song of
angels.

The boys of Florence especially had grown wild and rough during the
reign of pleasure, and they were the terror of the city during carnival
time. They would carry long poles, or 'stili,' and bar the streets
across, demanding money before they would let the people pass. This
money they spent on drinking and feasting, and at night they set up
great trees in the squares or wider streets and lighted huge bonfires
around them. Then would begin a terrible fight with stones, and many of
the boys were hurt, and some even killed.

No one had been able to put a stop to this until Savonarola made up his
mind that it should cease. Then, as if by magic, all was changed.

Instead of the rough game of 'stili,' there were altars put up at the
corners of the streets, and the boys begged money of the passers-by,
not for their feasts, but for the poor.

'You shall not miss your bonfire,' said Savonarola; 'but instead of a
tree you shall burn up vain and useless things, and so purify the city.'

So the children went round and collected all the 'vanities,' as they
were called--wigs and masks and carnival dresses, foolish songs, bad
books, and evil pictures; all were heaped high and then lighted to make
one great bonfire.

Some people think that perhaps Sandro threw into the Bonfire of
Vanities some of his own beautiful pictures, but that we cannot tell.

Then came the sad time when the people, who at one time would have made
Savonarola their king, turned against him, in the same fickle way that
crowds will ever turn. And then the great preacher, who had spent his
life trying to help and teach them, and to do them good, was burned in
the great square of that city which he had loved so dearly.

After this it was long before Botticelli cared to paint again. He was
old and weary now, poor and sad, sick of that world which had treated
with such cruelty the master whom he loved.

One last picture he painted to show the triumph of good over evil. Not
with the sword or the might of great power is the triumph won, says
Sandro to us by this picture, but by the little hand of the Christ
Child, conquering by love and drawing all men to Him. This Adoration of
the Magi is in our own National Gallery in London, and is the only
painting which Botticelli ever signed.

'I, Alessandro, painted this picture during the troubles of Italy ...
when the devil was let loose for the space of three and a half years.
Afterwards shall he be