ould
hold this Sacrament in my hand in the face of you all, to pray fervently
to the Most High that if this work of mine does not come from Him, He
will send a fire and consume me, that I may vanish into the eternal
darkness away from His light which I have hidden with my falsity. Again
I beseech you to make that prayer, and to make it _now_."

It was a breathless moment: perhaps no man really prayed, if some in a
spirit of devout obedience made the effort to pray. Every consciousness
was chiefly possessed by the sense that Savonarola was praying, in a
voice not loud, but distinctly audible in the wide stillness.

"Lord, if I have not wrought in sincerity of soul, if my word cometh not
from Thee, strike me in this, moment with Thy thunder, and let the fires
of Thy wrath enclose me."

He ceased to speak, and stood motionless, with the consecrated Mystery
in his hand, with eyes uplifted, and a quivering excitement in his whole
aspect. Every one else was motionless and silent too, while the
sunlight, which for the last quarter of an hour had here and there been
piercing the greyness, made fitful streaks across the convent wall,
causing some awe-stricken spectators to start timidly. But soon there
was a wider parting, and with a gentle quickness, like a smile, a stream
of brightness poured itself on the crystal vase, and then spread itself
over Savonarola's face with mild glorification.

An instantaneous shout rang through the Piazza, "Behold the answer!"

The warm radiance thrilled through Savonarola's frame, and so did the
shout. It was his last moment of untroubled triumph, and in its
rapturous confidence he felt carried to a grander scene yet to come,
before an audience that would represent all Christendom, in whose
presence he should again be sealed as the messenger of the supreme
righteousness, and feel himself full charged with Divine strength. It
was but a moment that expanded itself in that prevision. While the
shout was still ringing in his ears he turned away within the church,
feeling the strain too great for him to tear it longer.

But when the Frate had disappeared, and the sunlight seemed no longer to
have anything special in its illumination, but was spreading itself
impartially over all things clean and unclean, there began, along with
the general movement of the crowd, a confusion of voices in which
certain strong discords and varying scales of laughter made it evident
that, in the previous si