He stooped and touched the hen.

She was still warm and soft like a rag.

Doubtless some apoplectic stroke had killed her.

But immediately afterwards he became fearfully pale; the truth appeared to him, and turned him as cold as ice.

In a moment he conjured up everything: Leo XIII attacked by illness, Santobono hurrying to Cardinal Sanguinetti for tidings, and then starting for Rome to present a basket of figs to Cardinal Boccanera.