For I do not wish harm to any one." Having said this in a tone which Nino could hear, Ercole sat thinking for some time longer, and then he rose and slung his gun over his shoulder, and went out from under the trees into the glaring heat, as if he were going into the city.

But instead of turning to the left, up the hill, he went on by the broad road that follows the walls, till he came to the ancient church of Santa Croce.

He went up the low steps to the deep porch and on to the entrance at the left.

Nino followed him very quietly.
Ercole dipped his finger into the holy water and crossed himself, and then went up the nave, making as little noise as he could with his hob-nailed boots.

An old monk in white was kneeling at a broad praying-stool before an altar on the left.