orata mamma.

"Now do, my dear, be guided by those who must know better than yourself.
It is such a pity you will persist in going on like this. If only you
would try to realize how much it distresses me to witness your
sufferings! Why not take a second opinion? What I always say is: Make
proper inquiries, go to a good man, follow his treatment and you will
derive benefit."

Twelve years of this sort of thing would bring round the most obstinate
emperor. The buffo, however, assured me that nothing of the kind had
happened; no specialist had been called in, those two doctors had had
charge of the case from the beginning, the emperor was an orphan who had
never known a mother's loving care and I must have been drawing upon my
imagination or my personal reminiscences. Nevertheless, like a true
Sicilian, he congratulated me upon the modification and promised to speak
to his father about it with a view to introducing it next time the
doctors come to see the emperor--that is in about a year and a half.

And then, what became of the doctors? Were they also pardoned?--they
stood more in need of pardon than the poor children. Or were they burnt
for failing to cure the emperor?--which would not have been fair, seeing
that he would not give their proposal a trial. The buffo explained that
they knew this was to be their last chance, and that if they did not cure
him in two hours they were to be burnt with the Christians. They had
proposed their barbarous treatment not expecting it to have any
beneficial effect on his health but merely to gain time, and they had
escaped.

As soon as the children had danced away, the patient pulled up the
bed-clothes, which had become disarranged owing partly to his
restlessness and partly to the children's terror, and composed himself to
slumber. He slept, woke and told his dream. He slept again, woke and
told his dream. He slept again and this time we saw his dream. There
was a juggling with the lights and a red gauze was let down. Two
quivering clouds descended from heaven; St. Peter, with the keys at his
girdle, and St. Paul, with a sword, burst through. They made passes at
the sleeping emperor and spoke antiphonally, one being a tenor and the
other a bass. They announced that the Padre Eterno was pleased with him
for pardoning the six children, and that if he would send for Silvestro,
a hermit living on Monte Sirach (_i.e._ Soracte, near Rome, where there
is now a church dedi