Third day of the week: at matins.)

[Footnote 1: "Partner of the Father's light, light of light and day of
day, we break the dusk of night with psalms; help us now, Thy
suppliants. Remove the darkness of our minds; scatter the demon hosts
away; expel the sin of drowsiness, lest we be slack in serving Thee."]


Fra Mino had raised himself by his humility above his brethren, and
still a young man, he governed the Monastery of Santa Fiora wisely and
well. He was devout, and loved long meditations and long prayers;
sometimes he had ecstasies. After the example of his spiritual father,
St. Francis, he composed songs in the vernacular tongue in celebration
of perfect love, which is the love of God. And these exercises were
without fault whether of metre or of meaning, for had he not studied the
seven liberal Arts at the University of Bologna?

Now one evening, as he was walking under the cloister arches, he felt
his heart filled with trouble and sadness at the remembrance of a lady
of Florence he had loved in the first flower of his youth, ere the habit
of St. Francis was a safeguard to his flesh. He prayed God to drive away
the image; nevertheless his heart continued sad within him.

"The bells," he pondered, "say like the Angels, AVE MARIA; but their
voice is lost in the mists of heaven. On the cloister wall yonder, the
Master Perugia delights to honour has painted marvellous well the three
Marys contemplating with a love ineffable the body of the Saviour. But
the night has veiled the tears in their eyes and the dumb sobs of their
mouths, and I cannot weep with them. Yonder Well in the middle of the
cloister garth was covered but now with doves that had come to drink,