Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXVII. Summer
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the Sindaco and the municipal councillors eagerly
awaiting the arrival of the carabinieri from
Sorrento. On the steps leading to the church stood
a dozen priests gesticulating wildly. The church
was closed pending the arrival of the authorities.
Yes, said the Sindaco coming up to me with a
grave face, it was all true! The sacristan in
coming to open the church in the morning had
found it full of smoke. The catafalque was half
consumed by the fire, the coffin itself was badly
scorched, of the precious pall of embroidered
velvet and a dozen wreaths from the Canonico’s
relatives and children nothing remained but a
heap of smouldering ashes. Three of the huge
wax candelabras round the catafalque were still
burning, the fourth had evidently been knocked
down by a sacrilegious hand to set fire to the pall.
So far it was impossible to ascertain whether it
was the work of il Demonio or of some criminals
but the Sindaco shrewdly remarked that the fact
that none of the precious jewels round the neck of
San Costanzo were missing made him, parlando
con rispetto, incline to the former supposition.
The mystery deepened more and more as I
continued my investigations. In the Caffé Zum
Hiddigeigei, the headquarters of the German
colony, the floor was strewn with broken glasses,
bottles and crockery of all sorts, on a table stood
a half-empty bottle of whisky. In the
Farmacia dozens of Faenza jars with precious drugs
and secret compounds had been hurled from
their shelves, castor-oil everywhere. Il
Professore Raffaele Parmigiano showed me himself the
devastation of his new Sala di Esposizione, the
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