He had to wait for quite a long time in front of the main door of the castle. The squire with whom he spoken earlier had gone to bring the news to the vicar and it seemed to Anthony that he wasn`t coming back. The guards looked at him with sneer. He could hardly stand up. He tried and tried to stand up by supporting himself on the wall. Eventually he slipped on the ground. He started to pray silently with a bowed head.
At last he was called. The squire touched him with his foot:
"Wake up! Stand up! The vicar has agreed to see you."
He raised with fatigue and tried to follow his guide. They went through gloomy and dark corridors lighted here and there by torches stuck on the walls. The sound of their steps resounded and echoed back. Anthony was able to hear behind the walls desperate shouts of human beings. He prayed silently for the tortured men.
They kept on walking. He felt that it was done all purposely… the walk in those corridors … the lament of the tortured men… it all seemed they wanted him to be afraid. He heard once again the human lament. Finally they arrived. Through a large staircase the squire led Anthony in a big room lighted by many torches ornated by banners and shields. At the table there were many knights. It was a happy atmosphere of men drinking and chatting at the table with tinkled jugs and wineglasses on their hands. In the middle, on a very elegant armchair was sitting the imperial vicar. He had angular face, almost square, his beards freshly trimmed. His light hair, cut in the front, formed a fringe. It almost seemed like the face of a quarrelsome seller or bazaar. He had a big mouth, with a bulging bottom lip. When the squire guided Anthony towards the table, the regent bowed his head and with a sneer observed for a little while without speaking the man in front of him. He seemed to enjoy the sight of the friar dressed in a worn-out habit, with heavy sandals at his feet.
The sarcastic observation lasted for a long time. Ironic comments were heard:
"He has quite a paunch..."
"One can see that he eats in continuation..."
"He seems to be quiet a good drinker…."
"He seems like a fool…"
"And that would be the famous preacher of the golden eloquence…?"
Ezzelino took the jug from the table and drank. Then he asked:
"Why have you come to see me? What do you want? Speak."
"Venerable gentleman" Anthony began. "I have come to implore you for the life of the men that you have imprisoned and that you menace to kill. Their families are very anxious. I implore you, in the name of the Christian mercy, have pity of them, and give them their freedom."
"Have you gone mad?" Ezzelino interrupted Anthony. "You would like me to free traitors and rebels? And perhaps to ever reward them for goings against the emperor?
The retinue of the regent burst in a sneering laughter. Anthony said:
"Yet the emperor, venerable gentleman, has assured freedom to the cities of Italy."
"The emperor, friar, has assured them his protection, the comfort and the assurance against their enemies. But he demands obedience. I am the one that in his name, must defend this obedience. The ones who rebel against me, rebel against the emperor… I can confirm to you that those men taken to prison are none but traitors and rebels. As such, they will be punished as it is fit."
"Venerable gentleman, I will not contradict you, since it is not my business to establish how the emperor brings freedom to the cities. I am turning to you only to implore you in the name of the people who are suffering and of their families that are prey to anxiety. Be merciful towards them, as merciful towards all of us was our Lord Jesus. He doesn’t look at our sins, he doesn’t take us to a severe tribunal. He forgives the faults of men, as soon as men show real repentance."
"I don’t have need of the your preaches, friar" this time Ezzelino interrupted Anthony beating his fist on the table.
"Go to the common people and speak to them about mercy and of forgiveness. For the rebels and the traitors, there is not, and there shouldn’t be forgiveness or mercy. I will judge the people who are in prison and the head of those who are in fault will fall under the guillotine. Order must reign! You can say this to those who sent you to me."
"Oh sir, don’t be so hard and merciless. For the people who are in your hands are crying women and children. You have also abducted the small nephew of the lord Camposanpiero…"
"That is enough. I can’t bear such wailing. The traitors` widows will soon find comfort, especially those who have been able to remain beautiful. My knights are quite ready to help them, aren`t you?" he turned to his people, and those burst into laughter.
