Fra Giovanni doubted in his simplicity whether this discourse was
altogether becoming. The Adversary read the holy man's thought, and
reassured him, saying:

"Such is the learning we are taught at School. I am a Theologian, I!"

Then he got up, and added:

"I regret to leave you, friend; but I cannot tarry longer with you. For
I have many contradictions to pose to many men. I can taste no rest day
nor night; but I must be going ceaselessly from place to place, setting
down my lantern now on the scholar's desk, now at the bed's head of the
sick man who cannot sleep."

So saying, he went away as he had come. And the holy man Giovanni asked
himself: "Why did this Doctor say, Truth was white, I wonder?" And lying
in the straw he kept revolving this question in his head. His body
shared the restlessness of his mind, and kept turning first one side
then the other in search of the repose he could not find.


XIV

GIOVANNI'S DREAM

And this is why, left alone in his dungeon, he prayed to the Lord,
saying:

"O Lord! Thy loving-kindness is infinite toward me, and Thy favour