serenity of gentleness of this victorious soul. I don't like monks, but
I loved Father Domenico. I might have been his father, easily, yet I
always felt a certain shyness and awe of him; and yet men have
accounted me a clean-lived man in my generation; but I felt, whenever I
approached him, a poor worldly creature, debased by the knowledge of so
many mean and ugly things. Of late Father Domenico had seemed to me
less calm than usual: his eyes had grown strangely bright, and red
spots had formed on his salient cheekbones. One day last week, taking
his hand, I felt his pulse flutter, and all his strength as it were,
liquefy under my touch. "You are ill," I said. "You have fever, Father
Domenico. You have been overdoing yourself--some new privation, some
new penance. Take care and do not tempt Heaven; remember the flesh is
weak." Father Domenico withdrew his hand quickly. "Do not say that," he
cried; "the flesh is strong!" and turned away his face. His eyes were
glistening and he shook all over. "Some quinine," I ordered. But I felt
it was no case for quinine. Prayers might be more useful, and could I
have given them he should not have wanted. Last night I was suddenly
sent for to Father Domenico's monastery above Montemirto: they told me
he was ill. I ran up through the dim twilight of moonbeams and olives
with a sinking heart. Something told me my monk was dead. He was lying
in a little low whitewashed room; they had carried him there from his
own cell in hopes he might still be alive. The windows were wide open;
they framed some olive-branches, glistening in the moonlight, and far
below, a strip of moonlit sea. When I told them that he was really
dead, they brought some tapers and lit them at his head and feet, and
placed a crucifix between his hands. "The Lord has been pleased to call
our poor brother to Him," said the Superior. "A case of apoplexy, my
dear Doctor--a case of apoplexy. You will make out the certificate for
the authorities." I made out the certificate. It was weak of me. But,
after all, why make a scandal? He certainly had no wish to injure the