Florence itself was smaller, newer, more beautiful. The town lay secure with high, battlemented walls of stone, with the river running through. I saw the swell of the Duomo, second cathedral of all Christendom, great and round and pale, like the moon descended to Earth; and around it, the towers of many white houses and palaces, and cool green of garden trees.
The gate we entered was perhaps twenty-five feet wide by fifteen high, and the tall lintel of gray-brown stone bore a bas-relief of St. Mark's lion, complete with wings and book; also several female figures which appeared to have tails.
Within the walls, the town I had known as grubbily ancient in the Twentieth Century, all shone new and fresh. By the clean whiteness of the houses and by their style of architecture, I judged that all, or nearly all, of the older Florence had been razed to allow this new Renaissance capital of the Medici its full glory.
The streets were for the most part smoothly paved, or at least had good gutters and cobbles. Some of them, the side ways, were too narrow, even for one-way traffic, and darkly close with the upper stories of the houses projecting. In many places these upper stories jutted out so far as to make a covered way for pedestrians at either side. Here and there stood the enclosed mansions and gardens of nobles or wealthy merchants, and at many crossings were wide squares, with, occasionally, the statue of a saint or a hero.
Many folk were afoot or on horseback, though there were few wains, and these of the most primitive. Most of the transport was done by donkey pannier, or in baskets on the brawny shoulders of porters. The people seemed prosperous, and in most cases happy. Later I was to be reminded that the Florentines then enjoyed a unique freedom, and were wont to boast about it to less favored Milanese or Venetians.
At last, at Guaracco's signal, we reined our animals before a tall, barnlike structure of drab stone, fronting away from the brink of the green Arno. It was several stories high, pierced with many barred windows and furnished with a double door of iron grillwork.
"This is Verrocchio's bottega," said my guide, and we dismounted, leaving our bridle-ends in the hands of the silent groom.
I moved toward the door, but Guaracco's big hand touched my elbow. I turned inquiringly.
"Before you enter here, I have a thought to burn into you," he said in a cold, hushed voice.
With his deep, penetrating eyes, his red beard and suddenly sinister face, he might have sat for a traditional portrait of Judas. I knew, more fiercely than ever, a dislike and distrust of him.
"You wish to exact a vow of fealty from me?" I suggested. "Vows begin, Ser Guaracco, only when hope is dead."
He shook his head, and under his beard his mouth wriggled, like a snake in singed grass.
"No," he replied. "I exact no vow. I say simply that if you betray me in word or deed, if you seek ever to hurt or to hinder me—if, in short, you do not adhere to the service I have set you I will see that you die by the foulest death ever invented."
"I am not afraid of you," I said to him, striving in my heart to make this the truth.
"Nor do I seek your fear," was his quick rejoinder. "Only your understanding. Shall we go in?"
The great front room of the academy was as large as a riding hall, with lofty, musty beams on the ceiling, and whitewashed walls; not as much light as one might wish to paint by, but with the windows all set toward clear, open ground. The corners of the room were cluttered with art materials, plaster molds, half-finished paintings on blanks, broken chairs, pots of paint, sheafs of brushes, and rolled parchments and canvases.
Three or four young men in shabby smocks stopped their various tasks to gaze curiously at me—students, I supposed them to be. And from behind a counterlike bench at the door, a man greeted Guaracco.
"Good-morrow, Ser Andrea," said my patrol. "I said once that I would watch out for a likely pupil for you. Here is one—my own cousin, Leo."
The master of the bottega came from behind his bench. He was a spidery little fellow of forty or thereabouts, clad in a long gown of dark wool like a priest's, with ill-fitting, worn slippers on his flat feet. His face was beardless, white and puffy, and he wore spectacles low upon his snub nose. His hair, already gray, had begun to grow thin on top. His finest features were his big, wise eyes and his slender, delicate hands.[*2]
Guaracco praised me highly and finally produced my drawings. Andrea Verrocchio carried them into the light and looked at them narrowly, with pursed lips. Finally he turned his spectacles upon me.
