'Have done! Have done! To the fire at once! Fra Girolamo! We will have the miracle! We will have the miracle!'
At this cry Savonarola, who had been kneeling in prayer, rose, shook himself, approached the parapet of the Loggia, and with imposing gesture commanded silence. But the people refused to be silent. And then some one from under the Tettoia de' Pisani cried:—
'He's afraid!'
And this cry was taken up and passed along.
A company of horsemen of the Arrabbiati tried to push their way to the Loggia to fall upon Savonarola and seize him, making their profit of the confusion.
'Kill him! Kill him! Down with the cursed schismatic!' was the shout
Boltraffio closed his eyes that he might not see those furious faces which had now lost all look of humanity; nothing, he thought, could save Savonarola from being torn to pieces.
At this moment the storm broke. Rain descended, the like of which had not been seen in Florence.
It endured but a short time, and when it was over the trial by fire had become an impossibility. For between the twin piles of faggots the water ran with the fury of a channel hemmed in between dykes.
Some laughed.