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.
Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second book - VI. Fra Felice’s Legacy
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
234
THE MIR A CLES OF ANTICHRIST
rocked their bodies in silent grief. There were both
the women from the hotel courtyard, Donna Pepa
and Donna Tura; there was old Mother Saraedda,
who ate the bread of charity at the house of the
Syndic Voltaro; there were blind beggars, blind
singers, blind of all ages and conditions. All the
blind of Diamante were there, and in Diamante
there is an incredible number who no longer see the
light of the sun.
They all sat silent most of the time, but every
now and then one of them burst into a wail.
Sometimes one of them felt his way forward to the monk,
Father Succi, and threw himself weeping aloud
across him.
It made it all the more like a death-bed that the
priest and Father Rossi from the Franciscan
monastery were there and were trying to comfort the
despairing people.
Donna Elisa was much moved. Ah, so often she
had seen those people happy in her garden, and
now to meet them in such misery! They had won
pleasant tears from her when they had sung
mourning-songs over her husband, Signor Antonelli, and
over her brother, Don Ferrante. She could not bear
to see them in such need.
Old Mother Saraedda began to speak to Donna
Elisa.
“I knew nothing when I came, Donna Elisa,” said
the old woman. “ I left my dog outside on the
steps and went in through the church door. Then
I stretched out my arm to push aside the curtain
over the door, but the curtain was gone. I put
my foot down as if there were a step to mount before
the threshold, but there was no step. I stretched
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
