hould paint upon it, for he loved to draw strange monsters.

'I will make it as terrifying as the head of Medusa,' he said at last,
highly delighted with the plan that had come into his head.

Then he went out and collected together all the strangest animals he
could find--lizards, hedgehogs, newts, snakes, dragon-flies, locusts,
bats, and glow-worms. These he took into his own room, which no one was
allowed to enter, and began to paint from them a curious monster,
partly a lizard and partly a bat, with something of each of the other
animals added to it.

When it was ready Leonardo hung the shield in a good light against a
dark curtain, so that the painted monster stood out in brilliant
contrast, and looked as if its twisted curling limbs were full of life.

A knock sounded at the door, and Ser Piero's voice was heard outside
asking if the shield was finished.

'Come in,' cried Leonardo, and Ser Piero entered.

He cast one look at the monster hanging there and then uttered a cry
and turned to flee, but Leonardo caught hold of his cloak and
laughingly told him to look closer.

'If I have really succeeded in frightening thee,' he said, 'I have
indeed done all I could desire.'

His father could scarcely believe that it was nothing but a painting,
and he was so proud of the work that he would not part with it, but
gave the peasant of Vinci another shield instead.

Leonardo then began a drawing for a curtain which was to be woven in
silk and gold and given as a present from the Florentines to the King
of Portugal, and he also began a large picture of the Adoration of the
Shepherds which was never finished.

The young painter grew restless after a while, and felt the life of the
studio narrow and cramped. He longed to leave Florence and find work in
some new place.

He was not a favourite at the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent as
Filippino Lippi and Botticelli were. Lorenzo liked those who would
flatter him and do as they were bid, while Leonardo took his own way in
everything and never said what he did not mean.

But it happened that just then Lorenzo wished to send a present to
Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and the gift he chose was a
marvellous musical instrument which Leonardo had just finished.

It was a silver lute, made in the form of a horse's head, the most
curious and beautiful thing ever seen. Lorenzo was charmed with it.

'Thou shalt take it thyself, as my messenger,' he said to Leonardo. 'I