Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/403

Rh and reproach, but with so much gentleness that she blushed and looked like a criminal. The holy father's whole appearance was so good and so pious that it was evident he believed in the miracle, he was not the one in whose hand it took place, and it grieved him that a young girl who looked so innocently pious was yet nevertheless a heretic.

People said the miracle had this year occurred with unusual ease. They have seldom to wait now longer than twenty minutes, or at most half an hour, after the praying begins, and the people rejoice in this as a sign of the favor of San Gennaro; and we are convinced that we have witnessed a piece of legerdemain much less remarkable than that which causes wine of various kinds to flow out of one bottle. One tolerably speaking fact is, that a chemist is usually sent from the court eight days before that on which the miracle is to take place, in order, as it is said, “to ascertain the correctness of the blood.” Another striking fact is, that when the French soldiers, some years ago, were stationed at that time in Naples, and the miracle was so tardy in its operations that the populace was thrown into a state of fermentation against the French, believing them to be the cause of the delay, whereupon the French commander sent word to the priests of San Gennaro, that if the miracle did not take place in five minutes after his message was delivered he would bombard the church. The relations of San Gennaro, who on this were almost out of their minds found, however, that not more than three minutes were now required before they could raise their cry of exultation.