I have never sought in vain for anything from his Imperial Majesty and yourself.

But I wish not for your gold." In the summer of 1357, Petrarch, wishing to screen himself from the excessive heat, took up his abode for a time on the banks of the Adda at Garignano, a village three miles distant from Milan, of which he gives a charming description.

"The village," he says, "stands on a slight elevation in the midst of a plain, surrounded on all sides by springs and streams, not rapid and noisy like those of Vaucluse, but clear and modest.

They wind in such a manner, that you know not either whither they are going, or whence they have come.

As if to imitate the dances of the nymphs, they approach, they retire, they unite, and they separate alternately.