"You draw well, boy," he commented. "Drawing is the father of all the arts. Would you learn to paint?"
I told him, quite truthfully, that it was my ambition.
"If you study with me," he admonished, "you must work entirely as I devise."
"To devise is the work of the master," I said, respectfully. "To execute is the work of the apprentice."
"Well worded." He nodded, and smiled a trifle. "Come here—look at this picture."
He beckoned us across the room. Against the rear wall hung a sizeable sheet of wood, held in place on a sort of scaffold with cords and pins. Upon this had been painted, but not finished, an oil of the baptism of Jesus. Some figures were executed with spirit and intelligence, but over one of them, a kneeling angel, I could not but shake my head.
"You see the fault," murmured Andrea Verrocchio beside me. "The draperies, Ser Leo, are not properly done."
"They are not, sir," I agreed, after a careful examination.
He smiled slowly. The students, too, had gathered with us. I had a sense of their critical suspicion. Perhaps they had worked at the thing, and failed.
"Peradventure, boy, you can better it," suggested Verrocchio, in a tone that was full of superior doubt.
"May I use these paints?" I inquired, stooping to some pots and brushes at the foot of the framework.
As I did so, I caught a glimpse of Guaracco's face, set in an easy smile. For all his strange, menacing nature he at least trusted my skill.
"Drapery is a science worth close study," I lectured the group, as I mixed some colors upon a rectangular palette board. "The part of the fold which is furthest from the ends where it is confined"—I pointed with my brush to the fringe of the angel's robe—"will return most closely to its original extended condition."
One of the students snickered at my words.
"Show us what you mean by these words," Verrocchio said.
"With your leave, I shall try to," I accepted his challenge, and began to dash on my paint. Here was another old skill that I had not lost. "Everything naturally desires to remain in its own state," I elaborated. "Drapery desires to he flat. If it is caught into folds or pleats, thus,"—and I executed a crumpled crease upon the knee of the angel—"it is forced to quit this condition of flatness and obeys the law of this force in that part where it is most constrained."
I progressed to the hem.
"The part furthest away from such constraint," I went on, "you will find, returns most nearly to its original state—that is to say, laying extended and fall."
"You say truth, Ser Leo, and you paint truth, too," Verrocchio commended warmly, and turned quickly to Guaracco. "Your kinsman stays here as my pupil and helper. Go forward with that drapery, young sir. When you are finished, the picture can have no further improvement."[*3]
I worked away, caring little for the jealous staring of my fellow students. Meanwhile, Guaracco's groom brought in a bundle of clothing for me, and Guaracco himself gave me a bag of clinking coins.
"I have paid the charge for your education, Cousin," he said to me. "Stay here, live and work here, and do me credit. Do not forget what I require from you, according to your recent conversations. I shall keep an eye and ear upon you. I may even take a house to be near you. Again I say, do not forget."
And with this equivocal farewell he strolled out, the very picture of a kindly and helpful kinsman.
So I became a pupil of Andrea Verrocchio, the finest teacher of arts in Florence. I made the acquaintance of my fellow students and found them not at all
bad fellows, some indeed quite adept at their work. I had a cell-like room with pallet bed and table and chest of art materials. I listened dutifully to the precepts of our instructor, and under his tutelage did many kinds of work.
Verrocchio's aptitude and taste was for sculpture, and though I thought this less intellectual than painting, for it cannot represent the transparent or yielding things, I did not rebel.
My first piece of finished work, a gold ornament for the King of Portugal, was called splendid by Verrocchio. He let me help him with the great bronze busts he was fashioning for the palace of the Medici, and let me do alone a series of ornamental shields of painted wood for a wealthy merchant.
In the evenings, and sometimes in the daytime when work was slack, I was permitted to go with my fellow students through the streets. I could never weary myself with the sights and sounds and smells of Florence.
