ameless rapture. I know all now--everything! Was not
Bertuccio Nenolo my foster-father, who brought me up at a country house
near Treviso?"

"'"Ah, yes!" she said; "Bertuccio Nenolo it was, the grand sea-hero,
whom the ocean swallowed, just as he thought to place the laurel-wreath
on his brow."

"'"Do not interrupt me," he continued. "Hear me patiently out. Things
went well with me while I lived with Bertuccio Nenolo. I wore fine
clothes. Whenever I was hungry, the table was always laid. When I had
said my three little prayers, I might go out and roam about in the
woods and meadows as I chose. Close to the house there was a dark wood
of pines, full of perfume and music. I lay down there one evening, as
the sun was sinking, weary with running about, under a great tree, and
gazed up at the blue sky. Whether it was the earthy scent of the herbs
that was the cause I do not know, but my eyes closed, and I sunk into a
dreamy reverie, from which I was roused by the sound of something
striking the ground close beside me, in the grass. I started up. A
child, with the face of an angel, was standing beside me. She looked
down upon me with a heavenly smile, and said in a sweet voice--

"'"How softly and quietly you were sleeping, you dear boy; and yet
death was very near to you--a horrible death."

"'"Close to my breast I saw a small black snake, with its head
shattered. The girl had killed it with the branch of a nut tree just as
it was going to strike at me. I trembled, in a delicious awe. I knew
that angels often came from Heaven to rescue human beings from the
attacks of enemies. I fell on my knees. I raised my clasped hands. "Ah!
you are an angel," I cried, "whom the Lord hath sent to deliver me from
death! "The beautiful creature stretched her arms to me, and whispered,
with rosy blushes suffusing her cheeks--

"'"No, you dear boy! I am not an angel. I am only a girl--a child, like
yourself."

"'"My reverential awe passed into unspeakable rapture. I rose; we
clasped each other in our arms; we pressed our lips upon each other's,
speechless, weeping, sobbing, in delicious, nameless pain. A voice,
clear as silver, culled through the trees, 'Annunziata! Annunziata!'

"'"I must leave you now, you darling boy; my mother is calling me,"
whispered the girl. An unspeakable pain pierced my heart.

"'"Oh, I do so love you!" I sobbed out, while the girl's hot tears fell
burning on my cheeks.

"'"I am so fond of you, darling bo