"As for that child, his grandfather wanted to make a rebel out of him. We will give him a better education. Nothing evil will happen to him, if he will grow as a devout servant of the emperor."
"Your words are cruel, venerable sir. I, however, will keep on appealing to your heart. You have had a mother, sir, you have a wife and children. Therefore, can you understand what it would mean if it would be them to have this misfortune…"
"To me? Are you menacing me?"
"I will not desire, sir, any misfortune just as I desire the freedom of the people that you have imprisoned."
Ezzelino wrinkled angrily his eyes.
"Are you so much compassionate? Listen blown paunch! I am not afraid of your menaces!"
"I am not threatening you. I desire only to remind you, sir, what Jesus said, when he spoke about the two debtors: the king forgave an enormous debt. God has forgiven, sir, many things."
"How dare you to speak as such!" roared the vicar.. "Are you forgetting who you are speaking with?"
The clear eyebrows of the vicar had reunited in a threatening knot. The thick face had contracted as the mouth of a furious dog. The knights that surrounded Ezzelino began to shout:
"Shut the mouth of that imprudent friar, sir!"
"He is a rebel…"
"We need to imprison him too…"
Anthony heard Gualberto say to Ezzelino:
"I had already spoken to you, sir, about the tricks of this scoundrel. Even my father had spoken to you…"
Anthony repeated:
"It was not my intention to offend you, sir. I don’t threaten. I limit myself to remind the word of our Lord, with which he reproached those who have no pity. He, himself is merciful and he desires that we imitate him…"
"Be quiet! I follow my master`s orders, the illustrious emperor, the anointed by God."
"Even the anointed kings as Saul lost their rights, when they behaved unworthy."
"Do you dare to compare the emperor to any Hebrew?"
"To God we are all the same."
Ezzelino`s hand was shut. It was strongly positioned on the hilt of the dagger placed close to the dish. The big fingers covered by reddish hair were quivering. But he controlled himself.
"You perfidious friar" he hissed the words between the shut teeth.
"I would willingly have you hanged. I could stop right away your impudent way of talking. But I will let you go. I do not want to see any longer your repugnant face. You must leave Verona immediately. Can you hear me? Go away! And never cross my street again, do you understand? And those for which you have lamented for will have the punishment they deserve. You can tell to their families that because you tried to defend them, they will suffer twice the same. He laughed wildly. "One more thing" he exclaimed "I have heard, that thanks to your tricks the sister of one of our knights has run away from home to close herself in a convent, against the will of her father…"
"It is God, not I, to call at his service. If that young woman felt that she wanted to follow Christ, nobody could do anything about it."
"She has heard the demon, rather! It was you who persuaded her. You will pay for it. Those nuns that gave her shelter will remember it. The emperor with his Saracens is coming soon. They like to visit the convents … to see the nuns. Go away now! And pray that you don’t fall once again in my hands!"
Two guards drew closer to Anthony and they pushed him brutally. He nearly fell, so much had become numb his legs for standing for such a long time. They pushed him out of the door. In the adjacent room to the hall wandered some guards. Among them Anthony saw Graziani. The old merchant seeing Anthony drew closer to him. He shouted:
"Give me back my daughter!"
"It was not me who took her away from you, sir."
"If she won’t return…"
Pushed by a sudden inner impulse Anthony bowed profoundly to the merchant.
Grazianos howled:
"Are you making fun of me?"
"I am not making fun of you, sir. I honour a future martyr of our Lord."
"What are you talking about? Have you eaten hemlock? I want my daughter not clownish bows!"
for Him."
"What are you talking about?"
Anthony opened wide his arms in sign of ignorance. He didn’t know himself where that certainty was coming from. For a moment, in the deep of his soul, he had seen the man that was in front of him, with lacerated clothes, covered with blood, and in his hands he was holding tightly a small cross.
