lier passes his sword through me. They will not let a
poor fellow like me take to any honest trade."

Pietro Vanucci was one of those who bear prosperity worse than
adversity.

Having been ignominiously ejected for late hours by their old landlady,
and meeting Gerard in the street, he greeted him warmly, and soon after
took up his quarters in the same house.

He brought with him a lad called Andrea, who ground his colours, and
was his pupil, and also his model, being a youth of rare beauty, and as
sharp as a needle.

Pietro had not quite forgotten old times, and professed a warm
friendship for Gerard.

Gerard, in whom all warmth of sentiment seemed extinct, submitted coldly
to the other's friendship.

And a fine acquaintance it was. This Pietro was not only a libertine,
but half a misanthrope, and an open infidel.

And so they ran in couples, with mighty little in common. O, rare
phenomenon!

One day, when Gerard had undermined his health, and taken the bloom
off his beauty, and run through most of his money, Vanucci got up a
gay party to mount the Tiber in a boat drawn by buffaloes. Lorenzo de'
Medici had imported these creatures into Florence about three years
before. But they were new in Rome, and nothing would content this beggar
on horseback, Vanucci, but being drawn by the brutes up the Tiber.

Each libertine was to bring a lady and she must be handsome, or he
be fined. But the one that should contribute the loveliest was to be
crowned with laurel, and voted a public benefactor. Such was their
reading of "Vir bonus est quis?" They got a splendid galley, and twelve
buffaloes. And all the libertines and their female accomplices assembled
by degrees at the place of embarkation. But no Gerard.

They waited for him some time, at first patiently, then impatiently.

Vanucci excused him. "I heard him say he had forgotten to provide
himself with a fardingale. Comrades, the good lad is hunting for
a beauty fit to take rank among these peerless dames. Consider the
difficulty, ladies, and be patient!"

At last Gerard was seen at some distance with a female in his hand.

"She is long enough," said one of her sex, criticising her from afar.

"Gemini! what steps she takes," said another. "Oh! it is wise to hurry
into good company," was Pietro's excuse.

But when the pair came up, satire was choked.

Gerard's companion was a peerless beauty; she extinguished the
boat-load, as stars the rising sun. Tall, but no