r days, said with
a sigh:

"Ah! Guido mine! what fire is it hath consumed you away thus? You burned
up your life in science first, and then in public affairs. I beseech
you, quench somewhat the ardour of your spirit; comrade, let us husband
our strength, and, as Riccardo the blacksmith says, make up a fire to
last."

But Guido Cavalcanti put his hand on his lips.

"Hush!" he whispered, "hush! not a word more, friend Betto. I wait my
lady, her who shall console me for so many vain loves that in this world
have betrayed me and that I have betrayed. It is equally cruel and
useless to think and to act. This I know. The curse is not so much to
live, for I see you are well and hearty, friend Betto, and many another
man is the same. The curse is not to live, but to know we live. The
curse is to be conscious and to will. Happily there is a remedy for
these evils. Let us say no more; I await the lady whom I have never
wronged, for never have I doubted but she was gentle and true-hearted,
and I have learned by much pondering how peaceful and secure it is to
slumber on her bosom. Many fables have been told of her bed and
dwelling-places. But I have not believed the lies of the ignorant crowd.
So it is, she cometh to me as a mistress to her lover, her brow
garlanded with flowers and her lips smiling."

He broke off with these words, and fell dead over the ancient tomb. His
body was buried without any great pomp in the Cloister of Santa Maria
Novella.

LUCIFER

TO LOUIS GANDERAX

LUCIFER

_E si compiacque tanto Spinello di farlo orribile e contrafatto, che
si dice (tanto puo alcuna fiata l'immaginazione) che la detta figura
da lui dipinta gli apparve in sogno, domandandolo dove egli l' avesse
veduta si brutta._[1]

(_Vite de' piu eccellenti pittori_, da Messer Giorgio Vasari.--"Vita
di Spinello.")

[Footnote 1: "And so successful was Spinello with his horrible and
portentous Production that it was commonly reported--so great is alway
the force of fancy--that the said figure (of Lucifer trodden underfoot
by St. Michael in the Altar-piece of the Church of St. Agnolo at Arezzo)
painted by him had appeared to the artist in a dream, and asked him in
what place he had beheld him under so brutish a form."

_Lives of the most Excellent Painters_, by Giorgio Vasari.--"Life of
Spinello."]

Andrea Tafi, painter and worker-in-mosaic of Florence, had a wholesome
terror of the Devils of Hell, particular