hance to S.
Francesco al Prato, a beautiful and spacious church in a wilderness of
Piazza, built in 1294. And there suddenly you come upon the little
flowers of St. Francis, faded and fallen--here a brown rose, there a
withered petal; here a lily broken short, there a nosegay drooped and
dead: and you realise that here you are face to face with something real
which has passed away, and so it is with joy you hurry out into the
sun, which will always shine with splendour and life, the one thing
perhaps that, if these dead might rise from their tombs in S. Francesco,
they would recognise as a friend, the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever.

Other churches too there are in Pistoja: S. Piero Maggiore, where, as in
Florence, so here, the Bishop, coming to the city, was wedded in a
lovely symbol to the Benedictine Abbess--there too are the works of
Maestro Bono the sculptor; S. Salvadore, which stands in the place
where, as it is said, they buried Cataline; S. Domenico, where you may
find the beautiful tombs of Andrea Franchi and of Filippo Lazzeri the
humanist--this made by Rossellino in 1494. Pistoja is a city of
churches; one wanders into them and out again always with new delight;
and indeed, they lend a sort of gravity to a place that is light-hearted
and alluring beyond almost any other in this part of Tuscany certainly.
Thinking thus of her present sweetness, one is glad to find that one
poet at least has thought Dante too hard with men. It is strange that it
should be Cino who sings--

"This book of Dante's, very sooth to say,
Is just a poet's lovely heresy,
Which by a lure as sweet as sweet can be
Draws other men's concerns beneath its sway;
While, among stars' and comets' dazzling play,
It beats the right down, let's the wrong go free,
Shows some abased, and others in great glee,
Much as with lovers is Love's ancient way.
Therefore his vain decrees, wherein he lied,
Fixing folks' nearness to the Fiend their foe,
Must be like empty nutshells flung aside.
Yet through the vast false witness set to grow,
French and Italian vengeance on such pride
May fall, like Antony's on Cicero."[143]

FOOTNOTES:

[136] Cf. Dino Campagni, _Cronica Fiorentina_, Book 1, p. 62. When
appointed Podesta of Pistoja, Giano rather raised strife than pacified
the factions. Cf. also Villari, _History of Florence_, p. 445.

[137] Strictly speaking, she never conquered Siena; Charl