S. FRANCESCO DEI PALUDI	95
to which the road is now leading us. For right down below us on the very shore—an episode in French-grey and rose — is the rose-red roof and the cypress-girdled little fortress-convent building of S. Francesco dei Paludi. Its fore-court is full of those funeral-flamed cypress trees, and its fine defence-tower, square and strong, guarding the entrance to the inner cloister and church. The monastery was constantly menaced by the Turks from Klissa, and in the church they show the rude portraits of all those who have written in praise of Our Lady; down in the right-hand corner of the picture is the head of the Prophet, clasping to his breast a scroll with the legend “Nullus est ex Adam quem non tenuerit Satan praeter Mariam et filium ejus,” Mahometto 1-11 Libro v. Koran. This is said to have saved the monastery many a time from outrage and sack by the Moslems, besides this guardian altar-piece, the church contains two very fine paintings by the Spalatine artist, Girolamo da S. Croce. The picture over high altar has been considerably retouched. ^ is a polyptych with the Madonna and many Saints, among them S. Louis IX. of France, ll!|d is signed “Hieronymus de Santa Croce, U)xcvini ”. The other is a picture on canvas in