at Raphael did in painting. In the background of the
picture is seen Pope Leo IV. with his clergy, in the portico of the
old church of St. Peter's. The Pope's hand is raised, making the sign
of the cross; on the steps of the church are the people who have fled
to it for refuge. On each side of the foreground are burning houses.
Men are busy putting out the fire, and women are bringing them water.
Other men and women and children are escaping from the flames, and
some are heroically saving the weak and helpless.

It is amongst these last that Raphael has placed the group called the
Flight of AEneas. The Trojan bears on his shoulders his father, the
old, blind Anchises. Behind is Creusa, the wife of AEneas, looking back
with terror upon the burning city, and by the side of AEneas is his
young son Iulus, looking up into his face with a trusting gaze.

[Illustration: THE FLIGHT OF AENEAS
_Vatican Palace, Rome_]

Some one of Raphael's friends had no doubt told him the story, or read
it to him out of Virgil's AEneid, which was one of the favorite books
in that day, when men were delighting in the recovery of the great
poetry of Greece and Rome. Here is a part of the story as told by
Virgil in the translation by C. P. Cranch:--

"But when I reached my old paternal home,
My father, whom I wished to bear away
To the high mountains, and who first of all
I sought, refused to lengthen out his life,
And suffer exile, now that Troy was lost.
'O ye,' he said, 'whose blood is full of life,
Whose solid strength in youthful vigor stands,--
Plan ye your flight! But if the heavenly powers
Had destined me to live, they would have kept
For me these seats. Enough, more than enough,
That one destruction I have seen, and I
Survive the captured city. Go ye then,
Bidding this frame farewell--thus, lying thus
Extended on the earth! I shall find death
From some hand.'

* * * * *

'O father, dost thou think
That I can go and leave thee here alone?
Comes such bad counsel from my father's lips?
If't is the pleasure of the gods that naught
From the whole city should be left, and this
Is thy determined thought and wish, to add
To perishing Troy thyself and all thy kin,--
The gate lies open for that death desired.'"

So saying, AEneas calls for his arms, resolved to remain with Father
Anchises f