inconvenience. Leonardo had his revenge by threatening to paint the
features of the impatient Prior into the face of Judas Iscariot. The
incident has been quaintly told in the following lines:--

"Padre Bandelli, then, complains of me
Because, forsooth, I have not drawn a line
Upon the Saviour's head; perhaps, then, he
Could without trouble paint that head divine.
But think, oh Signor Duca, what should be
The pure perfection of Our Saviour's face--
What sorrowing majesty, what noble grace,
At that dread moment when He brake the bread,
And those submissive words of pathos said:

"'By one among you I shall be betrayed,'--
And say if 'tis an easy task to find
Even among the best that walk this Earth,
The fitting type of that divinest worth,
That has its image solely in the mind.
Vainly my pencil struggles to express
The sorrowing grandeur of such holiness.
In patient thought, in ever-seeking prayer,
I strive to shape that glorious face within,
But the soul's mirror, dulled and dimmed by sin,
Reflects not yet the perfect image there.
Can the hand do before the soul has wrought;
Is not our art the servant of our thought?

"And Judas too, the basest face I see,
Will not contain his utter infamy;