t felt himself weighed down under the
same heaviness that overcame Jesus Christ's disciples in the Garden of
Gethsemane. And lo! as he lay there without courage or counsel, he saw
as it were a white cloud rise above the tomb of San Satiro, and
presently observed that this cloud was made up of a multitude of
cloudlets, of which each one was a woman. They floated in the dim air;
and through their light raiment shone the whiteness of their light
limbs. Then Fra Mino saw how among them were goat-footed young men who
were chasing them. These were naked, and nothing hid the terrifying
ardour of their desires. And the nymphs fled away from them, while
beneath their racing steps there sprang up flowery meadows and brooks of
water. Each time a goat-foot put out his hand to seize one of them, a
sallow would shoot up suddenly to hide the nymph in its hollow trunk as
in a cave, and the grey leaves shivered with light murmurings and spurts
of mocking laughter.

When all the women were hidden in the sallows, their goat-footed lovers,
sitting on the grass of the new-come meadows, breathed in their flutes
of reeds and drew from them sounds to destroy the peace of any creature
of the earth. The nymphs were fascinated, and soon began to peep out
between the branches, and one by one deserting the shady covert, drew
near under the irresistible attraction of the music. Then the goat-men
rushed upon them with a demoniac fury. Folded in the arms of their
ruthless assailants, the nymphs strove to keep up a while longer their
raillery and loud laughter, but the mirth died on their lips. With heads
thrown back and eyes swooning with joy and terror, they could only call
upon their mother, or scream a shrill "You are killing me," or keep a
sullen silence.

Fra Mino longed to turn his head, but he could not, and his eyes
remained wide open in spite of himself.

Meanwhile the nymphs, winding their arms about the goat-men's loins,
fell to biting and caressing and provoking their hairy lovers, and body
intertwined with body, they enfolded and bathed them in their tender
flesh that was sweeter and softer and more living than the water of the
brook which ran by them under the sallows.

At the sight, Fra Mino fell, in mind and intention, into deadly sin. He
desired to be one of these demons, half men and half beasts, and hold to
his bosom, after their carnal fashion, the fair lady of Florence he had
loved in the flower of his years, and who was now d