“How got I here from the Piazza?” he asked, sitting up. And they told him that a faintness had come over him as would often happen in the pulpit, and that so insensible he had been brought to the Convent.
“Truly,” said Frà Domenico, with love beaming in his eyes, “this was the day of your glory–for all the vanities in Florence were burnt to ashes–yes, even to nothingness was all that wantonness reduced.”
Girolamo Savonarola looked at Frà Domenico, then at his own body.
“To ashes, to nothingness!” he murmured. “Oh, God, make the spirit strong!”
The disciple asked tenderly–
“Father, what troubled you?”
Frà Girolamo made the sign of the cross and replied with a sweet composure–
“Nought–but in the crowd methought that I did see–Piero de’ Medici.”