But Padre Filippo, instead of being frightened at his anger, rose up and said:
‘Come here and I will show you what is the fate of those who oppress and neglect the poor. Come here Eminentissimo, and look,’ and he took him to the window and asked him what he saw.
The Cardinal looked, and he saw a great fire of Hell, and the souls writhing in it. The Cardinal said no more and went away, but not long after he gave up being a cardinal and became a simple brother under Padre Filippo.
[Who this cardinal may have been I do not know, but the story was told me another time in this form:—]
1A
There was a cardinal—Gastaldi was his name—who went a good deal into society to the neglect of more important duties. One evening, when he was at a conversazione, Padre Filippo came to the house where he was and had him called out to him in an empty room.
‘Your Eminence! come to this window, I have something to show you.’
The Cardinal came to the window and looked out, and instead of the houses he saw Hell opened and all the souls[3] in the flames; a great serpent was wriggling in and out among them and biting them, and in the midst was a gilt cardinalitial chair.