Buffalmacco they hauled so vigorously on the cord,
that the bed fastened at the other end began to rise from the floor.
Master Andrea, feeling himself being hoisted aloft, yet without seeing
how, got it into his head it was the Blessed Virgin answering his prayer
and drawing him up to Heaven. He was panic-stricken and fell a-screaming
in a quavering voice:

"Stop, stop, sweet Lady! I never asked it should be now!"

And as the bed rose higher and higher, the rope working smoothly and
noiselessly over the pulley, the old man poured out the most pitiful
supplications to the Virgin Mary:

"Good Lady! sweet Lady! don't pull so! Ho, there! Let go, I say!" But
she seemed not to hear a word. At this he grew furiously angry and
bellowed:

"You must be deaf, you wooden-head! Let go, _bitch of a Madonna_!"

Seeing he was leaving the floor for good and all, his terror increased
yet further; and, calling upon Jesus, he besought Him to make His holy
Mother listen to reason. It was high time, he asseverated, she should
give up this mischancy Assumption. Sinner that he was, and son of a
sinner, he could not, and he would not, go up to Heaven before he'd
finished the river Jordan, the waves and the fishes, and the rest of Our
Blessed Lord's history. Meanwhile the canopy of the bed was all but
touching the beams of the roofing, and Tafi was crying in desperation:

"Jesus, unless you stop your Blessed Mother this instant, the roof of my
house, which cost a fine penny, will most certainly be burst up. For I
see for sure I'm going slap through it. Stop! stop! I can hear the tiles
cracking."

Buffalmacco perceived that by now his master's voice was actually
strangling in his throat, and he ordered his companions to let go the
rope. This they did, the result being that the bed, tumbling suddenly
from roof to floor of the room, crashed down on the boards, breaking the
legs and splitting the panels; simultaneously the bedposts toppled over
and the canopy, curtains, hangings and all fell atop of Master Andrea,
who, thinking he was going to be smothered, started howling like a devil
incarnate. His very soul staggered under the shock, and he could not
tell whether he was fallen back again into his chamber or pitched
headlong into Hell.

At this point the three apprentices rushed in, as if just awakened by
the noise. Seeing the ruins of the bed lying smothered in clouds of
dust, they feigned intense surprise, and instead of going to the ol