Free Madame Serpent by Jean Plaidy

hundred times the O Gloriosa Domina; for a golden button seven hundred times the Alma Redemptoris Mater ; for embroidered roses seven hundred the Ave Santissima Maria. ” Well, there were many prayer to be said for each item that went into the making of the cloak; and so, in addition to other duties, the nuns of the Murate must say these thousands of prayers. It meant hours and hours of devotions.’
    Caterina leaned forward. ‘But even then,’ she said, ‘they would have no
    mantle to lay at the feet of the Virgin, for you need brocade and ermine and silver and gold for such a mantle, and these were only prayers.’
    ‘But you have not heard all, Duchessina . On the day when the gifts were to be given, many people were gathered in the piazza before the municipal palace.
    The great figure of the Virgin was placed there, waiting to receive the gifts; and gifts there were in plenty― beautiful gold and silver and precious stones. And there stood the Reverend Mother and sisters of the Murate empty-handed, but faces shining, for in their minds they saw the beautiful mantle that was made of prayers. And then― what do you think? Two men came forward, and at the feet of the Virgin, on behalf of the Murate, they said, they laid a mantle of brocade lined with ermine, embroidered with roses in exactly the detail the Reverend Mother had described to her nuns. The two men were angels, and that was the miracle of the Virgin’s Cloak. There, Duchessina . What do you think of that? I might say that from that time the Murate passed into prosperity, for the tale spread and many rich ladies came to share the life of the convent, and many donations were given. It was a great miracle.’
    ‘Oh, it was wonderful!’ cried Maria; but Caterina said nothing.
    ‘Well, Duchessina ?’ asked Lucia.
    ‘I think,’ said Caterina, ‘that it was a very good miracle, and I think that the two angels were two men.’
    ‘Two men! You mean it was no miracle?’
    Caterina’s solemn dark eyes surveyed the nuns. She felt old and wise in
    spite of her youth. ‘It was a miracle,’ she said, and as she spoke she felt that this was how the present Reverend Mother would have explained it to her, ‘because the Holy Virgin would have put the idea of the cloak into that Reverend
    Mother’s head. “Make a mantle of prayers,” she would have been told, “but at the same time have one mode embroidered with jewels. Let two men appear as angels and lay it at my feet. For if you made such a mantle yourself, rich as it is, it would please the people so much as one made of prayers and presented by two whom they could think of as angels.’
    ‘You mean you believe it to have been a trick?’
    ‘It was a miracle,’ insisted Caterina. ‘It brought prosperity to the convent.
    The object of miracles is to do good. Miracles from Heaven, but they are
    sometimes mode on Earth.’
    Lucia put an arm about Caterina and kissed her. ‘You are too clever for us,’
    she said.
    ―――――――
    Knots of people stood outside the convent walls. They murmured amongst
    themselves.
    ‘She is but a child.’
    ‘A child of serpents.’
    ‘We could not harm a child.’
    ‘She will be eleven or twelve― old enough for mischief, if she be a Medici.’
    ‘The nuns will keep her from doing harm.’
    ‘She will lure the nuns into mischief. You know not these crafty Medici.
    They are born cunning. The city is in a state of siege. A Medici is sending those shots into Florence. A Medici is preventing our food reaching us, and here we stand starved, and wounded, and there are those among us who say: Spare the Medici child! ’
    ‘Shall we spare the spawn of tyrants?’
    From inside the convent walls, Caterina heard the shouts of the people. She knew there was no longer safety for her at the Murate. Trouble had risen in Florence and was creeping close to the sanctuary of the walled-in-ones. Even her friends who loved her, even the Reverend Mother, could not save her