Soon, alas! the days grew over-full of pain, and Marina came more often
to the Mater Dolorosa, for the little Zuane had not grown stronger with
the coming of the spring; sleep came to him more easily, but it did not
bring refreshment, and the roses on his cheeks were only signs of
failing bloom. Passionately Marina's loving prayers were breathed
before the shrine of the Madonna San Donato, but the little one grew
weaker every day, till, after a long night of watching, a sweet-voiced
nun stood with Marina beside the cradle.

"The burden of the baby's suffering life is changed to blessing," she
said. "Earth held no joy for him; God hath been merciful beyond thy
prayer, my daughter."



VII

Fra Paolo Sarpi--this friar so grave and great and unemotional--had been
since he had entered the convent in his precocious boyhood the central
figure, fascinating the interest of his community by the marvel of his
progress, so that those who had been his teachers stood reverently
aside, before he had attained to manhood, recognizing gifts beyond their
leading which had already won homage from the savants of Europe and
crowned the order of the Servi with unexampled honors. The element of
the unusual in the young Paolo's endowments had transformed this
Benjamin of the convent into a hero, and surrounded the calm flow of his
studious life with a halo of romance for these Servite friars; yet the
good Fra Giulio in those early days, having little learning wherewith to
estimate his progress and watching over him like a father, had been