“No! let me!”
Cicco Ponno, Mattia Seafarolo and Tommaso di Clisci were contending for the place left vacant by L’Ummalido.
He approached the disputants. Holding his bruised hand at his side, and with the other opening a path, he said simply:
“The position is mine.”
And he placed his left shoulder as a prop for the Patron Saint. He stifled down his pain, gritting his teeth, with fierce will-power.
Mattala asked him:
“What are you trying to do?”
He answered:
“What Saint Gonselvo wishes me to do.”
And he began to walk with the others. Dumbfounded the people watched him pass. From time to time, someone, on seeing the wound which was bleeding and growing black, asked him: