were consumed by their own zeal. Plots were laid for his down
fall. The Pope tried to bribe him to silence with a cardinal's hat,
but he scorned the offer. "No hat will I have but that of
martyr reddened with my own blood." Oh fated man, blessed
with the accursed gift of prophesy! Thou bast spoken thine own
doom.
He was now in mortal combat with the church and for two long
years all Italy watched the struggle between the humble monk
and the Holy See. The result was inevitable. The fate of
Arnold of Brescia, of Rienzi at Rome was to be the fate of
Savonarola at Florence.
The people wearied of the monastic severities imposed upon
them, incited to rebellion by envious princes, and threatened with
au interdict by the pope, uprose in the year 1498 and attacked
the cloister. Savonarola was taken prisoner tortured on the rack
and finally on the 23rd of May, 1498, was hanged, with two of
his disciples, as a heretic and a deceiver. Thus perished Girolamo
Savonarola the patriot, priest, prophet, and statesman of Florence
—a martyr at the hands of the church, for the causes to which his
life had been dedicated.
A CHRISTMAS ROMANCE
IT was at Warwick Castle, at Christmas-tide, when I received
her letter. All day long in company with other tourists, I
had been. wandering through the grand old halls of the
Castle, listening to the droning voice of the guide as he recited
the deeds of valor and glory achieved by the great King Arthur
and his illustrious knights, and as we stood in the groined and
vaulted hall I imagined I could hear the. echo. of the dainty ap
plause from the gallery where his Queen with the ladies of the
Court, sat and listened with breathless interest to the tales of Sir
Lancelot and his brother knights.
A CHRISTMAS ROMANCE
GEORGE J. YUNDT, '99.
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