"That is all done, my boy; at the first signal your father will seek refuge in the mountains, and your sister with the lady who gave a ball last night. Ah! the bell is ringing for service. I am going to ask the superior's permission to go out with my nephew on some family business. Wait for me at the door of our chapel." "And suppose he should refuse you?" "He would compel me to disobey him, which would grieve me deeply, I confess, not because of the penance to-morrow, but because I do not like to fail in my duty. The old soldier looks upon his orders as the supreme law." Five minutes later, Fra Angelo joined Michel again at the door of the church. "Granted," he said, "but I am commanded, in order to pay my debt to God, to perform an act of faith and say a short prayer before the altar of the Virgin. As I am excused from attending the evening services, the least I can do is to ask pardon from my greatest superior. Come and pray with me, young man; it can do you no harm, and will give you strength." Michel followed his uncle to the foot of the altar. The setting sun made the stained-glass windows glow as with fire, and strewed with sapphires and rubies the flagged floor on which the Capuchin knelt. Michel knelt beside him, and watched him as he prayed with simple fervor. A flame-colored pane, whose reflection fell upon his shaven head, made it appear luminous and, as it were, aflame. The young painter was seized with respect and enthusiastic admiration as he looked upon that noble, strong and ingenuous face, which humbled itself in all sincerity in prayer; and he, too, moved to the depths of his heart, prayed for his country, his family and himself, with a simple faith and candor which he had not known since his childhood. XXIII THE DESTATORE "May I venture to ask you where we are going, uncle?" queried Michel, when they had taken a dark and narrow path which led among the old olive-trees on the mountain. "Certainly," replied Fra Angelo; "we are going to call upon the last real brigand in Sicily." "There are some left then?"