warfare then! Autaris laid siege to the place with a mimic fleet and reduced it by famine in six months. The Governor Francillioni was able to secure honourable terms, and retired to Ravenna. The treasure fell to the enemy, precious vestments, jewels, money, chalices, and vessels of gold and silver once brought here by fugitives from their homes and churches.

After King Rotharis had codified the Lombard customs into laws, in 636, and established guilds and trades, the. Magistri Comacini were guests on the island.

These were local artisans

and builders, and are known as the first freemasons. They built the Monza Cathedral. In architecture the Goths of the fifth century found in Italy the classical Roman debased. Enclesius, Bishop of Ravenna, visited Constantinople in the sixth century, and brought back Greek workers from St. Sofia to erect San Vitale. Roman and Byzantine blended in a third order of Romanesque, or Comacine.

The warlike spirit of the people of the island was not subdued. In the political disturbances

of succeeding years, when the towns on the lake were divided by factions, the Comacina played a part in sieges and defiances of all sorts. In the contentions of Milan and Como of the middle ages, the tiny Gibraltar is reputed to have rebelled at maternal authority for ten years in favour of the rival. In wrath Como sent her fleet to punish the culprit. The rallying and setting sail of the war ships must have been an aweinspiring spectacle from the shores of the lake. Forth sallied the Cristina, the Rat, the Griffin, the Wolf. Each of these had a wooden tower, while other craft were furnished with machines for firing stones, arrows, and combustibles. A galley was long and heavy enough to transport projectiles of war, and another boat noted for speed. A captain at arms of Gravedona had invented lo Schifo in this bellicose era; a bark holding twelve rowers, and twelve soldiers ready for action, with a white gonfalone with the three red crosses of the parish on it at the masthead, a crucifix and an altar on the deck. The island. strengthened the fortifications which covered the

place in stubborn resistance. Ah, hunger might be warded off for a season, and clumsy implements thunder at gate and tower in vain; even soldier in cuirass and helmet meet hostile soldier with clash of steel in some feat of sallying forth to the fray, but the day came when battlement and buttress would fall, like a house of cards, before a more formidable foe than the Lombard hosts, or medieval armies. Gunpowder came into general use. The sceptre of the islet passed. Gunpowder slew its thousands, and enabled the middle classes to cope with the knight in armour.

Delécluze affirms that disputes as to the form of the earth caused Columbus to cross the Atlantic; and the mechanical implements, simple toys of children, of the thirteenth century, were the first models of artillery destined to change the politics of Europe.

The lizards crept away among the tufts of grass and vines. The waters sparkled in a flood of sunshine. It might be better for the world if no more trace existed of the great