The guards pushed him away. However he bowed once again in front of the merchant who was struck numb. He then started his way back. This time he was not led along the underground corridors. He was led in the courtyard of the castle and eventually he was kicked out from the main door.
He got up and walked staggeringly straight ahead. He stumbled. He could hardly see the people that he was encountering, he thought they were trees. Eventually friendly arms welcomed him. They were waiting for him. They placed him over the straw in a cart.
Before evening he reached the palace of Sanfonifacio.
He was dragged out from the cart as if he were a sack.
When they brought him in the house he saw the face of the countess flooded by tears. She must have guessed that he had returned from a failed mission. He heard her sobbing. But in him there was no desperation. Despite what he had heard, he was certain that not all was lost. God has his ways to act, and even if He appears deaf to human prayers, He realises them in a more effective way of what we dare to expect. The fact that he had to go away without having obtained anything, and furthermore he had received terrible menaces, could have been only a trial for his faith. He knew that, despite all, he had to have faith and furthmore he had to infuse that faith in those who are desperate.
"Friar Anthony" he heard the voice of the countess "Friar Anthony. I was so firmly convinced that God will not refuse you anything. Your words have convinced so many people."
"My words were not mine."
"Why is God allowing that my husband be killed?"
"He hasn’t yet been killed. Till he is alive, he wants that you have faith, madam."
"What else can we do for him, seeing that they refused you?"
"We should pray. We should not stop praying. Because to anyone who ask, it will be given, who ever searches, will find, to the one that knock, the door will be opened… Be obstinate and insistent as that widow that with her words breached in the heart of the merciless judge…"
"I am no more capable, friar"
"Try to endure for a while longer, madam. Repeat: the father doesn’t give to the son a stone, if he asks for a piece of bread. You have said it. Therefore I will wait for your grace…"
They gave him the same room where he had spent the night before. The statue of the Madonna was as before on the little table. Mary was stretching her hands to embrace her little Jesus. Laying on the bed he couldn`t take his eyes away from the statue.
He was praying:
"Be blessed, my Mother and my Lady. Be blessed for the fact that you have not granted my success. I could have believed that it had been me to accomplish something. Since I haven’t been able to obtain anything, then you be the one. I believe in that. I have faith…"
He repeated this prayer so many times till the prayer took root in him, ceased to be made of words, and became an act of will and of conviction.
It was late at night when they called him. Some people from Verona had arrived with the news that some soldiers of the regent were sieving the city in search of Anthony. It seemed that Ezzelino had changed his mind and wanted to imprison him.
The castle of the Sanbonifacio was situated not far from the city. It was feared that if the soldiers would not find Anthony in Verona, they would come rapidly to pick him up at the palace. He couldn`t stay there for the night. The cart was covered a little better with straw, and Anthony was place on top of it and despite the late hour, they left. Beside the cart were walking two minor friars to look after the patient.
Anthony wasn’t sleeping. He was alert. From time to time he was assailed by asthma. The body felt heavy. He felt crushed.
He wasn’t able to pray. He repeated only: "Lord, do not make them suffer... " In these words he was including not only the prisoners, not only the families of the prisoners. In this prayer he was enclosing all those who had asked for his help. And even those that didn’t ask for help: the obstinate heretics, the cruel monarchs, and the unworthy priests…
After midnight they stopped in a small village. The parish priest was called. He welcomed Anthony in his house. He gave him his bed and he went to sleep in the attic.
The June dawn gushed out very early from the sky.
"I want you to take me to Arcella" he said to the friars when they came to find out how he felt. "The sisters will look after me."
There was a hot sun. It was necessary to spread a cover above the patient so that the light and the heat wouldn’t disturb him. The attacks of asthma had ceased, the body was less heavy. However he felt very very weak. Anthony couldn`t eat anything. He was only dampening his lips with water.
Towards the end of the day they reached the little house, an old inhabitation of the gardener of the palace, in which currently had the center the convent of the Poor Dames.
