ents; many priests and seculars,
and even women and children, more especially on the side of Savonarola,
earnestly requested to be admitted to the proof. The Pope warmly
testified his gratitude to the Franciscans for their devotion. The
Seigniory of Florence consented that two monks only should devote
themselves for their respective orders, and directed the pile to be
prepared. The whole population of the town and country, to which a signal
miracle was promised, received the announcement with transports of joy.

On April 17, 1498, a scaffold, dreadful to look on, was erected in the
public square of Florence; two piles of large pieces of wood, mixed with
fagots and broom, which should quickly take fire, extended each eighty
feet long, four feet thick, and five feet high; they were separated by a
narrow space of two feet, to serve as a passage by which the two priests
were to enter and pass the whole length of the piles during the fire.

Every window was full; every roof was covered with spectators; almost
the whole population of the republic was collected round the place. The
portico called the Loggia dei Lanzi, divided in two by a partition, was
assigned to the two orders of monks. The Dominicans arrived at their
station chanting canticles and bearing the holy sacrament. The
Franciscans immediately declared that they would not permit the host to
be carried amid flames. They insisted that the friar Buonvicino should
enter the fire, as their own champion was prepared to do, without this
divine safeguard. The Dominicans answered that "they would not separate
themselves from their God at the moment when they implored his aid." The
dispute upon this point grew warm.

Several hours passed away. The multitude, which had waited long and began
to feel hunger and thirst, lost patience; a deluge of rain suddenly fell
upon the city, and descended in torrents from the roofs of the houses;
all present were drenched. The piles were so wet that they could
no longer be lighted; and the crowd, disappointed of a miracle so
impatiently looked for, separated, with the notion of having been
unworthily trifled with. Savonarola lost all his credit; he was
henceforth rather looked on as an impostor.

Next day his convent was besieged by the Arabbiati, eager to profit by
the inconstancy of the multitude; he was arrested with his two friends,
Domenico Buonvicino and Silvestro Marruffi, and led to prison. The
Piagnoni, his partisans, were expos