etter--or
bitter--relish for secular delights, holding that it is far preferable to
have a great deal of pleasure for a little penitence than _per poco
piacer gran penitenza_--much penitence for very little pleasure. In
short, they were just at the other end of the rope away from Brother
Dyonisio, inasmuch as they ate chickens, _bistecche_ or beef-steaks, and
drank the best wine, even on fast-days--_giorni di vigiglia_--and slept
in the best of beds; yes, living like lords, and never bothering
themselves with any kind of penance, as all friars should do.

"Now there was among these monks one who was a great _bestemmiatore_, a
man of evil words and wicked ways, who had led a criminal life in the
world, and only taken refuge in the disguise of a monk in the convent to
escape the hand of justice. Brother Dyonisio knew all this, but said
nothing; nay, he even exorcised away a devil whom he saw was always
invisibly at the sinner's elbow, awaiting a chance to catch him by the
hair; but the Beato Dyonisio was too much for him, and kept the devil
ever far away.

"And this was the way he did it:

"It happened one evening that this _finto frate_, or mock monk or feigned
friar, took it into his head, out of pure mischief, and because it was
specially forbidden, to introduce a _donna di mala vita_, or a girl of no
holy life, into the convent to grace a festival, and so arranged with
divers other scapegraces that the damsel should be drawn up in a basket.

"And sure enough there came next morning to the outer gate a fresh and
jolly black-eyed _contadina_, who asked the mock monk whether he would
give her anything in charity. And the _finto frate_ answering sang:

"'You shall have the best of meat,
Anything you like to eat,
Cutlets, macaroni, chickens,
Every kind of dainty pickings.
Pasticcie and fegatelli,
Salame and mortadelle,
With good wine, if you are clever,
For a very trifling favour!'

"To which the girl replied:

"'Here I am, as here you see!
What would'st thou, holy man, with me?'

"The friar answered:

"'When thou hear'st the hoots and howls
At midnight of the dogs and owls,
And when all men are sunk in sleep,
And only witches watch do keep,
Come 'neath the window unto me,
And there thou wilt a basket see
Hung by a rope as from a shelf,
And in that basket stow thyself,
And I alone will draw thee up,
Then with us thou shalt