declined to take part in this battle; whereupon the people, returning
flushed with victory, drove them all out, and established pure Guelph
government in Florence, changing at the same time the flag of the city
from gules, a lily argent, to argent, a lily gules; but the most
ancient bearing of all, simply parted per pale, argent and gules,
remained always on their carroccio of battle,--"Non si muto mai."

[Footnote 1: "Una volta ch' era sopra la camera."]

110. "Non si muto mai." Villani did not know how true his words were.
That old shield of Florence, parted per pale, argent and gules, (or our
own Saxon Oswald's, parted per pale, or and purpure,) are heraldry
changeless in sign; declaring the necessary balance, in ruling men, of
the Rational and Imaginative powers; pure Alp, and glowing cloud.

Church and State--Pope and Emperor--Clergy and Laity,--all these are
partial, accidental--too often, criminal--oppositions; but the bodily
and spiritual elements, seemingly adverse, remain in everlasting
harmony,

Not less the new bearing of the shield, the red fleur-de-lys, has
another meaning. It is red, not as ecclesiastical, but as free. Not of
Guelph against Ghibelline, but of Labourer against Knight. No more his
serf, but his minister. His duty no more 'servitium,' but
'ministerium,' 'mestier.' We learn the power of word after word, as of
sign after sign, as we follow the traces of this nascent art. I have
sketched for you this lily from the base of the tower of Giotto. You
may judge by the subjects of the sculpture beside it that it was built
just in this fit of commercial triumph; for all the outer bas-reliefs
are of trades.