He is in the
right-hand cell on the first landing-place up that staircase," said
the lay-brother, feebly pointing to the entrance, from which he had
come out.
The lawyer and the police official followed the indications thus
given them, and found, as old Simone had said, that there was
neither bolt, lock, nor latch to prevent any creature that could
push a door on its hinges, from entering the little bare-walled room
in which the friar lay beneath a heavy quilted coverlet on a little
narrow pallet.
There was not so much as a single chair in the room. The walls were
clean, and freshly whitewashed; and the brick floor was also clean.
There were a few pegs of deal in the wall on the side of the cell
opposite to the doorway, on which some garments were hanging; and on
the wall facing the bed there was a large, rudely carved, and yet
more rudely painted crucifix. By the side of the bed nearest the
door there hung, on a nail driven into the wall, a copper receptacle
for holy water, the upper part of which was ornamented with a figure
of St. Francis in the act of receiving the "Stigmata," in repousse
work, by no means badly executed. And pasted on the bare wall,
immediately above the pillow of the little bed, was a coloured print
of the cheapest and vilest description, representing the Madonna
with the seven legendary poignards sticking in her bosom, and St.
Pages:
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556