Page:Purgatory00scho.djvu/97

 body was being carried to the grave, Blasio awoke as from a profound slumber, and said that St. Bemardine had restored him to life, in order to relate the wonders which the saint had shown him in the other world.

We can easily understand the curiosity which this event produced. For a whole month young Blasio did nothing but talk of what he had seen, and answer the questions put to him by visitors. He spoke with the simplicity of a child, but at the same time with an accuracy of expression and a knowledge of the things of the other life far above his years.

At the moment of his death, he said, St. Bernardine appeared to him, and taking him by the hand, said, " Be not afraid, but pay great attention to what I am going to show you, so that you may remember, and afterwards be able to relate it."

Now the saint conducted his young protege' successively into the regions of Hell, Purgatory, Limbo, and finally allowed him to see Heaven.

In Hell, Blasio saw indescribable horrors, and the divers tortures by which the proud, the avaricious, the impure, and other sinners are tormented. Amongst them he recognised several whom he had seen during life, and he even witnessed the arrival of two who had just died, Buccerelli and Frascha. The latter was damned for having kept ill-gotten goods in his possession. The son of Frascha, struck by this revelation as by a thunderbolt, and knowing well the truth of the statement, hastened to make complete restitution; and not content with this act of justice, that he might not expose himself to share one day the sad lot of his father, he distributed the rest of his fortune to the poor and embraced the monastic life.

From thence conducted into Purgatory, Blasio there saw the most dreadful torments, varied according to the sins of which they were the punishment. He recognised a great number of souls, and several begged him to acquaint their