[10] ‘Nove sono i nove cori degli angeli.’ [↑]
[11] ‘Dieci è la diecenna di Cristo.’ [↑]
[12] ‘Undici è la coronazione di spine.’ [↑]
[13] ‘Dodici sono i dodici Apostoli.’ [↑]
GHOST AND TREASURE STORIES AND FAMILY AND LOCAL TRADITIONS.
THE DEAD MAN IN THE OAK-TREE.[1]
There was a parcel of young fellows once who were a nuisance to everybody in Rome, for they were always at some mischievous tricks when it was nothing worse. But there was one of them who was not altogether so bad as the rest. For one thing, there was one practice of devotion he had never forgotten from the days when his mother taught him, and that was, to say a De Profundis whenever he saw a dead body carried past to burial. But what concerned his companions, was the fear lest he should some day perhaps take it into his head to reform, and in that case it was not impossible he might be led to give information against them.
At last they agreed that the best thing they could do was to put him out of the way. Quietly as their conspiracy was conducted, he saw there was something plotting, and determined to be out of reach of their murderous intentions; so he got up early one morning, and rode out of Rome.