church, in which the Virgin is appearing to a lady and gentleman as
they are lying both of them fast asleep in a large bed, with their
two dear little round heads on a couple of comfortable pillows. The
three Magi in the very interesting frescoes behind the choir in the
church of S. Abbondio at Como are, if I remember, all in one bed when
the angel comes to tell them about the star, and I fancy they have a
striped counterpane, but it is some time since I saw the frescoes; at
any rate the angel was not a lady. We had often before seen the
Virgin appear to a lady in bed, and even to a gentleman in bed, but
never before to a lady and a gentleman both in the same bed. She is
not, however, so much appearing to them as sitting upon them, and I
should say she was pretty heavy. The fresco is dated 1641.

The other road is the direct one, and passes the old church of St.
Mark, outside which there are some charming fifteenth-century
frescoes by nobody in particular, and among them a cow who, at the
instance of St. Mark, is pinning a bear or wolf to a tree in a most
resolute determined manner.

There are other frescoes on this church by the Varallese painter
Luini (not to be confounded with Bernardino), but I do not remember
them as remarkable.

Up to this point the two highest peaks of Monte Rosa are still
visible when clouds permit; here they disappear behind nearer
mountains, and in a few more hundred yards Varallo is entered.



CHAPTER IV. BERNARDINO CAIMI, AND FASSOLA.