The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch | Page 9

in the practice of music. Another
young man, who was in love with the girl, grew jealous of the monk,
who was allowed to converse so familiarly with her, whilst he, her lay
admirer, could only have stolen glimpses of her as she passed to church
or to public spectacles. He set about the ruin of his supposed rival with
cunning atrocity; and, finding that the young woman was infirm in
health, suborned a physician, as worthless as himself, to declare that
she was pregnant. Her credulous father, without inquiring whether the
intelligence was true or false, went to the superior of the convent, and
accused Augustin, who, though thunderstruck at the accusation, denied
it firmly, and defended himself intrepidly. But the superior was deaf to
his plea of innocence, and ordered him to be shut up in his cell, that he
might await his punishment. Thither the poor young man was
conducted, and threw himself on his bed in a state of horror.
The superior and the elders among the friars thought it a meet fate for
the accused that he should be buried alive in a subterranean dungeon,
after receiving the terrific sentence of "Vade in pace." At the end of
several days the victim dashed out his brains against the walls of his

sepulchre. Bishop Colonna, who, it would appear, had no power to
oppose this hideous transaction, when he was informed of it,
determined to leave the place immediately; and Petrarch in his
indignation exclaimed--
"Heu! fuge crudeles terras, fuge littus avarum."--VIRG.
On the 26th of May, 1330, the Bishop of Lombes and Petrarch quitted
Toulouse, and arrived at the mansion of the diocese. Lombes--in Latin,
Lombarium--lies at the foot of the Pyrenees, only eight leagues from
Toulouse. It is small and ill-built, and offers no allurement to the
curiosity of the traveller. Till lately it had been a simple abbey of the
Augustine monks. The whole of the clergy of the little city, singing
psalms, issued out of Lombes to meet their new pastor, who, under a
rich canopy, was conducted to the principal church, and there, in his
episcopal robes, blessed the people, and delivered an eloquent
discourse. Petrarch beheld with admiration the dignified behaviour of
the youthful prelate. James Colonna, though accustomed to the wealth
and luxury of Rome, came to the Pyrenean rocks with a pleased
countenance. "His aspect," says Petrarch, "made it seem as if Italy had
been transported into Gascony." Nothing is more beautiful than the
patient endurance of our destiny; yet there are many priests who would
suffer translation to a well-paid, though mountainous bishopric, with
patience and piety.
The vicinity of the Pyrenees renders the climate of Lombes very severe;
and the character and conversation of the inhabitants were scarcely
more genial than their climate. But Petrarch found in the bishop's abode
friends who consoled him in this exile among the Lombesians. Two
young and familiar inmates of the Bishop's house attracted and returned
his attachment. The first of these was Lello di Stefani, a youth of a
noble and ancient family in Rome, long attached to the Colonnas.
Lello's gifted understanding was improved by study; so Petrarch tells us;
and he could have been no ordinary man whom our accomplished poet
so highly valued. In his youth he had quitted his studies for the
profession of arms; but the return of peace restored him to his literary
pursuits. Such was the attachment between Petrarch and Lello, that

Petrarch gave him the name of Lælius, the most attached companion of
Scipio. The other friend to whom Petrarch attached himself in the
house of James Colonna was a young German, extremely accomplished
in music. De Sade says that his name was Louis, without mentioning
his cognomen. He was a native of Ham, near Bois le Duc, on the left
bank of the Rhine between Brabant and Holland. Petrarch, with his
Italian prejudices, regarded him as a barbarian by birth; but he was so
fascinated by his serene temper and strong judgment, that he singled
him out to be the chief of all his friends, and gave him the name of
Socrates, noting him as an example that Nature can sometimes produce
geniuses in the most unpropitious regions.
After having passed the summer of 1330 at Lombes, the Bishop
returned to Avignon, in order to meet his father, the elder Stefano
Colonna, and his brother the Cardinal.
The Colonnas were a family of the first distinction in modern Italy.
They had been exceedingly powerful during the popedom of Boniface
VIII., through the talents of the late Cardinal James Colonna, brother of
the famous old Stefano, so well known to Petrarch, and whom he used
to call a phoenix sprung up from the ashes of Rome. Their house
possessed also an influential public