The rays of the morning sun shone upon the face of Gregorio Villani and imbued the features with a look of peace such as the living had not worn for many a day. The monks had placed his body on a bier, on each side of which two tall wax tapers burned in their sconces. Francesco knelt down by the side of the bier, burying his head in his hands, while the monk retreated into a remote corner of the room. When he rose at last, the watcher saw all the young life go out of his face, which suddenly grew old and cold. Light and color seemed simultaneously to depart from eyes and lips, and his limbs seemed hardly able to sustain him upright. After a pause he dared not break, for dread of revealing his sudden feeling, the youth's lifeless voice was raised in the dreary monotone of questioning. "When will they take him away?" The monk came nearer. "He will be laid to rest at night-fall under the great altar of the Cathedral." A silence fell between them. Again Francesco spoke. "The dial points to something like noon?" The monk nodded. "When will you ride?" "At night-fall." "It is well. You will return to Avellino, that you may bid farewell to your former master and friends. Thence you will proceed to Monte Cassino." "To Monte Cassino," the youth echoed with a voice dead as his soul. Then he added: "I ride alone?" "Alone!" "Leave me now! I would spend the last hours here with him!" "Will you not come to the refectory? You are in need of food, and the day is long!" Francesco raised his hands as if in abhorrence of the thought. Then, as he turned towards the bier, he seemed newly overwhelmed at the sight of the lifeless clay before him. The memory of his father's first appearance, as he entered the sick-chamber, the ashen pallor, the traces of cruel pain, now softened or effaced by the majesty of Death, reverted to him. He sank down beside the bier. But try as he might, he could not pray. Thus the monk left him.-- On that evening, in the presence of the entire chapter of the Cathedral and the monks of San Cataldo, they laid to rest under the great altar of the imposing edifice all that was mortal of Gregorio Villani, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John. And on that evening the strange friar, who had brought to the dying man the much craved conditional absolution, departed after a final interview with Francesco, who was to return at once to Avellino to prepare himself for the new life which had been decreed for him. CHAPTER III VISTAS