What his friend saw were the great oval dish and the great jar orvase standing with the sunbeams full upon them, and the brushesand the tools and the colors all strewn around. And they shonewith lustrous opaline hues and wondrous flame-like glories andgleaming iridescence, like melted jewels, and there were allmanner of graceful symbols and classic designs wrought upon them;and their borders were garlanded with cherubs and flowers, bearingthe arms of Montefeltro, and the landscapes were the tender,homely landscapes round about Urbino; and the mountains had thesolemn radiance that the Apennines wore at eveningtime; and amidstthe figures there was one supreme, black-robed, golden-crownedEsther, to whom the teeny child painter had given the face of Pacifica.And this wondrous creation, wrought by a baby's arm, had safelyand secretly passed the ordeal of the furnace, and had come forthwithout spot or flaw.

Luca ceased not from kneeling at the feet of Raffaelle, as eversince has kneeled the world.

"0h, wondrous boy! 0h, angel sent unto men!" sighed the poor'prentice, as he gazed; and his heart was so full that he burstinto tears.

"Let us thank God," exclaimed little Raffaelle again; and he joined hissmall hands that had wrought this miracle, and exclaimed his LausDomini.