cassock, I will burn Ruscino," said Adone to one of those who had
threatened his friend, "and you will all burn with it, for the river
will not help you; the river will turn to oil and make the flames
rage tenfold."

The people were afraid as they heard him, for the wrath of the gentle
is terrible from its rarity.

"For sure 'tis the dead Tor'alba as speak in him," they said with
fright under their breath, for there was a tale told in the district
that Adone Alba was descended from the old war-lords.

The veterans of the village and the countryside remembered hearing
their fathers say that the family of the Terra Vergine were descended
from those great marquises who had reigned for centuries in that
Rocca which was now a grim, ivy-covered ruin on the north of the
Edera water. But more than this no one could say; no one could tell
how the warlike race had become mere tillers of the soil, or how
those who had measured out life and death up and down the course of
the valley had lost their power and possessions. There were vague
traditions of a terrible siege, following on a great battle in the
vale; that was all.





IV

The church in which Don Silverio officiated every morning and evening