XX. THE LOVERS

XXI. THE PENITENT

XXII. A REVELATION

XXIII. IN THE ARMOURY TOWER

XXIV. THE INTERRUPTED MASS

XXV. THE CAPITULATION OF ROCCALEONE




CHAPTER I

VOX POPULI


From the valley, borne aloft on the wings of the evening breeze, rose
faintly the tolling of an Angelus bell, and in a goat-herd's hut on the
heights above stood six men with heads uncovered and bowed, obeying its
summons to evening prayer. A brass lamp, equipped with three beaks,
swung from the grimy ceiling, and, with more smoke than flame, shed an
indifferent light, and yet a more indifferent smell, throughout the
darkening hovel. But it sufficed at least to reveal in the accoutrements
and trappings of that company a richness that was the more striking by
contrast with the surrounding squalor.