SILVIO BARTHOLI, PAINTER

PAINTER

A STORY OF SIENA

BY

EMMA BENTLEY

"Thus yesterday, to-day, to-morrow are!
They hustle one another, and they pass;
But all our hustling morrows only make
The smooth To-day of God."

-E. B. Browning.

LONDON

T. FISHER UNWIN

1896

[All Rights reserved.]

SILVIO BARTHOLI, PAINTER

CHAPTER I.

"God's fashion is another, day by day,

And year by year He tarrieth; little need

The Lord should hasten; whom He loves the most,
He seeks not oftenest, nor wooes him long,
But by denial quickens his desire,

And, in forgetting, best remembers him."

-F. MYERS.

Veneremur

"TANTUM ergo Sacramentum, cerum,' sang the white-robed choir. And the silver censer swung high, swung low, while the deep-toned organ rolled forth its mighty diapason, and the grey-haired Cardinal Archbishop, in gorgeous golden vestment, gave the Benediction, and all the assembled canons bowed low in adoration, and the great and mingled throng of worshippers bowed low. Then the sweet, silvery echoes of the music died away, even as the memory of some past joy dies away, softer and softer, ceasing at last altogether, and the white-robed procession filed back into the sacristy.

A