"I, who go to and fro here and there, like other men with no mark upon me! I, who walk the streets in sunshine and rain like other men! Yet, for them the sky is bright, and they have years to live.

For me, one more summer, and--night! Two more years at the most--and night! And I, but fifty-eight!" The big man looked at him with eyes of compassion.

"It may be," he said, after a pause, "that the physicians are wrong, Messer Blondel.

I have known such a case." "They are, they shall be wrong!" Blondel replied.

"For you will give me your remedy! It was God led me here to-day, it was God put it in your heart to tell me this.