of wattles, and it was very late
at night. Suddenly the far end of my hut grew palely lucent, as if a
phosphorescent vapour were rising from the ground; it waved and rolled
as it ascended in billows of incandescence, and then out of the heart
of it there gradually grew a figure all in white over which there was a
cloak of deepest blue all flecked with golden stars, and in the folded
hands a sheaf of silver lilies.

I knew no fear. My pulses throbbed and my heart beat ponderously but
rapturously as I watched the vision growing more and more distinct until
I could make out the pale face of ineffable sweetness and the veiled
eyes.

It was the Blessed Madonna, as Messer Pordenone had painted her in the
Church of Santa Chiara at Piacenza; the dress, the lilies, the sweet
pale visage, all were known to me, even the billowing cloud upon which
one little naked foot was resting.

I cried out in longing and in rapture, and I held out my arms to that
sweet vision. But even as I did so its aspect gradually changed. Under
the upper part of the blue mantle, which formed a veil, was spread a
mass of ruddy, gleaming hair; the snowy pallor of the face was warmed
to the tint of ivory, and the lips deepened to scarlet and writhed in a
voluptuous smile; the dark eyes glowed languidly; the lilies faded away,
and the pale hands were held out to me.

"Giuliana!" I cried, and my pure and piously joyous ecstasy was changed
upon the instant to fierce, carnal longings.

"Giuliana!" I held out my arms, and slowly she floated towards me, over
the rough earthen floor of my cell.

A frenzy of craving seized me. I was impatient to lock my arms once more
about that fair sleek body. I sought to rise, to go to meet her slow
approach, to lessen by a second this agony of waiting. But my limbs were
powerless. I was as if cast in lead, whilst more and more slowly she
approached me, so languorously mocking.

And then revulsion took me, suddenly and without any cause or warning.
I put my hands to my face to shut out a vision whose true significance I
realized as in a flash.

"Retro me, Sathanas!" I thundered. "Jesus! Maria!"

I rose at last numbed and stiff. I looked again. The vision had
departed. I was alone in my cell, and the rain was falling steadily
outside. I groaned despairingly. Then I swayed, reeled sideways and lost
all consciousness.

When I awoke it was broad day, and the pale wintry sun shone silvery
from a winter sky. I was very wea