No, she could not make the sacrifice, the tress was too lustrous, too lovely; more than all, it became her so rarely. Her heart failed her. She put it back in the casket, with a smile of contempt at her own superstition; she was closing the lid, when suddenly the beauteous tress sprang up and struck her violently on the cheekbone. She cried out with pain and terror; then, forcing the temptation into the casket and closing the lid, she fled back to the Piazza, and flung the treasured lock into the flames.
For a while after this famous preaching, peace and devotion returned to the hill-city; then came sad outbreaks and dissensions, and Bernardino, hearing the disturbing news, returned to Perugia. He exhorted his former penitents to seek after the grace and the love which had once been granted them, and at the close of the year 1425 he once more left them in peace one with another; while he went to preach elsewhere in Umbria, and finally to Gubbio, to Viterbo, and to Orvieto.
Two years later, when preaching in Siena, he held up the conversion of the people of Perugia as an example to be followed by the Sienese.
CHAPTER VII
SAN PIETRO DE' CASINENSI
The most remarkable church in Perugia is the church, at the end of the southern point of the city, attached to the convent of San Pietro; below it is the gate named after San Costanzo, said to have been the first Bishop of Perugia. On the opposite side of the way from the convent wall is a pleasant public resort, shaded by trees, called Passeggiata Pubblica. From this point, looking down the steep road, one gets a delightful view of the near valley and distant Apennines, framed in by the arch of Porta Costanzo. This view goes by the name of La Veduta. La Veduta and a lovely country walk beyond the gate are associated with the memory of that accomplished artist and delightful companion, Lord Leighton. He dearly loved the old hill-city; in its delightful quiet he used to write his lecture for the Royal Academy students. One of his favourite walks was to go out by the Porta Costanzo, and along the lovely lanes beyond it, grown over with honeysuckle, wild gourd, and an abundance of wild myrtle.
The ancient church of San Pietro, with its very picturesque exterior and campanile, serves as a conspicuous landmark in the country over which it gazes. It is said to be the oldest church in Perugia, and to be built on the site of an Etruscan temple; it was certainly in old days the first cathedral. Built by Pietro, a saintly abbot of the monastery in the tenth century, it seems to have remained for a long period almost untouched; in the fourteenth century the campanile was considered one of the wonders of Italy. A century later it was restored and decorated with rich Renaissance work, some of which is very fascinating and interesting. Then came a warlike abbot, resolved to convert the very salient tower of San Pietro into a fortress to overawe the surrounding country; and also to use it as a means of defence against the ever-turbulent people of Perugia, and the despots who were always quarrelling among themselves in order to attain supreme power in the city.
LA VEDUTA, PERUGIA.
The campanile was still further injured by Pope Boniface the Ninth, who also wished to construct an ordinary fortress on the site of the beautiful tower. Finally, the monks rebuilt it at a great cost. It was then struck by lightning, and severely damaged. For a long period of time the injuries caused by lightning were so frequent that it was feared the entire building would suffer ruin; then at last the idea of a lightning conductor suggested itself. This saved the campanile, and it has since remained in its present condition.