+
+     Savonarola, 37.
+
+     Spello, 84.
+       Amphitheatre, 91.
+       Capuchin Convent, 91.
+       Churches--
+         Santa Maria Maggiore, 87.
+         Capella del Sacramento, 87.
+           Frescoes in, 87.
+         San Andrea, 89.
+       Porta Augusta, 92.
+       Porta Veneris of Hispellum, 84.
+
+     Spoleto, 43, 200, 209.
+
+     Subasio, Monte, 7, 80, 81.
+
+
+     Tasso, Domenico del, intarsia by, 70.
+
+     Thrasymene, Lake of, 300.
+
+     Trevi, 87.
+
+
+     Ugolino, Bishop of Ostia, 265.
+
+
+     Vannucci, Cristoforo, 4.
+       Vannucci, Pietro, 4, 70.
+       La Vernia, 224.
+       S. Vincent Ferrier, 113.
+
+
+     Witches, belief, in, 20.
+
+
+
+
+     Printed by
+     MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED
+     Edinburgh
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43754 ***