I loved the pageantry of the main thoroughfares—laden beasts, processions of armed men going from one sentry post to another, occasional rich coaches of the great or wealthy, cavaliers on prancing horses, veiled ladies in mule-litters; rougher but still picturesque guildsmen, artisans, beggars, burghers; an occasional captain of mercenaries, a condottiero, slashed and swaggering, his long swordsheath hoisting up the hem of his mantel; criers loudly acclaiming their wares of fruit, fish, wine or what-not.
On the poorer, narrower streets there were hucksters and small tradesmen with baskets and trays; bevies of bright-eyed girls, on the lookout for romantic adventure. There were palaces to see in the wider spaces and the great sculptured bridges across the Arno. Too, there were pleasant, cheap taverns, where young men might get good wine and plenty for copper coins.
So it went for the month of May. Twice during that time, Guaracco called to talk to me, in honeyed protestations of concern over the welfare of his supposed cousin. But between the pleasant lines of his conversation my inner ear could distinguish the warning and insistence of his power over me.
Once he remarked that Lisa—"You remember our little Lisa!"—had sent me her warm regards. I found myself heartily grateful for that brief message from one who had treated me fairly and kindly.
The first of June dawned bright and sultry hot. I was up betimes, putting the last touches to an improvement on the scaffolding which served Verrocchio as an easel for extra large pictures. I fitted its cords to pulleys and winches so that the artist, instead of moving from one place to another, could hold a certain position with advantageous lights and viewpoints, while he lowered the picture itself, or lifted it or moved it from side to side at his will.
In the midst of my work, a boy came in from the street. He approached and said, very softly, that he had a message.
"A message?" I demanded, turning. "For whom?"
The little fellow bowed. "For you, Ser Leo. I am ordered to conduct you to a place in the next street."
"How do you know my name?" I asked, and looked sharply at him. Then I saw that it was no boy, but the dwarf who had once opened Guaracco's door to me, and whom I had then mistaken for a handsome child.
"Come," he persisted, "you are awaited."
Turning from my work, I asked Verrocchio if I might be excused for a few moments. He glanced up from the bench where he and two other students were studying the plans of a chapel, and nodded his permission.
"Is it Guaracco who waits to see me?" I asked the dwarf as we emerged from the bottega into the sticky sunlight, but he smiled mysteriously and shook his little head.
We walked along the street, my guide trotting in front, and turned a corner.
There, at the brink of the river, was a small dwelling house surrounded by a green garden.
"Go in, Ser Leo," the dwarf bade me, and ran around to the back with the nimble suddenness of a dog.
Left alone, I knocked at the door. There was no answer, and I pushed down the latch and went in.
I found myself in a cool, dark hall, paneled in wood. On a leather-cushioned sofa sat Lisa, the ward of Guaracco. Her feet were pressed close together under the hem of her wide skirt, and her hands were clasped in her lap. About her whole attitude there was an air of tense, embarrassed expectancy. She looked up as I came in, and then quickly dropped her gaze, making no answer to my surprised greeting.
As I came farther into the room, approaching the girl, a pale oblong caught my eye—a folded paper, lying on a little round center table. Upon it were written three large letters:
LEO
"Is this for me?" I asked Lisa, who only bowed her head the lower. I began to catch something of her embarrassment. "Your pardon for a moment," I requested, and opened the paper.
The letter was brief and to the point. It read:
My dear Adopted Kinsman:
You have thus far pleased me much, and I have high hopes of great advantage from your acquaintance and endeavor. It occurs to me to make you a present.
In the short time you were my guest, you saw my ward, Lisa. She likes you, and you are not averse to her society. Take her, therefore, and I wish you joy of each other.
From
Guaracco
Notes:
*2 - This is the accepted description of Andrea Verrocchio, who was not only a painter and sculptor high in favor at court, but the teacher of some of the most distinguished artists and craftsmen of his time.
*3 - A painting that fits this description, and that might be the same, exists today in Florence. It is certain that the draperies of the kneeling angel are done more skillfully than those of the other figures.
