end; but I could swell any man's nose for him and say thank you. And
what does your present passport bear?"

I said, "I have none. The Holy Office having confiscated it, ejected me
from Bologna because I wore a crucifix and prayed to the Madonna."

"Ah," says he, "I've known a man hanged in that city for less. But what
you say convinces me of one thing: you will be all the better for
company."

"How so?" said I.

"Why," says the Capuchin, "you tell me you were talking to the Madonna."

"It is true that I was addressing her in her image."

"Very well; that's a proof positive to me that you had nobody else to
address--a most unwholesome state of affairs. How does my beard strike
you? Black as blackness, I fancy."

He was right. I assured him that it was now as black as Erebus and
pleased him extremely. I told him, however, that I thought he would have
more difficulty with the rest of his description, which gave him a
middle size and a cold in the head. He was, in person, gigantic, and in
health appeared to be as sound as a bell.

"I shall get through," said the friar, "on my beard, and where that goes
I can follow as easily as a tomcat his head. But I have a trick of
bending the knees which will serve me for some hundreds of yards--and if
you suppose that I can't snivel you are very much mistaken. Listen to