Chapter 38
He had to wait for quite a long time in front of the main door of the castle. The squire with whom he spoken earlier had gone to bring the news to the vicar and it seemed to Anthony that he wasn`t coming back. The guards looked at him with sneer. He could hardly stand up. He tried and tried to stand up by supporting himself on the wall. Eventually he slipped on the ground. He started to pray silently with a bowed head.
Chapter 38
At last he was called. The squire touched him with his foot:
"Wake up! Stand up! The vicar has agreed to see you."
He raised with fatigue and tried to follow his guide. They went through gloomy and dark corridors lighted here and there by torches stuck on the walls. The sound of their steps resounded and echoed back. Anthony was able to hear behind the walls desperate shouts of human beings. He prayed silently for the tortured men.
They kept on walking. He felt that it was done all purposely… the walk in those corridors … the lament of the tortured men… it all seemed they wanted him to be afraid. He heard once again the human lament. Finally they arrived. Through a large staircase the squire led Anthony in a big room lighted by many torches ornated by banners and shields. At the table there were many knights. It was a happy atmosphere of men drinking and chatting at the table with tinkled jugs and wineglasses on their hands. In the middle, on a very elegant armchair was sitting the imperial vicar. He had angular face, almost square, his beards freshly trimmed. His light hair, cut in the front, formed a fringe. It almost seemed like the face of a quarrelsome seller or bazaar. He had a big mouth, with a bulging bottom lip. When the squire guided Anthony towards the table, the regent bowed his head and with a sneer observed for a little while without speaking the man in front of him. He seemed to enjoy the sight of the friar dressed in a worn-out habit, with heavy sandals at his feet.
The sarcastic observation lasted for a long time. Ironic comments were heard:
"He has quite a paunch..."
"One can see that he eats in continuation..."
"He seems to be quiet a good drinker…."
"He seems like a fool…"
"And that would be the famous preacher of the golden eloquence…?"
Ezzelino took the jug from the table and drank. Then he asked:
"Why have you come to see me? What do you want? Speak."
"Venerable gentleman" Anthony began. "I have come to implore you for the life of the men that you have imprisoned and that you menace to kill. Their families are very anxious. I implore you, in the name of the Christian mercy, have pity of them, and give them their freedom."
"Have you gone mad?" Ezzelino interrupted Anthony. "You would like me to free traitors and rebels? And perhaps to ever reward them for goings against the emperor?
The retinue of the regent burst in a sneering laughter. Anthony said:
"Yet the emperor, venerable gentleman, has assured freedom to the cities of Italy."
"The emperor, friar, has assured them his protection, the comfort and the assurance against their enemies. But he demands obedience. I am the one that in his name, must defend this obedience. The ones who rebel against me, rebel against the emperor… I can confirm to you that those men taken to prison are none but traitors and rebels. As such, they will be punished as it is fit."
"Venerable gentleman, I will not contradict you, since it is not my business to establish how the emperor brings freedom to the cities. I am turning to you only to implore you in the name of the people who are suffering and of their families that are prey to anxiety. Be merciful towards them, as merciful towards all of us was our Lord Jesus. He doesn’t look at our sins, he doesn’t take us to a severe tribunal. He forgives the faults of men, as soon as men show real repentance."
"I don’t have need of the your preaches, friar" this time Ezzelino interrupted Anthony beating his fist on the table.
"Go to the common people and speak to them about mercy and of forgiveness. For the rebels and the traitors, there is not, and there shouldn’t be forgiveness or mercy. I will judge the people who are in prison and the head of those who are in fault will fall under the guillotine. Order must reign! You can say this to those who sent you to me."
"Oh sir, don’t be so hard and merciless. For the people who are in your hands are crying women and children. You have also abducted the small nephew of the lord Camposanpiero…"
"That is enough. I can’t bear such wailing. The traitors` widows will soon find comfort, especially those who have been able to remain beautiful. My knights are quite ready to help them, aren`t you?" he turned to his people, and those burst into laughter.
