Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/235

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me

20,

ONCE A WEEK.

1864.]

time to recover from

on

my

went

surprise,

of

I

saw monsieur's boatmen returning to fell deeply ashamed that my country-

men

should bo guilty of Such discourtesy towards house is a stranger, and an Englishman. venbut a moment's walk from the lake, and

My

I

ture to assure monsieur that

own.

If after

it is

entirely his

I



who

ve me his confidence. He told me that he was the only son of a struggling doctor of Sienna, and had been for some tin

relate

them with

to follow the profession

think, the only person

ficient of the particulars to

to

l

I

artistic instinct,

justice."

The

society of the

more

especial

further

picture, I knows suf-

some repose he would wish

more of the history of that

learn

him with an

invested

On

knowledge I found him possessed of an amiable but somewhat too retiring disposition, and perceived that his education, though not perfectly, had been honestly and piously conducted. It needed no very great diplomacy to draw his history from him the poor boy had but few friends,

Ooxuo, and

am,

first

attraction.



"

227

age —

liberal

and

of his

father.

His

however, weighed successfully

in the scale against the doctor's scruples, and For Giuseppe became a student at Florence.

intelli-

gent members of the Roman Catholic priesthood is always especially agreeable to me, and my new acquaintance seemed an excellent His specimen of the class to which I allude. appearance charmed me, and I accepted his Two kindness with a profusion of thanks. hours afterwards, while digesting a simple but excellently-ordered dinner, I listened to the

two years Dr. Vetrano contrived

to send his son a certain allowance; small, indeed, but still sufficient to enable Giuseppe to devote The lad was indushimself entirely to study. trious, and though he denied himself all the little indulgences of youth, he still found lei-

sure to write hopeful letters home. the terrible calamity I spoke of

Then came week

—in a

following story, which I shall endeavour to give in the narrator's own words, suppressing, of course, the names, as members of the noble

family implicated are still existing. " If we could analyse the acuter trials of the mind," said my host, drawing his chair closer to the fire, and speaking somewhat ab" I think we should have some lly, finding any keener than those difficulty in which attend upon the first struggles and dis-

When the bitterness Giuseppe was an orphan. of the fresh sorrow had passed away, a second The grief as formidable as the first succeeded. doctor and his wife had died in the direst poverty; their entire possessions barely sufficed to buy them the right to a grave. Their son was It was then that young Vetrano penniless. found, added to his first great misery of the

—

some sharper pangs the pangs of hunger. displant the glorious inspiration of the ideal

heart,

The ceaseappointments of an artistic career. the lessly recurring doubts of our own powers fears with which we commit ourselves to a future which our eyes strive in vain to pierce

from its pure pedestal, and supply its place by the image of a few coins was wretchedness enough, but to find even this last poor goal

crushing necessity that compels us to reduce our nobler thoughts and higher aspira-

He supported himunattainable was terrible. self for some time by the sale of his simple





the

by which our daily bread these pains can hardly be

tions to a standard

can be measured said to have their



I felt this deeply parallel. myself in my youth, and when the shadow passed from my own heart it left me a sad sympathy for those who still laboured in the breath of its chill darkness. Some fifteen years ago, when the Art Schools of Florence were more than commonly crowded, my sacred

duties attached

and

me to

the cathedral of that city,

had excellent opportunities of studying the phases of a branch of art-life to which I was a stranger. I made many friends but among all who attached themselves to me, though many Avere more talented, few excited so much interest on my part as a young man I therefore



named Giuseppe Vetrano, a

He had

lost

native of Sienna.

both parents during the

rav.:

an epidemic, about live months before the time when 1 first became acquainted with him, ami possibly this circumstance, combined with his extreme youth he was but twenty years

—

To

clothing resource



but though he added to this poor

by copying for the dealers, destitution stared at him through the canvas, and his brush was yet too week a weapon to defend That his gentle nature could not long I saw trials I felt convinced. him but seldom, and after each interval I found him sadly changed. His visits to the church grew less and less frequent, and at length three

him.

sustain such

months passed by without my having once I thought of him with encountered him there. much anxiety, and though I many times resolved

to

set

my

trembled to learn

doubts at

what

I

rest,

feared

I

almost

might be

the truth.

"

It

was about

this

time that the conduct of

the young Marchioness di Ikmaglieri first became the subject of conversation in Florentine society, and in the exercise of my calling I had

frequent opportunities of verifying the reports This lady that were so extensively circulated. came of an ancient but impoverished family,