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228 . the miracles of antichrist
made the promise in order that he might be left
alone with his sorrow.
" Shall I repeat your promise to the
Christ-image?" she said.
" Do as you please, Donna Elisa," said the old man.
That same day, old Fra Felice had risen at about
five o’clock in the morning and begun to sweep his
church. He felt perfectly strong and well, but all
at once it seemed to him as if San Pasquale with the
bag of stones, who sat outside the church-door, must
have something to say to him. He went out to
him. Nothing, however, was the matter with San
Pasquale. Just then the sun rose behind Etna and
down the dark side of the mountain streamed its
rays, variegated as harp strings. When the rays
reached old Fra Felice’s old church, they tinted it red,
the old barbaric pillars supporting the canopy over
the image, and San Pasquale with the bag of stones,
and even Fra Felice himself, became rosy red. " We
look like young boys," thought the old man. " We
have still a long series of years to live."
But as he was about to go back into the church,
he felt a severe pressure above the heart, and it
occurred to him that San Pasquale had called him out
to bid him farewell. At the same time his limbs
grew so heavy that he could scarcely move them.
He felt no pain, but a weariness which could signify
nothing but death. He was barely able to put away
the dust brush behind the door of the sacristy ; he
then dragged himself up to the chancel, laid himself
down on the platform in front of the high altar and
wrapped his gown about him.
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