"As for that child, his grandfather wanted to make a rebel out of him. We will give him a better education. Nothing evil will happen to him, if he will grow as a devout servant of the emperor."
"Your words are cruel, venerable sir. I, however, will keep on appealing to your heart. You have had a mother, sir, you have a wife and children. Therefore, can you understand what it would mean if it would be them to have this misfortune…"
"To me? Are you menacing me?"
"I will not desire, sir, any misfortune just as I desire the freedom of the people that you have imprisoned."
Ezzelino wrinkled angrily his eyes.
"Are you so much compassionate? Listen blown paunch! I am not afraid of your menaces!"
"I am not threatening you. I desire only to remind you, sir, what Jesus said, when he spoke about the two debtors: the king forgave an enormous debt. God has forgiven, sir, many things."
"How dare you to speak as such!" roared the vicar.. "Are you forgetting who you are speaking with?"
The clear eyebrows of the vicar had reunited in a threatening knot. The thick face had contracted as the mouth of a furious dog. The knights that surrounded Ezzelino began to shout:
"Shut the mouth of that imprudent friar, sir!"
"He is a rebel…"
"We need to imprison him too…"
Anthony heard Gualberto say to Ezzelino:
"I had already spoken to you, sir, about the tricks of this scoundrel. Even my father had spoken to you…"
Anthony repeated:
"It was not my intention to offend you, sir. I don’t threaten. I limit myself to remind the word of our Lord, with which he reproached those who have no pity. He, himself is merciful and he desires that we imitate him…"
"Be quiet! I follow my master`s orders, the illustrious emperor, the anointed by God."
"Even the anointed kings as Saul lost their rights, when they behaved unworthy."
"Do you dare to compare the emperor to any Hebrew?"
"To God we are all the same."
Ezzelino`s hand was shut. It was strongly positioned on the hilt of the dagger placed close to the dish. The big fingers covered by reddish hair were quivering. But he controlled himself.
"You perfidious friar" he hissed the words between the shut teeth.
"I would willingly have you hanged. I could stop right away your impudent way of talking. But I will let you go. I do not want to see any longer your repugnant face. You must leave Verona immediately. Can you hear me? Go away! And never cross my street again, do you understand? And those for which you have lamented for will have the punishment they deserve. You can tell to their families that because you tried to defend them, they will suffer twice the same. He laughed wildly. "One more thing" he exclaimed "I have heard, that thanks to your tricks the sister of one of our knights has run away from home to close herself in a convent, against the will of her father…"
"It is God, not I, to call at his service. If that young woman felt that she wanted to follow Christ, nobody could do anything about it."
"She has heard the demon, rather! It was you who persuaded her. You will pay for it. Those nuns that gave her shelter will remember it. The emperor with his Saracens is coming soon. They like to visit the convents … to see the nuns. Go away now! And pray that you don’t fall once again in my hands!"
Two guards drew closer to Anthony and they pushed him brutally. He nearly fell, so much had become numb his legs for standing for such a long time. They pushed him out of the door. In the adjacent room to the hall wandered some guards. Among them Anthony saw Graziani. The old merchant seeing Anthony drew closer to him. He shouted:
"Give me back my daughter!"
"It was not me who took her away from you, sir."
"If she won’t return…"
Pushed by a sudden inner impulse Anthony bowed profoundly to the merchant.
Grazianos howled:
"Are you making fun of me?"
"I am not making fun of you, sir. I honour a future martyr of our Lord."
"What are you talking about? Have you eaten hemlock? I want my daughter not clownish bows!"
for Him."
"What are you talking about?"
Anthony opened wide his arms in sign of ignorance. He didn’t know himself where that certainty was coming from. For a moment, in the deep of his soul, he had seen the man that was in front of him, with lacerated clothes, covered with blood, and in his hands he was holding tightly a small cross.
