The voice sang:
“Praying in God’s name, sister,
And for his sweet mother’s sake,
Give my little children bread,
And his word in payment take.”
Struggling with mingled emotions of rage and grief, Lucas seated himself upon his couch, and beat upon the ground with his feet.
The voice, becoming all the while more low and quivering, proceeded:
“He takes a loaf, and breaks it,
But throws it down again,
For blood run out of the bread.”
The brother’s heart was choking him, yet, still resisting, he covered his now tear-stained face with both hands. But when the voice, broken by sobs, continued,
“And she that, without pity,
To a sister refuses bread,
To God’s Mother doth refuse it”—
he rushed to the door, and, dashing it open, ran out; and Lucia, with a cry of joy, threw herself into his extended arms.
The next day, Uncle Bartolo remarked to his wife:
“When the devil enters into one, he locks all the doors behind him. But until the last hour, his divine Majesty keeps a postern open in the sinner’s heart.”