Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
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174 the miracles of antichrist
think for a moment before she could understand what
it was.
Yet it was nothing but the front of the Cathedral,
covered with flowers of stiff silver and gold paper
and with thousands of little mirrors stuck in between
the flowers. And in every flower was hung a little
lamp with a flame as big as a fire-fly. It was the
most enchanting illumination that Donna Micaela
had ever seen.
There was no other light in the market-place, nor
was any needed. That great wall of diamonds
shone quite sufficiently. The black Palazzo Geraci
was flaming red, as if it had been lighted by a
conflagration.
Nothing of the world outside of the square was
visible. Everything below it was in the deepest
darkness, and that made her think again that she
saw the old enchanted Diamante that was not of the
earth, but was a holy city on one of the mounts of
heaven. The town-hall with its heavy balconies
and high steps, the long convent and the Roman
gate were again glorious and wonderful. And she
could hardly believe it was in that town that she
had suffered such terrible pain.
In the midst of the great crowd of people, no
chill was felt. The winter night was mild as a
spring morning; and Donna Micaela began to feel
something of spring in her. It began to stir and
tremble in her in a way which was both sweet and
terrible. It must feel so in the snow-masses on
Etna when the sun melts them into sparkling
brooks.
She looked at the people who filled the
marketplace, and was amazed at herself that she had been
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