arently dying artist refused to avail himself of the priest's
ministry in any way. He absolutely declined to confess, saying that he
had a mind to see whether one did not fare quite as well where he was
going without any such practices."

Somewhat later he did die, and his infidelity was then so notorious that
he was refused burial in holy ground. He obtained the rites of Christian
burial eventually, it is true, but it was under the following somewhat
amusing circumstances, as appears from a notarial contract, the original
draft of which Signor Rossi has recently discovered. This very curious
document is the legal record and stipulation of a contract between the
prior of the Augustinian monastery in Perugia and the son of Perugino.
It is recited that whereas a portion of the sum due from the convent to
the deceased artist for a series of pictures painted for the convent of
the Augustines (these works, with the exception of one part of them
stolen by the French, and now, I believe, in the Musee at Lyons, are to
be seen at the present day in the Pinacotheca of Perugia, and very grand
they are) had not been paid at the time of the painter's death, it was
now hereby agreed between the prior and the representative of the
creditor that in consideration of five ducats in money paid down, and on
condition that the prior should at his own cost cause the remains of the
artist to be transported from the place where they lay in unhallowed
ground to Perugia, and should there give them Christian burial in the
church of his convent of the Augustines, the outstanding balance of the
debt should be considered to be thereby discharged and canceled. I may
mention that this curious anecdote, together with a variety of other
interesting matter respecting Perugino and the other artists of the
Umbrian school, will be found in a volume by Professor Adamo Rossi, to
be published in 1876 under the auspices of the Italian government
commission for the preservation and publication of historical documents
regarding Tuscany and Umbria.

It will be admitted that the professor's documentary evidence throws a
very singular and instructive light on the speculations of the
transcendental rhapsodists who are never weary of going into ecstasies
over the profound and touching piety of the works inspired by the vivid
and simple belief of the "ages of faith."

"But there _is_," I ventured to object, after having heard the
professor's anecdotes, "an unmistakab