the imploring line--

"Miserere Domine!"

Impatient, sick at heart, desperate, Adrian flew through the street at
the full speed of his horse. He passed the marketplace--it was empty
as the desert;--the gloomy and barricadoed streets, in which the
countercries of Guelf and Ghibeline had so often cheered on the Chivalry
and Rank of Florence. Now huddled together in vault and pit, lay Guelf
and Ghibeline, knightly spurs and beggar's crutch. To that silence the
roar even of civil strife would have been a blessing! The first bridge,
the riverside, the second, the third bridge, all were gained, and Adrian
at last reined his steed before the walls of the convent. He fastened
his steed to the porch, in which the door stood ajar, half torn from its
hinges, traversed the court, gained the opposite door that admitted to
the main building, came to the jealous grating, now no more a barrier
from the profane world, and as he there paused a moment to recover
breath and nerve, wild laughter and loud song, interrupted and mixed
with oaths, startled his ear. He pushed aside the grated door, entered,
and, led by the sounds, came to the refectory. In that meeting-place of
the severe and mortified maids of heaven, he now beheld gathered round
the upper table, used of yore by the abbess, a strange, disorderly,
ruffian herd, who at first glance seemed indeed of all ranks, for some
wore serge, or even rags, others were tricked out in all the bravery
of satin and velvet, plume and mantle. But a second glance sufficed to
indicate that the companions were much of the same degree, and that the
finery of the more showy was but the spoil rent from unguarded palaces
or tenantless bazaars; for under plumed hats, looped with jewels, were
grim, unwashed, unshaven faces, over which hung the long locks which the
professed brethren of the sharp knife and hireling arm had just begun
to assume, serving them often instead of a mask. Amidst these savage
revellers were many women, young and middle-aged, foul and fair, and
Adrian piously shuddered to see amongst the loose robes and uncovered
necks of the professional harlots the saintly habit and beaded rosary
of nuns. Flasks of wine, ample viands, gold and silver vessels, mostly
consecrated to holy rites, strewed the board. As the young Roman paused
spellbound at the threshold, the man who acted as president of the
revel, a huge, swarthy ruffian, with a deep scar over his face, which,
traversing the whole of t