Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-11-21

II 6HSS n corsar craft, and the Abbate
once more close to his native town.
romantic Scylla, high upon the
<zSa IRENE mainland of Italy the Strait of
w Messina. The sharp prov of the felucca
with gentle shock into the gravel of
the shore.
"Goodby" my friend" said the Abbate in a low
voice. and shook the hand of the dark sknned skipper
Then he descended the plank sailor had flung from
deck to sand He carried parcel which seemed heavy
ard was wrapped in leather. The barbarous mariners
saw their strange, silent passenger kneel Upon the
strand; it shone like stretch of silver in the
light He buried his hands in the sand and bent low,
though to kiss It.
Cordage creakcd in the pulleys, the great sweeps
groaned in their locks and the feucca, resettng her
red sails, glided like bird through the night The
Abbate Lotre arose. his hat in his hand. His pale
ausere and handsome face showed like marble above
his black travelling cloak; his dark hair made his
features paer still
II the strange, mystic hour of universal hush
just before dawn that hour when the giant energies
OF nature seem for moment to flag, when there is
sudden pause in her respiration and the unborn day
falters and trembles upon the threshold of Time The
silence full of awe; the stars like the pas
soness eyes of the gods looking serenely down. The
Abbate stood STILL his back the sea; the mystery of
this morning and the significance of his presence here
overmastered him. On his right hidden by the rising
wood, lay his native village Three years had passed
since last he had seen it The road lay like an argent
river in the lunar light. Through the Abbates mind
rushed this oft-recurrent thought
II will swiftly make my way TO the Church of Our
Lady, open the door of the sacrisy with my key and
leave the bundle upon the tiny altar there Satullo.
the sexton. will then find when he to ring for
the first No is about-no one will see me
now--no one will see me again"
Before him rose the Three Vrgins-so the peasants
called those slender expresses Beyond them the crest
Zinc OF a hill visible, from which the old Roman
ruin he knew we'll since boyhood days doomed Into
Inc sky. To his left lay the moon decked Medit-
'eranean: the strait he Sicily the beacons
IF Mesna with their tossing cresset fires and faint
ind far and ghostly the towering white pyramid of
Mount Aetna Opposite Scylla on the Scan shore,
he sinister headand Of Charybds frowned. Between
these cliffs the changing of the tides howled
and roared the shp-engulfng whirlpools that smote
lie hearts of ancient mariners with dread The waters
Of the blue Mediterranean and those OF the green
TyrrEenan Sea, charging through the narrow strait
met here in hideous, foaming trays.
A hint Of the dawn was in the east. The Abbate
Lore assembled the road that led into the main street
Of the elevated village Scyla gray and DID, with
its three thousand souls, built compactly upon
the top of the cliff close to its brink AS he climbed
toward the town thoughts deep and strange came to
the priest. He felt his resolutc soul quail under the
onslaught of dear and treasured memories poignant
with pictures of the past. On the way to the church.
Of which he once the head he would pass by the
house where Rosalia dwet when he first knew and
loved her-ere he became priest and she the wife
of another Farther stood the house where Roalia
lived with her criminal husband, Vncenzo Pagalo
and their angelic little daughter Giulia. Then his
mothers house-a mist rose to his eyes and then his
church relentless fingers Of iron clutched his heart
He knew every house in the place and the inhabitants
of every house Once they all knew and loved him
now no doubt, they hated had forgotten him.
r.. <touh had 20 h,<a h;co ~
but know he was approaching they might issue
from their doors and stone him. Yet some
would feel compassion in their hearts; he knew them
we'll; they were his chdren-once.
Walking in the dense shadows Of the wood the
Abbate Iotre plunged in dark dreams, neared the
top of the road which thence oped slightly downward
into the town. His eyes were hungry for glimpse
Of the beloved towers streets and houses He reached
the highest point of the road. An nartcuate cry
broke dreadfully from his lips He swayed dizzy then
sat suddenly down upon PROSTATE tree trunk He
passed his hand his bcwldered eyes and looked
about him like rudely aroused from deep sumber
The shattered Roman ruin the neghboring hill
caught his eye. Across his features swept gust of
horror The stecly transparency of the dawn slowly
assembled the heavens behind the hills and in this wan
spectral light mingled with the moons, stood revealed
"A scene of mighty desolaton
Sweeping sharply downward from the edge OF the
broken road, the earth sloped in tremendous
10 the bottom oil vast nOliOW Ulel rose upward
to the opposite brink of the chasm The sides OF the
gulf ran evenly around like crescent shaped amphi
theatre and its bottom pitched steepy toward the
It was as though internal god with stroke
Of gigantic spade had cut down the top OF the bluff
On which Scylla stood and flung it into the Medcr-
ranean Dying trees with naked roots and toering
trunks chung the edges of the pit boulders uptorn,
ground to fragments flung broadcast, Uttered the
newly exposed earth spring oosed from rent
in the rock wound seward in track OF yellow clay
The Of the cliff and hillside lay open like
wound Deep trenches and grooves had been ploughcd