only preach at second mass, and the sermons are many to be preached,
the masses many to be sung on this greatest of holidays. Caterina,
the spare serving maid, was all day yesterday baking the communion
wafers, but even she finds time to don holiday garb and pace holiday
paces to-day. Everybody is not at the same morning mass, but everybody
comes to vespers at three of the afternoon, and everybody walks in the
procession.
[Illustration: THE PROCESSION OF THE CORPUS DOMINI.]
That tall, strong wench, who is village story-teller in chief—_Rosa
la bruna_—walks first in the file, and bears the great cross that
is silver-ornamented, while Nettina and others come behind with the
candles. And everyone has on her dress of gay print or of stout woollen
stuff, with golden ear-drops and freshly-smoothed veil.
She of the love-letter, is neither last nor least, the soft-eyed
Bianca, whose gallant follows after with crimson banner! And the town
lady is there too—that merchant’s wife who rents the cottage in the
fields, and whose children run rougher, amid country breezes, than the
very peasants themselves: she wears the purple silk dress, with the
long train and trimming of notoriety, while upon her ample bosom rests
the gold chain, and across her fair tresses the black veil that is to
distinguish her from the girls round about. She is proud to be thus
gorgeous, and envied in the female crowd, proud that she can so vastly
outshine even the portly dame who comes after—her whom they call the
priest’s cousin.
But Marrina, the sempstress, will not walk in procession, for she is
short and stout, and there is wayfaring enough to be done in the world,
says she! So, from the low seat of a rough stone wall, she sees the
pageant go by. She nods scornfully to Rosa with the big cross—for Rosa
is a curt-speaking girl—and sympathetically to Nettina with the small
crucifix, who should have been the leader, thinks she, for Nettina is
a free-and-easy one, more to the mind of this proud old lady. Then for
a moment Marrina kneels painfully at the wayside, because the panoply
passes, borne up by the miller and three farmers in red cotton robes,
and beneath it walks the parish priest slowly, with stiffly gorgeous
cope about his shoulders and clumsy hands that bear aloft the Sacred
Host. And secretly, as she prays, Marrina chuckles, for well she knows
the priest loves not to pace, closely-robed, in procession on a hot
June afternoon! ‘But it is his duty,’ says the sempstress to herself
gladly, as it is the fat _Cappellano’s_ duty to uphold the vestments of
his chief, in company with a second priest on the other side.
And, when the mumbling and panoplied trio have gone by, Marrina
rises to her feet again, to wait for the Virgin’s blue-robed image,
and to laugh at the staggering steps of Giovanni and his comrades as
they carry Heaven’s Queen on their shoulders: to scoff also at the
clumsiness of Pietro, who strives vainly to adjust her crown with his
stick! Then, scolding little Virginia, the confirmation-heroine, for
her loud laughter with romping companions in the procession’s very
midst, she, laughing herself, adds her ambling gait to the pageant’s
outskirts, and climbs the church steps once more.
For the procession is over. Village boys, shrieking with delight, have
fired the pop-guns in its honour; the bells have ceased their jangle.
The village bride has been admired, whose home is new beneath the
cherry trees: the village swain has whisperingly begged a promise of
the village belle for the dance later on in the meadows. Bianca has
brought the affair of the love-letter to a fortunate close on this very
church porch; Caterina rests from scolding the priest. A glamour of
coming night begins to creep down from the mountains upon the valley,
and, though still the river flows and still Mon Pilato stands against
the twilight, our tale is told, our procession is finished. Town folk
and country folk have all passed away in its wake.
THE END.
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
Transcriber's Notes
Original spelling and punctuation have been preserved as much as
possible. Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.