CHAPTER V
The Gift of Guaracco
The first sentence of the letter astonished me beyond measure. The last had two effects, overwhelming and sudden in succession, like the two reports of a great double barreled gun.
For my primary impulse was to rejoice, to be glad and thankful. Why had I never realized that I loved Lisa? Thinking of her now—how could I help but love her? But my second reaction was one of horrified knowledge of what Guaracco meant by such a gift.
"Lisa, fair mistress," I said, "this letter—you know what it says?"
She nodded, and the living rose touched her ivory skin.
"It cannot be," I told her soberly.
"Cannot?" she repeated, no louder than a sigh. It might have been a protest, it might have been an agreement.
I overcame an impulse to fall on one knee before her, like any melodramatic courtier of that unrestrained age and land.
"Lisa," I said again, desperately choosing my words, "first of all, let me say that I am deeply moved by the mere thought of winning you. Guaracco appears to mean what he says, and you appear to be ready to consent." Watching her, I saw the trembling of her lips. "But I cannot take you at his hands, Lisa."
At last she looked me full in the face. She, too, began to comprehend.
"That subtle wizard, Guaracco," I went on, growing warm to the outrage he would wreak, "tries to rule us both by fear. He sees that he is not successful. We yield slowly, biding our time, for orders are orders until there comes strength for disobedience. And so he seeks to rule us by happiness. Confess it, Lisa. For a moment you, too, would have wanted love between us!"
She gave me her sweet little smile, with unparted lips, but shyness had covered her again and she did not answer me.
"We cannot, Lisa," I said earnestly. "It might be sweet, and for me at least, it would be the easiest course in the world. But Guaracco's touch upon our love—heaven forefend that we be obligated to him!"
"Eloquently said, Leo, my kinsman!"
It was the voice of Guaracco. I spun quickly around, ready to strike out at him. But he was not there. Only his laughter, like the whinnying of a very cunning and wicked horse was there, coming from the empty air of the room.
"Do not strive against nothingness, young hero," his words admonished me out of nowhere, "and do not anguish me by spurning my poor, tender ward. She loves you, Leo, and you have just shown that you love her."
Such words made it impossible fo
r me to look at Lisa, and therefore I looked the harder for Guaracco. In the midst of his mockery, I located the direction of the sound. He spoke from the room's very center, and I moved in that direction.
At once he fell silent, but I had come to a pause at the point where the final syllable still echoed, almost in my ear. I glared around me, down, and upward.
A cluster of lamps hung just above my head, held by several twisted cords to the ceiling. Among the cupped sconces I spied what I suspected—a little open cone of metal, like a funnel. I am afraid that I swore aloud, even in Lisa's presence, when I saw and knew the fashion of Guaracco's ghostly speaking. But I also acted. With a single lunge and grasp I was upon the lamps, and pulled with all my strength.
They came away and fell crashing, but not they alone. For with them came a copper tube that had been suspended from cords and concealed there. I tore it from its place in the ceiling. Beyond that ceiling, I knew, went another tube that went to the lips of Guaracco, in hiding. I cast the double handful of lamps upon the planks of the floor.
Once again Guaracco laughed, but this time from behind me in the room itself. Again I turned. A panel of the woodwork had swung outward, and the man himself stepped through, all black velvet and flaming beard and sneering smile.
"You are a quick one," he remarked. "I have fooled many a wise old grandfather with that trick."
I gathered myself to spring.
"Now nay, Leo," he warned me quickly. "Do nothing violent, nothing that you would not have set down as your last act on earth." His hand lifted, and in it was leveled a pistol, massively but knowingly made. I stared for a moment, forgetting my rage and protest at his villainous matchmaking. Surely pistols were not invented so early. . . .
"It is of my own manufacture," he informed me, as though he read my mind. "Though short, it throws a ball as hard and as deep as the longest arquebus in Christendom. Do not force me to shoot you, Kinsman." His lips writhed scornfully over the irony of our pretended relationship.
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