Many curious stories were related about him at this period.

It was said that a stout Burgomaster, who had come to deliver a florid oratorical address on behalf of the citizens of the town,

had caught sight of him kneeling in real adoration before a great picture that had just been brought from Venice,

and that seemed to herald the worship of some new gods.

On another occasion he had been missed for several hours,

and after a lengthened search had been discovered in a little chamber in one of the northern turrets of the palace gazing, as one in a trance, at a Greek gem carved with the figure of Adonis.

He had been seen, so the tale ran, pressing his warm lips to the marble brow of an antique statue that had been discovered in the bed of the river on the occasion of the building of the stone bridge,

and was inscribed with the name of the Bithynian slave of Hadrian.

He had passed a whole night in noting the effect of the moonlight on a silver image of Endymion.

All rare and costly materials had certainly a great fascination for him, and in his eagerness to procure them he had sent away many merchants,