The guards pushed him away. However he bowed once again in front of the merchant who was struck numb. He then started his way back. This time he was not led along the underground corridors. He was led in the courtyard of the castle and eventually he was kicked out from the main door.
He got up and walked staggeringly straight ahead. He stumbled. He could hardly see the people that he was encountering, he thought they were trees. Eventually friendly arms welcomed him. They were waiting for him. They placed him over the straw in a cart.
Before evening he reached the palace of Sanfonifacio.
He was dragged out from the cart as if he were a sack.
When they brought him in the house he saw the face of the countess flooded by tears. She must have guessed that he had returned from a failed mission. He heard her sobbing. But in him there was no desperation. Despite what he had heard, he was certain that not all was lost. God has his ways to act, and even if He appears deaf to human prayers, He realises them in a more effective way of what we dare to expect. The fact that he had to go away without having obtained anything, and furthermore he had received terrible menaces, could have been only a trial for his faith. He knew that, despite all, he had to have faith and furthmore he had to infuse that faith in those who are desperate.
"Friar Anthony" he heard the voice of the countess "Friar Anthony. I was so firmly convinced that God will not refuse you anything. Your words have convinced so many people."
"My words were not mine."
"Why is God allowing that my husband be killed?"
"He hasn’t yet been killed. Till he is alive, he wants that you have faith, madam."
"What else can we do for him, seeing that they refused you?"
"We should pray. We should not stop praying. Because to anyone who ask, it will be given, who ever searches, will find, to the one that knock, the door will be opened… Be obstinate and insistent as that widow that with her words breached in the heart of the merciless judge…"
"I am no more capable, friar"
"Try to endure for a while longer, madam. Repeat: the father doesn’t give to the son a stone, if he asks for a piece of bread. You have said it. Therefore I will wait for your grace…"
They gave him the same room where he had spent the night before. The statue of the Madonna was as before on the little table. Mary was stretching her hands to embrace her little Jesus. Laying on the bed he couldn`t take his eyes away from the statue.
He was praying:
"Be blessed, my Mother and my Lady. Be blessed for the fact that you have not granted my success. I could have believed that it had been me to accomplish something. Since I haven’t been able to obtain anything, then you be the one. I believe in that. I have faith…"
He repeated this prayer so many times till the prayer took root in him, ceased to be made of words, and became an act of will and of conviction.
It was late at night when they called him. Some people from Verona had arrived with the news that some soldiers of the regent were sieving the city in search of Anthony. It seemed that Ezzelino had changed his mind and wanted to imprison him.
The castle of the Sanbonifacio was situated not far from the city. It was feared that if the soldiers would not find Anthony in Verona, they would come rapidly to pick him up at the palace. He couldn`t stay there for the night. The cart was covered a little better with straw, and Anthony was place on top of it and despite the late hour, they left. Beside the cart were walking two minor friars to look after the patient.
Anthony wasn’t sleeping. He was alert. From time to time he was assailed by asthma. The body felt heavy. He felt crushed.
He wasn’t able to pray. He repeated only: "Lord, do not make them suffer... " In these words he was including not only the prisoners, not only the families of the prisoners. In this prayer he was enclosing all those who had asked for his help. And even those that didn’t ask for help: the obstinate heretics, the cruel monarchs, and the unworthy priests…
After midnight they stopped in a small village. The parish priest was called. He welcomed Anthony in his house. He gave him his bed and he went to sleep in the attic.
The June dawn gushed out very early from the sky.
"I want you to take me to Arcella" he said to the friars when they came to find out how he felt. "The sisters will look after me."
There was a hot sun. It was necessary to spread a cover above the patient so that the light and the heat wouldn’t disturb him. The attacks of asthma had ceased, the body was less heavy. However he felt very very weak. Anthony couldn`t eat anything. He was only dampening his lips with water.
Towards the end of the day they reached the little house, an old inhabitation of the gardener of the palace, in which currently had the center the convent of the Poor Dames.