offer him a lodging in the palace. Poor Capra was in great distress while these invitations were being given. He had accompanied his friend from the commencement of the journey, and, to secure him, had associated with himself some men of literature, whose conversation might render the way less tedious. His anxiety was at last removed by Petrarch's declaring that he was the guest of Henry Capra solely, and that he would lodge nowhere but in his house. His reception there was such as might have been expected. The furniture of the chamber in which he slept was all purple, and the bed superbly gilt, Capra declaring that no one had ever yet slept in it, or ever should again, except Petrarch. The next day the poet took his leave, but the watchmaker accompanied him a long way on the road, and was at last torn from him by violence, his friends fearing that the joy he had experienced would either make him ill or mad. Some time before this, a poor blind old grammarian had walked over the best part of Italy to express the same feeling as Capra.

The poet's death occurred on the 18th of July, 1474. He was found dead in his study, with his head leaning on a book. He was interred in the church at Arqua, with almost royal magnificence.

Petrarch's life is one of the most spotless upon record. His whole life was spent in perfect innocence. Of his integrity, the interview we have recorded sufficiently attests. The good of his country

and of his fellow men was the constant object of his solicitude. He never employed his pen for any purpose that was not honourable and pure, although the age in which he lived was remarkable for dissoluteness and turbulence. To his infinite honour be it said, through a long life he hardly appears to have made a single enemy. For his friends he entertained the warmest regard, and received, in return, the most sincere and affectionate friendship. One instance only need to be cited-that of Boccaccio, a brother poet. His fortune, in the decline of life, was found scarcely sufficient for his support, and, to his annoyance, he found himself, at the time he had most need of them, deserted by all his friends, save Petrarch. He, by the course he pursued, by the kindly offers he made, and by his affectionate solicitude in the welfare of Boccaccio, added additional lustre to his name. Besides offering him the use of both his purse and interest, he invited him to share his home. The letter in which he made the offer is still preserved. "I praise you," he wrote, “for having refused the grand offers made you of riches, and for preferring liberty of mind and a tranquil poverty ; but I cannot give you the same praise for refusing the repeated invitations of a friend. I am not in a situation to enrich you; if I were, it should not be by words or by my pen, but by things and actions that you should judge of me. I am, however, living so that what suffices for one, will suffice abundantly

for two, who can have the same inclinations as well as the same house."

Boccaccio, says Mr. Stebbing, with the jealousy of a man whose most valued possession was his perfect personal liberty, refused to accept this offer, as he did also many others of his friend to obtain him some lucrative office. Petrarch could not be offended at this, for he had himself acted almost in the same manner, and rejected rank and fortune, to move and speak as his own inclination should direct him. We cannot sufficiently admire this trait of character, so conspicuous in these great men, and which, from Dante downwards, was the characteristic of Italy's worthiest sons. There is no passage in their noblest works which so affects the mind with delight as their examples of independence. They were admired and courted by princes, they were the frequent residents of palaces, and were tempted to become courtiers, not merely by offers of wealth or advancement, but personal flatteries; and they might, if they had chosen, been conspicuous in the councils as well as courts of kings; but nothing could tempt them from their independence. We see them passing on from court to court, conversing with their princely hosts as if they had been prophets sent with lessons of wisdom, and then taking their farewell, unchanged in their manners, and with the same free look and spirit which they bore when they arrived.

COLUMBUS'S INTERVIEW WITH

FERDINAND.

the year 1486, two travellers sought refreshment

and rest at the door of a convent, on the western coast of Spain. While they were refreshing themselves, the prior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchena, observing them as he was passing, and being attracted by the noble appearance of the elder traveller, stayed to converse with him, which resulted in his offering the travellers any hospitality which the convent could afford. In the course of the ensuing conversations, Columbus, for it was he, unfolded his mind, stored, as it was, with information relative to various races and distant countries. The convent overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, which gave rise to speculations upon the possibility of crossing it, and the lands likely to be met with when it was crossed. These conversations much interested the prior, which induced him to invite to a friendly conference several of the more intelligent men living near the convent, amongst whom was Martin Alonzo Pinzou, the head of a flourishing family of navigators in Palos, also Garcia Fernandez, a physician of Palos. To these men Columbus developed his schemes relative to the discovery of land on the opposite side of the Atlantic.