Fkb.
me
20,
ONCE A WEEK.
1864.]
time to recover from
on
my
went
surprise,
of
I
saw monsieur's boatmen returning to fell deeply ashamed that my country-
men
should bo guilty of Such discourtesy towards house is a stranger, and an Englishman. venbut a moment's walk from the lake, and
My
I
ture to assure monsieur that
own.
If after
it is
entirely his
I
who
ve me his confidence. He told me that he was the only son of a struggling doctor of Sienna, and had been for some tin
relate
them with
to follow the profession
think, the only person
ficient of the particulars to
to
l
I
artistic instinct,
justice."
The
society of the
more
especial
further
picture, I knows suf-
some repose he would wish
more of the history of that
learn
him with an
invested
On
knowledge I found him possessed of an amiable but somewhat too retiring disposition, and perceived that his education, though not perfectly, had been honestly and piously conducted. It needed no very great diplomacy to draw his history from him the poor boy had but few friends,
Ooxuo, and
am,
first
attraction.
"
227
age —
liberal
and
of his
father.
His
however, weighed successfully
in the scale against the doctor's scruples, and For Giuseppe became a student at Florence.
intelli-
gent members of the Roman Catholic priesthood is always especially agreeable to me, and my new acquaintance seemed an excellent His specimen of the class to which I allude. appearance charmed me, and I accepted his Two kindness with a profusion of thanks. hours afterwards, while digesting a simple but excellently-ordered dinner, I listened to the
two years Dr. Vetrano contrived
to send his son a certain allowance; small, indeed, but still sufficient to enable Giuseppe to devote The lad was indushimself entirely to study. trious, and though he denied himself all the little indulgences of youth, he still found lei-
sure to write hopeful letters home. the terrible calamity I spoke of
Then came week
—in a
following story, which I shall endeavour to give in the narrator's own words, suppressing, of course, the names, as members of the noble
family implicated are still existing. " If we could analyse the acuter trials of the mind," said my host, drawing his chair closer to the fire, and speaking somewhat ab" I think we should have some lly, finding any keener than those difficulty in which attend upon the first struggles and dis-
When the bitterness Giuseppe was an orphan. of the fresh sorrow had passed away, a second The grief as formidable as the first succeeded. doctor and his wife had died in the direst poverty; their entire possessions barely sufficed to buy them the right to a grave. Their son was It was then that young Vetrano penniless. found, added to his first great misery of the
—
some sharper pangs the pangs of hunger. displant the glorious inspiration of the ideal
heart,
The ceaseappointments of an artistic career. the lessly recurring doubts of our own powers fears with which we commit ourselves to a future which our eyes strive in vain to pierce
from its pure pedestal, and supply its place by the image of a few coins was wretchedness enough, but to find even this last poor goal
crushing necessity that compels us to reduce our nobler thoughts and higher aspira-
He supported himunattainable was terrible. self for some time by the sale of his simple
the
by which our daily bread these pains can hardly be
tions to a standard
can be measured said to have their
I felt this deeply parallel. myself in my youth, and when the shadow passed from my own heart it left me a sad sympathy for those who still laboured in the breath of its chill darkness. Some fifteen years ago, when the Art Schools of Florence were more than commonly crowded, my sacred
duties attached
and
me to
the cathedral of that city,
had excellent opportunities of studying the phases of a branch of art-life to which I was a stranger. I made many friends but among all who attached themselves to me, though many Avere more talented, few excited so much interest on my part as a young man I therefore
named Giuseppe Vetrano, a
He had
lost
native of Sienna.
both parents during the
rav.:
an epidemic, about live months before the time when 1 first became acquainted with him, ami possibly this circumstance, combined with his extreme youth he was but twenty years
—
To
clothing resource
but though he added to this poor
by copying for the dealers, destitution stared at him through the canvas, and his brush was yet too week a weapon to defend That his gentle nature could not long I saw trials I felt convinced. him but seldom, and after each interval I found him sadly changed. His visits to the church grew less and less frequent, and at length three
him.
sustain such
months passed by without my having once I thought of him with encountered him there. much anxiety, and though I many times resolved
to
set
my
trembled to learn
doubts at
what
I
rest,
feared
I
almost
might be
the truth.
"
It
was about
this
time that the conduct of
the young Marchioness di Ikmaglieri first became the subject of conversation in Florentine society, and in the exercise of my calling I had
frequent opportunities of verifying the reports This lady that were so extensively circulated.
came of an ancient but impoverished family,