g down from old age without dying!"
"Master," said Occasion, "do you want me to let Death out? If you will
give me a place in paradise, I will let him out." The Lord thought:
"What shall I do? If I don't grant him this favor, he will not leave me
in peace." So he said: "Your request is granted!" At these words Death
was set at liberty; Occasion was permitted to live a few years longer,
and then Death took him. Hence it is "That there is no death without
Occasion."

LXIV. BROTHER GIOVANNONE.

Once upon a time there was a convent at Casteltermini which contained
many monks, one of whom was named Brother Giovannone. At the time when
the Lord and all his apostles were on their travels they visited this
convent, and all the monks asked the Lord to pardon their souls; Brother
Giovannone asked nothing. St. Peter said to him: "Why do you not ask
pardon for your soul, like the others?" "I don't wish anything." St.
Peter said: "Nothing? When you come to paradise we will talk about it."
When the Master had taken his departure and had gone some distance,
Brother Giovannone began to cry out: "Master, Master, wait! I want a
favor, and it is that any one I command must get into my pouch." The
Master said: "This request is granted."

Brother Giovannone was old and one day Death came and said to him:
"Giovannone, you have three hours to live!" Brother Giovannone replied:
"When you come for me you must let me know half an hour before." After a
while Death came and said: "You are a dead man!" Brother Giovannone
replied: "In the name of Brother Giovannone, into my pouch with you,
Death!" Then he carried his pouch to a baker and asked him to hang it
up in the chimney until he came for it. For forty years no one died. At
the end of that time Brother Giovannone went and set Death free, so that
he might himself die, for he was so old he could do no more. The first
one that Death killed when he was free was Brother Giovannone, and then
he destroyed all those who had not died in the forty years.

After he was dead Brother Giovannone went and knocked at the gate of
paradise and St. Peter said to him: "There is no room for you here."
"Where must I go, then?" asked Brother Giovannone. "To purgatory,"
answered St. Peter. So he knocked at purgatory and they told him: "There
is no place for you here." "Where must I go, then?" "To hell." He
knocked at hell and Lucifer asked: "Who is there?" "Brother Giovannone."
Then Lucifer said to his devils: "