~CHAPTER X~Madonna Diana
And this became to the beautiful Rorasa - for such was her name - such an object of desire, that her head was half turned with it, and the other girls of her acquaintance, to say nothing of the many men whom she had refused, mocked her so bitterly, asking her when the fine wedding was to be, with many other jeers and sneers, that at last in a moment of madness she went to the top of a high tower, whence she cast herself; and to make it worse, there was below a terrible ravine into which she fell. Yet she took no harm, for as she fell there appeared to her a very beautiful woman, truly not of earth, who took her by the hand and bore her through the air to a safe place. Then all the people round who saw or heard of this thing cried out, "Lo, a miracle!" and they came and made a great festival, and would fain persuade Rorasa that she had been saved by the Madonna.
But the lady who had saved her,
coming to her secretly, said, "If thou hast any desire, follow the Gospel
of Diana, or what is called the Gospel of the Witches, who worship the moon."
Then the beautiful girl went
forth alone by night to the fields, and kneeling on a stone in an old ruin,
she worshipped the moon and invoked Diana thus:
So she found the bridegrooms, and was wedded to her heart's desire, ten times more grandly than she had ever dreamed of. Then, after the ceremony, there was spread a feast at which all the nobility of Cettardo were present, and, moreover, the whole town, rich and poor, were feasted.
When the wedding was finished,
the bridesmaids made every one a magnificent present to the bride - one gave
diamonds, another a parchment (written) in gold, after which they asked
permission to go all together into the sacristy. And there they remained
for some hours undisturbed, until the priest sent his chierico to inquire
whether they wanted anything. But what was the youth's amazement at beholding,
not the ten bridesmaids, but their ten images or likenesses in wood and in
terra-cotta, with that of Diana standing on a moon, and they were all so
magnificently made and adorned as to be of immense value.
Move on to Chapter XI
[Aradia:
Gospel of the Witches]
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