same spot), when a noble lady, who had never been found out in any
naughtiness (some people are certainly very lucky in this world, Signore
Carlo!), came by, and seeing the penitent, drew in her robe, turned up
her nose, and retreated as if the other had the plague. To which the
Magdalen replied, in a sad but firm voice, 'Madonna, you need not be
afraid to touch me, for I assure you that the malady (of which I have, I
trust, been thoroughly cured) attacks none save those who wish to have
it.'"

* * * * *

When standing in the Cathedral, the visitor may remember that here Santo
Crescenzio, who died in 424, once wrought a miracle, thus recorded in his
"Life" of the fourteenth century:

"A poor man had come into the Cathedral and saw no light (_i.e._, was
blind), and going to where Saint Crescentius was, implored him with
great piety that he would cause the light to return unto him. And
being moved to pity, he made the sign of the cross in the eyes of the
blind man, and incontinently the light was restored unto him. Saint
Crescentius did not wish this to be made known, and pretended to know
nothing about it, but he could not conceal such miracles."

Of which the immortal Flaxius remarks, that "it is singular that so many
saints who wished to keep their miracles unknown had not the forethought
to make silence a condition of cure. Also, that of all the
wonder-working once effected by the holy men of the Church, the only gift
now remaining to them is the miraculous power of changing sons and
daughters into nephews and nieces; the which, as I am assured, is still
as flourishing as ever, and permitted as a proof of transubstantiation."
Thus it is that simple heretics deride holy men. And Flaxius is, I bid
ye note, a sinner, in whose antique, unsanctified derision I most
assuredly do take no part, "it being in bad form in this our age to
believe or disbelieve in anything," and therefore in bad style to laugh
at aught.

It may be worth recalling, when looking out on the Cathedral Square, that
it was here that San Zenobio performed another great miracle, recorded in
all his lives, but most briefly in the poetical one:

"Then did he raise an orphan from the dead,
The only son of a poor widow, he,
A cart with oxen passing o'er his head,
Died in the Duomo Square in misery;
But though all crushed, the Saint restored his life,
And, well an