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102
the miracles of antichrist.
there, that ever since it has been considered unholy
and unclean, and never more been opened for service.
Therefore it is only when the almond trees are in
blossom, that strangers and great people notice San
Pasquale. For although the whole slope of Etna is
then white with almond blossoms, the best and largest
trees, however, stand around the old condemned
church. But poor people in Diamante come to San
Pasquale all the year round. For although the
church is always closed, one goes there to ask advice
of the saint, of whom there is an image just at the
entrance under a large baldachin ; and it is customary
to entreat it to foretell something of the future. No
one predicts the future better than San Pasquale.
Now just that morning, when Gaetano left
Diamante, it happened that the clouds came driving down
from Etna, so thick, as if they had been dust raised
by innumerable armies, and they filled the whole sky
like dark-winged dragons, and they vomited rain, and
they sputtered out mist and darkness. And the air
became so thick over Diamante, that one could not
see across the street. It was damp and wet
everywhere, the floor was just as wet as the ceiling, the
doorposts became dripping, the balustrades full of
drops, the mist hung in the passages and rooms, so
that one might have thought them full of smoke.
But this very morning at an early hour, before the
rain had commenced, a rich English lady rode in her
large traveling-carriage from Catania to make the
tour round Etna. When she had ridden a few hours,
the terrible rain commenced, enveloping everything
in a mist.
As she did not wish to miss seeing the glorious re-
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