The little low altar, of an antiquity coeval with that of the
church, which stands in the centre of the nave, is the sole
exception to the entire and utter emptiness of the place. There are,
indeed, ranged along the walls of the side aisles, several ancient
marble coffins, curiously carved, and with semi-circular covers,
which contain the bodies of the earliest Bishops of the See. But the
little altar is the sole object that breaks the continuity of the
open floor. The body of St. Apollinare was originally laid beneath
it, but was in a subsequent age removed to a more specially
honourable position under the high altar at the eastern end of the
church. There is still, however, the slab deeply carved with letters
of ancient form, which tells how St. Romauld, the founder of the
order of Camaldoli, praying by night at that altar, saw in a vision
St. Apollinare, who bade him leave the world, and become the founder
of an order of hermits.
It was on the same stones that the knees of St. Romauld had pressed,
that the Capucin was kneeling, as Paolina walked up the nave of the
church. The peaked hood of his brown frock was drawn over his head,
for the air of the church was deadly cold, and the fever and ague of
many a successive autumn had done their work upon him. He was called
Padre Fabiano, and was said to be, and looked to be, upwards of
eighty years old.
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