I crept round to the front of the altar.  At the angle a candle-branch protruded, standing no higher than my head.  It held some three or four tapers, and was so placed to enable the priest to read his missal at early Mass on dark winter mornings.  I plucked one of the candles from its socket, and hastening down the church, I lighted it from one of the burning tapers of the bier.  Screening it with my hand, I retraced my steps and regained the chancel.  Then turning to the left, I made for a door that I knew should give access to the sacristy.  It yielded to my touch, and I passed down a short stone-flagged passage, and entered the spacious chamber beyond.  An oak settle was placed against one wall, and above it hung an enormous, rudely-carved crucifix.  Facing it against the other wall loomed a huge piece of furniture, half-cupboard, half-buffet.  On a bench in a corner stood a basin and ewer of metal, whilst a few vestments hanging beside these completed the furniture of this austere and white-washed chamber.  Setting my candle on the buffet, I opened one of the drawers.  It was full of garments of different kinds, among which I noticed several monks’ habits.  I rummaged to the bottom only to find some odd pairs of sandals.

Disappointed, I closed the drawer and tried another, with no better fortune.  Here were under-vestments of fine linen, newly washed and fragrant with rosemary.  I abandoned the drawer and gave my attention to the cupboard above.  It was locked, but the key was there.  It opened, and my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid gold, set with precious stones.  But in a corner I espied a dark-brown, gourd-shaped object.  It was a skin of wine, and, with a half-suppressed cry of joy, I seized it.  In that instant a piercing scream rang through the stillness of the church, and startled me so that I stood there for some seconds, frozen in horror, a hundred wild conjectures leaping to my mind.

Had Ramiro remained hidden, and was he returned?  Did the scream mean that Madonna Paola had been awakened by his rough hands?

A second time it came, and now it seemed to break the hideous spell that its first utterance had cast over me.  Dropping the leather bottle, I sped back, down the stone passage to the door that abutted on the chancel.

There, by the high-altar, I saw a form that seemed at first luminous and ghostly, but in which presently I recognised Madonna Paola, the dim rays of the distant tapers finding out the white robe with which her limbs were hung.  She was alone, and I knew then that it was but the very natural fear consequent upon awakening in such a place that had provoked the cry I had heard.

“Madonna,” I called, advancing swiftly towards her.  “Madonna Paola!” There was a gasp, a moment’s stillness, then—­

“Lazzaro?” She cried, questioningly.  “What has happened?  Why am I here?”