BY ELIZABETH W. CHAMPNEY AUTHOR OF "ROMANCE OF THE ITALIAN VILLAS," "ROMANCE OF THE FEUDAL CHÂTEAUX," "ROMANCE OF THE FRENCH ABBEYS," etc. ILLUSTRATED   G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1908...

In came the cardinal, grave and coldly wise, His scarlet gown and robes of cobweb lace Trailed on the marble floor; with convex glass He bent o'er Guido's shoulder. Walter Thornbury . S TILL unrivalled, after the lapse of four centuries the villas of the great cardinals of the Renaissance retain their supremacy over their Italian sisters, not, as once, by reason of their prodigal magnificence but in the appealing charm of their picturesque decay. The centuries have bestowed a certain pathetic be

THE EYES OF A BASILISK (AN EPISODE OF THE FRENCH WARS IN ITALY, FROM THE MEMOIRS OF THE GOOD KNIGHT YVES D'ALLEGRE) I There is not one that looketh upon her eyes but he dieth presently. The like property has the basilisk. A white spot or star she carrieth on her head and setteth it out like a diadem. If she but hiss no other serpent dare come near.— Pliny. A STRANGE story is mine, not of love but of hatred, the slow coiling of a human serpent about its prey, with something more than human in the

THE FINDING OF APOLLO (AN ESCAPADE OF BAZZI'S) I Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (called Sodoma) to Giulio Romano, painter and architect at Mantua. Good Friend and sometime Pot-Comrade: By the which epithet I would signify that comradeship at Chigi's villa at Rome in orgies of paint pots and brushes, flesh pots and flagons, feasts of reason and of unreason, wherein we were alike insatiable until the light of our revels went out in the death of our adored Raphael. You write me that in the intervals of you

A CELLINI CASKET INTERLUDE The trellis that once shut the forest trees From the fair flowers, all torn and broken is, Though still the lily's scent is on the breeze, And the rose clasps the broken images. William Morris. N EGLECTED but not ruinous, its marbles mossy, its once unrivalled garden invaded by sweet wild-flower banditti which run riot among the gentle roses, its fountains dry, their cracks and crannies the homes of basking lizards, its charming loggia trodden only by enthusiasts for w

being certain pages not included in the auto-biography of its maker I It will be remembered by those who have read my published memoirs that in the year 1535, while I was in Florence in the service of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, I received orders from his excellency to execute a little coffre in gold to hold his own portrait, a medallion which I had previously modelled from life and cast in relievo. That I dismissed so lightly masterpieces of which I had such reason to be proud was due to the fa

FLOWER O' THE PEACH Now for a tale illustrative That shall delight my passion for romance, Embodying hints authentic of some theme . . . . . . . Or incident that to my knowledge came When sojourning abroad, the background true; Like to some faded tapestry retouched With the seductive broidery-work of fancy. Anon —altered. I L ET the trovere ease her conscience at the outset—the tale about to be recorded is over true. Even as there was more truth than called for in the testimony of that ingenious

WITH TASSO AT VILLA D'ESTE His weary heart awhile to soothe He wove all into verses smooth. . . . . . . . for soothly he Was deemed a craft-master to be In those most noble days of old, Whose lays were e'en as kingly gold To our thin brass or drossy lead; Well, e'en so all the tale is said How twain grew one and came to bliss? Woe's me, an idle dream it is! William Morris. S UPREME above all the enchanted gardens of Italy, both in the bewildering beauty of its sensuous charm and in the potency o

MONDRAGONE “'T IS a grave responsibility to play the dragon to a pretty woman." This was the assertion with which Celio Benvoglio, private secretary of her Highness, Princess Pauline Bonaparte Borghese, invariably prefaced the following story, and had I a like knack in telling it, you would admit the demonstration of that proposition. By dragon you will understand that his Excellency, Prince Camillo Borghese, signified a guardian and protector. To constitute Celio Malespini a spy and reporter wa

THE ADVENTURE OF THE KNIGHT OF THE BRANDISHED LANCE I THE QUEST R OBERT DEVREUX, Earl of Essex, was in one of his worst moods as he strode the deck of his flag-ship in Cadiz Bay on a certain June morning in 1596. And yet this favourite of Fortune stood then at the summit of his career, having by a brilliant assault taken the city for England, while a letter whose seal he had just broken assured him of the doting infatuation of England's Queen. It was precisely this letter, as he now explained to

THE LADIES OF PALLIANO (BEING A RELATION BY THE CONDOTTIERE LUIGI RODOMONTE GONZAGA OF CERTAIN OF HIS ADVENTURES DURING THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1525 TO 1528) I THE NEST OF THE PHŒNIX 'T IS an incredible fable that of the phoenix, the crimson wonder-bird, which springs in immortal youth from the flames which destroy its eyrie. But it is not more strange than one which I could tell of how I found Fenice, and snatched the joy and glory of my life from the conflagration of her ancestral town and castle, in

THE LURE OF OLD ROME ANTINOUS Brother, 't is vain to hide That thou dost know of things mysterious, Immortal, starry; such alone could thus Weigh down thy nature. Hast thou sinned in aught Offensive to the heavenly powers? Caught A Paphian dove upon a message sent? Thy doubtful bow against some deer herd bent Sacred to Dian? Haply thou hast seen Her naked limbs among the alders green And that, alas is death. Keats. I T is impossible to saunter even so aimlessly as we have done through the villas