t it, but
for all that it seemed to me strange." Finally, all the other lads
gathered round him and wrought on him to believe that it had been a fit
of giddiness.

Another time a cloth-weaver came to live in a house next to Sandro's,
and erected no less than eight looms, which, when at work, not only
deafened poor Sandro with the noise of the treadles and the movement of
the frames, but shook his whole house, the walls of which were no
stronger than they should be, so that what with the one thing and the
other he could not work or even stay at home. Time after time he
besought his neighbour to put an end to this annoyance, but the other
said that he both would and could do what he pleased in his own house;
whereupon Sandro, in disdain, balanced on the top of his own wall, which
was higher than his neighbour's and not very strong, an enormous stone,
more than enough to fill a wagon, which threatened to fall at the
slightest shaking of the wall and to shatter the roof, ceilings, webs,
and looms of his neighbour, who, terrified by this danger, ran to
Sandro, but was answered in his very own words--namely, that he both
could and would do whatever he pleased in his own house. Nor could he
get any other answer out of him, so that he was forced to come to a
reasonable agreement and to be a good neighbour to Sandro.

[Illustration: SANDRO BOTTICELLI: THE MADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATE

(_Florence: Uffizi, 1289. Panel_)]

It is also related that Sandro, for a jest, accused a friend of his own
of heresy before his vicar, and the friend, on appearing, asked who
the accuser was and what the accusation; and having been told that it
was Sandro, who had charged him with holding the opinion of the
Epicureans, and believing that the soul dies with the body, he insisted
on being confronted with the accuser before the judge. Sandro therefore
appeared, and the other said: "It is true that I hold this opinion with
regard to this man's soul, for he is an animal. Nay, does it not seem to
you that he is the heretic, since without a scrap of learning, and
scarcely knowing how to read, he plays the commentator to Dante and
takes his name in vain?"

It is also said that he had a surpassing love for all whom he saw to be
zealous students of art; and that he earned much, but wasted everything
through negligence and lack of management. Finally, having grown old and
useless, and being forced to walk with crutches, without which he could
not stand u