2
‘You have told me so many stories, why have you never told me anything about Pietro Bailliardo—don’t you know about him?’
‘Of course I know about him. Who in Rome doesn’t know about him? but I can’t remember it all. I know he had the book of divination, and could make the Devil do whatever he chose by its means. And then one day, I don’t remember by what circumstance, he was led to do penance; but he would do it in his own way, not in the right way, and he made a vow to the Madonna that he would pay a visit to some shrine in Rome and to S. Giacomo di Galizia,[5] and to the Santa Casa di Loreto all in the same night. As devils can fly through the air at a wonderful pace he called upon a devil by his divining book and told him what he wanted; then he got on the back of the devil and rode away through the air and actually visited all three in one night.
‘But that sort of penance was no penance at all. After that he did penance in right earnest at some church, I forget which.’
‘Was it SS. John and Paul?’ I asked.
‘Yes, to be sure; SS. John and Paul. And you knew it all the time, and yet have been asking me!’