“Hurry—hasten—catch them if you can!”
The good man did as he was bid, and began to travel—travel far and fast.
All at once, while the lovers were on their way, Antonuccio turned his head and saw afar their pursuer on a mountain-road, and cried:
“Marietta, I see your father coming.”
“Then, my dear, I will become a fair church and thou shalt be the fine sexton (sacristano). And he will ask thee if thou hast seen a girl and youth pass, and thou shalt reply that he must first repeat the Paternoster and not the Ave Maria. And if he asks again, tell him to say the Ave Maria and not the Paternoster. And then, out of patience, he will depart.”
So it came to pass, and the wizard was deceived. When he had returned, his wife asked him what he had seen.
“Nothing but a church and a sacristan.”
“Stupid that you are! The church was Marietta—fly, fly and catch them!”
So he set forth again, and again he was seen from afar by Antonuccio.
“Marietta, I see your father coming.”