hardships they had suffered after reaching Milan. Even under a
comparatively liberal government it was small advantage to be marked by
the Holy Office; and though he received much kindness, and even material
aid, from those of his way of thinking, Vivaldi was unable to obtain the
professorship he had hoped for.

From Milan they went to Pavia; but in this University, the most liberal
in Italy, the chairs were so sought after that there was no hope of his
receiving a charge worthy of his talents. Here, however, his spirit
breathed its natural air, and reluctant to lose the privileges of such
intercourse he decided to accept the post of librarian to an eccentric
nobleman of the town. If his pay was modest his duties left him leisure
for the work which was his chief concern; for his patron, who had houses
in Milan and Brescia, came seldom to Pavia, and Fulvia and her father
had the vast palace to themselves. They lodged in a corner adjoining the
library, spending their days in studious seclusion, their evenings in
conversation with some of the first scholars of Europe: the learned
botanist Scopoli, Spallanzani, Volta, and Father Fontana, the famous
mathematician. In such surroundings Vivaldi might have pursued his task
contentedly enough, but for the thought of Fulvia's future. This, his
daughter said, continually preyed on him, driving him to labours beyond
his strength; for he hoped by the publication of his book to make good,
at least in part, the loss of the small property which the Sardinian
government had confiscated. All her entreaties could not dissuade him
from over-exertion; and in addition to his regular duties he took on
himself (as she afterward learned) the tedious work of revising proofs
and copying manuscripts for the professors. This drudgery, combined with
severe intellectual effort, exceeded his flagging powers; and the book
was hardly completed when his patron, apprised of its contents, abruptly
removed him from his post. From that day Vivaldi sank in health; but he
ended as became a sage, content to have discharged the task for which he
had given up home and substance, and dying with the great Stoic's words
upon his lips:--

Lex non poena mors.

Vivaldi's friends in Milan came generously to Fulvia's aid, and she
would gladly have remained among them; but after the loss of her small
inheritance and of her father's manuscript she was without means of
repaying their kindness, and nothing remained but to