“And then, my son?” said the Prior.
“Then, my Father, I companied with the caravan folk as far as the sea-coast; and, leaving them there, went overseas in the train of my lord Bishop Robert Walter of Norwich, who was hasting to Rome. He knew thee, my Father, and bade his people supply my needs.”
“Ay, he knows me,” said the Prior briefly. “The Lord reward him according to his works, but show him mercy forasmuch as he had compassion on my son!”
“Then saw I Rome, my Father, that great and beauteous city full of treasure and many wonders; only the Holy Father I did not see, being let. Methinks life in that country is as one long pageant; but I marked that great holiness and an evil life, much riches and much penury, dwelt there side by side, and men reeked little of death but much of pleasure. Then one bade me go to Florence an I would be a limner; therefore I hasted thither, and gave my last coin for bread as I entered the city.”
The Prior’s brows contracted; the lad had seen some schooling.
“But thou didst learn to be a limner, my son?”
“Ay, my Father, in God’s time: at first I must herd goats and sell melons in the market-place for a lump of bread. Day by day I strove to gain enough to buy colours, but could not, for the Lord sent me ever a neighbour poorer than myself. Nevertheless I was of good courage, knowing the Lord’s ways are not as ours; and mindful how Brother Ambrose held that inasmuch as the Heavenly City is laid with fair colours ’twere no sin to deem that a man may limn perfect pictures there, for the gift is from the Lord.”
“My son, ’tis a great lesson thou hast learnt,” said the Prior, “for the Word was made Flesh; and as Blessed John hath it, a man cannot love God unseen, if he love not the brother whom He hath given him. What next, dear lad?”
“My Father, the Lord Himself sent a messenger to me. One day a great limner, the Signor Andrea di Cione, whom men call d’Orcagna, stayed by me where I stood with my melons in the shadow of the Shepherd’s Tower, and bade me follow him to his house, for he would fain use me for an angel’s head in the great Altar-piece he was e’en then concerned with for the Church of the White Friars. Later he heard my story; and when he found I had some small skill with the brush, he kept me with him, and taught me as only such an one can teach: him I served five years. And many times Satan desired my soul; nay, once I was in peril of hell-fire, but the Lord was with me, and plucked my feet out of the pit. But of that I will speak anon, at my shriving, as is meet.”
The Prior remembered his dream, but he said no word, and Hilarius took up his tale.