But Petrarch found in the bishop's abode friends who consoled him in this exile among the Lombesians.

Two young and familiar inmates of the Bishop's house attracted and returned his attachment.

The first of these was Lello di Stefani, a youth of a noble and ancient family in Rome, long attached to the Colonnas.

Lello's gifted understanding was improved by study; so Petrarch tells us; and he could have been no ordinary man whom our accomplished poet so highly valued.

In his youth he had quitted his studies for the profession of arms; but the return of peace restored him to his literary pursuits.
Such was the attachment between Petrarch and Lello, that Petrarch gave him the name of Laelius, the most attached companion of Scipio.