“Alas, your Eminence,” he sighed, “those whom we would serve raised their hand against me. It happened this morning in the Corso at our gate, after the service of tierce. As I turned the corner they fell upon me. They pulled my hair, my ears and--my nose. But, with no bitterness in my soul, I passed on. Then, without warning, as I was about to enter here, one of them ran up and gave me--this.” He pointed to his discoloured eye. The Cardinal admitted that the evidence was conclusive. In his offering of consolation to Brother Ignazio he told him that the spirit abroad to-day was no respecter of persons. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I shall go to Como if I can get a train. Addio, Honourable,” he said, going up to the cot, where the brothers were busy with their patient. “If the railway is impossible I will return. In any event, my friend, I will send the carriage to take you to Via Senato.” The prior and all the monks not in immediate service to Mario accompanied the visitor to the door, and they gave a concurrent sigh of anxiety as his carriage rolled away. A little while and their patient, his wound dressed, was sitting up and telling them how it happened. He had reached the point in the narrative where La Ferita fell and the cavalry was rushing on, when his ear caught a familiar, ominous murmur and he paused. It was the voice of the mob as he had heard it last rising from behind La Scala. Only now it grew louder. All at once it burst forth like a fury that had broken bounds, and coming in by the open windows filled the convent in every part. And above the roar and mocking laughter Mario heard again the cry, “Down with the Supper!” Now he understood its import, and the white faces of the brothers told that they too comprehended the jest of the savage throng. CHAPTER XVIII MARIO PLAYS THE DEMAGOGUE The workman sweats And little gets; The rich and fine On capons dine. Is this fair play? Oh, yes! priests say, For the good God wills it so. Song of the Bread Rioters._