Magdalena returned to the hamlet pale and full of amazement. They waited
in vain for Marta all that night.
On the afternoon of the following day, the village girls found a broken
water-jar at the margin of the fountain in the grove. It was Marta’s
water-jar; nothing more was ever known of her. Since then the girls go
for water so early that they rise with the sun. A few have assured me
that by night there has been heard, more than once, the weeping of
Marta, whose spirit lives imprisoned in the fountain. I do not know what
credit to give to this last part of the story, for the truth is that
since that night nobody has dared penetrate into the grove to hear it
after the ringing of the _Ave Maria_.