ests who traffic in the souls of men
and fill the very sanctuary with fornication, shall be hurled from their
soft couches into burning hell; and the pagans and they who sinned under
the old covenant shall stand aloof and say: `Lo, these men have brought
the stench of a new wickedness into the everlasting fire.'

"But thou, O Florence, take the offered mercy. See! the Cross is held
out to you: come and be healed. Which among the nations of Italy has
had a token like unto yours? The tyrant is driven out from among you:
the men who held a bribe in their left-hand and a rod in the right are
gone forth, and no blood has been spilled. And now put away every other
abomination from among you, and you shall be strong in the strength of
the living God. Wash yourselves from the black pitch of your vices,
which have made you even as the heathens: put away the envy and hatred
that have made your city as a nest of wolves. And there shall no harm
happen to you: and the passage of armies shall be to you as a flight of
birds, and rebellious Pisa shall be given to you again, and famine and
pestilence shall be far from your gates, and you shall be as a beacon
among the nations. But, mark! while you suffer the accursed thing to
lie in the camp you shall be afflicted and tormented, even though a
remnant among you may be saved."

These admonitions and promises had been spoken in an incisive tone of
authority; but in the next sentence the preacher's voice melted into a
strain of entreaty.

"Listen, O people, over whom my heart yearns, as the heart of a mother
over the children she has travailed for! God is my witness that but for
your sakes I would willingly live as a turtle in the depths of the
forest, singing low to my Beloved, who is mine and I am his. For you I
toil, for you I languish, for you my nights are spent in watching, and
my soul melteth away for very heaviness. O Lord, thou knowest I am
willing--I am ready. Take me, stretch me on thy cross: let the wicked
who delight in blood, and rob the poor, and defile the temple of their
bodies, and harden themselves against thy mercy--let them wag their
heads and shoot out the lip at me: let the thorns press upon my brow,
and let my sweat be anguish--I desire to be made like thee in thy great
love. But let me see the fruit of my travail--let this people be saved!
Let me see them clothed in purity: let me hear their voices rise in
concord as the voices of the angels: let them