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The players enjoyed themselves. So did the audience.
The Mother of God liked them to make a cheerful show in honour of that
good old man, the Patron Saint. And Saint Dodekanus himself--what would
he think, if this ancient act of homage were withheld? He would be very
angry. He would send an earthquake, or a visitation of the cholera, or
a shower of ashes from the volcano across the water. Piety and prudence
alike counselled them to keep in his good graces. And what more? The
performance had been established by the Good Duke; and that endless
line of godly bishops, succeeding each other since his day, would never
have given their sanction to the costumes and the acting had they not
known that the Madonna approved of them. Why should She now think
differently? The Mother of God was not a fickle earthly creature, to
change Her mind from one day to the next.
With arguments such as these they endeavoured to controvert the PARROCO
who, being a fighter to the death, a resourceful ascetic of unbending
will, never admitted defeat.


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