THE NINTH MAN
our men stood silent. Half-way up the garden she turned to a little door which led over the bridge, and by the door stood two of those whom we afterward came to know as the Poor Ladies of Santa Clara, and she went with them. From the other side of the bridge there came to us the singing of Brother Agnello's company of mercy.
Thus Mazzaleone and Bartolommeo suffered her to go. For they could have stopped her no more than death, and they could follow her as little as one may follow the soul when it flies from the body. And so they bowed their heads as before death.
