THE STROLLING SAINT Being the Confessions of the High & Mighty Agostino D'Anguissola Tyrant of Mondolfo & Lord of Carmina, in the State of Piacenza By Raphael Sabatini CONTENTS BOOK ONE THE OBLATE CHAPTER I. NOMEN ET OMEN II. GINO FALCONE III. THE PIETISTIC THRALL IV. LUISINA V. REBELLION VI. FRA GERVASIO BOOK TWO GIULIANA I. THE HOUSE OF ASTORRE FIFANTI II. HUMANITIES III. PREUX-CHEVALIER IV. MY LORD GAMBARA CLEARS THE GROUND V. PABULUM ACHERONTIS VI. THE IRON GIRDLE BOOK THREE THE WILDERNESS I. THE HOME-COMING II. THE CAPTAIN OF JUSTICE III. GAMBARA'S INTERESTS IV. THE ANCHORITE OF MONTE ORSARO V. THE RENUNCIATION VI. HYPNEROTOMACHIA VII. INTRUDERS VIII. THE VISION IX. THE ICONOCLAST BOOK FOUR THE WORLD I. PAGLIANO II. THE GOVERNOR OF MILAN III. PIER LUIGI FARNESE IV. MADONNA BIANCA V. THE WARNING VI. THE TALONS OF THE HOLY OFFICE VII. THE PAPAL BULL VIII. THE THIRD DEGREE IX. THE RETURN X. THE NUPTIALS OF BIANCA XI. THE PENANCE XII. BLOOD XIII. THE OVERTHROW XIV. THE CITATION XV. THE WILL OF HEAVEN BOOK I. THE OBLATE CHAPTER I. NOMEN ET OMEN In seeking other than in myself--as men will--the causes of my tribulations, I have often inclined to lay the blame of much of the ill that befell me, and the ill that in my sinful life I did to others, upon those who held my mother at the baptismal font and concerted that she should bear the name of Monica. There are in life many things which, in themselves, seeming to the vulgar and the heedless to be trivial and without consequence, may yet be causes pregnant of terrible effects, mainsprings of Destiny itself. Amid such portentous trifles I would number the names so heedlessly bestowed upon us. It surprises me that in none of the philosophic writings of the learned scholars of antiquity can I find that this matter of names has been touched upon, much less given the importance of which I account it to be deserving. Possibly it is because no one of them ever suffered, as I have suffered, from the consequences of a name. Had it but been so, they might in their weighty and impressive manner have set down a lesson on the subject, and so relieved me--who am all-conscious of my shortcomings in this direction-from the necessity of repairing that omission out of my own experience. Let it then, even at this late hour, be considered what a subtle influence for good or ill, what a very mould of character may lie within a name.