“Well, it’s all a maze to me,” said the old serving-man, shaking his white head.  “I can’t see into it, I don’t dare to open my eyes for fear I should get to be a heretic; it seems to me that everything is getting mixed up together.  But one must hold on to one’s religion; because, after we have lost everything in this world, it would be too bad to burn in hell forever at the end of that.”

“Why, Paolo, I am a good Christian.  I believe, with all my heart, in the Christian religion, like the fellow in Boccaccio,—­because I think it must be from God, or else the Popes and Cardinals would have had it out of the world long ago.  Nothing but the Lord Himself could have kept it against them.”

“There you are, my dear master, with your romances!  Well, well, well!  I don’t know how it’ll end.  I say my prayers, and try not to inquire into what’s too high for me.  But now, dear master, will you stay lingering after this girl till some of our enemies hear where you are and pounce down upon us?  Besides, the troop are never so well affected when you are away; there are quarrels and divisions.”

“Well, well,” said the cavalier, with an impatient movement,—­“one day longer.  I must get a chance to speak with her once more.  I must see her.”

* * * * *

SUN-PAINTING AND SUN-SCULPTURE;

With A stereoscopic trip across the Atlantic.

There is one old fable which Lord Bacon, in his “Wisdom of the Ancients,” has not interpreted.  This is the flaying of Marsyas by Apollo.  Everybody remembers the accepted version of it, namely,—­that the young shepherd found Minerva’s flute, and was rash enough to enter into a musical contest with the God of Music.  He was vanquished, of course,—­and the story is, that the victor fastened him to a tree and flayed him alive.

But the God of Song was also the God of Light, and a moment’s reflection reveals the true significance of this seemingly barbarous story.  Apollo was pleased with his young rival, fixed him in position against an iron rest, (the tree of the fable,) and took a photograph, a sun-picture, of him.  This thin film or skin of light and shade was absurdly interpreted as being the cutis, or untanned leather integument of the young shepherd.  The human discovery of the art of photography enables us to rectify the error and restore that important article of clothing to the youth, as well as to vindicate the character of Apollo.  There is one spot less upon the sun since the theft from heaven of Prometheus Daguerre and his fellow-adventurers has enabled us to understand the ancient legend.