"Ay! And the bravo, when he discovered his error, paid for three candles for the pontiff's soul, and the monk who officiated at the last rites praised the departed so loudly, that the corpse sat up and laughed. And now he is immortal and possesses the secret of eternal life," the monk concluded with downcast eyes.
"Yet there is one I fear,—one who seems to enlist a special providence in his cause."
"Gerbert of Cluny—"
"The monk of Aurillac!"
"They say that he is leagued with the devil; that in his closet he has a brazen head, which answers all questions, and through which the devil has assured him that he shall not die, till he has said mass in Jerusalem."
"He is competent to convert a brimstone lake."
"Yet a true soldier seeks for weak spots in the armour."
"I am answered. But the time and the place?"
"In the Ghetto at sunset."
"And the reward?"