The Well of Saint Clare

Chapter 48: THE END

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About This Book

A collection of interlinked tales and sketches set in and around a medieval Italian milieu, framed by a prologue and episodic sections. Narratives range from contemplative meditations on faith and doubt to satirical portraits of clergy, artists, and nobles, and a sustained human drama that probes temptation, conscience, and judgment. Several episodes examine the clash between reason and belief through philosophical debate, reported miracles, and legal or personal reckonings, while others offer ironic vignettes about art, love, and communal rituals. The tone alternates between elegiac reflection and biting irony, moving from intimate scenes to broader historical tableaux.

1 "When, a plain citizen, soldier of a free people, by the banks of the Eridanus, the Adige and the Tiber, blasting with his lightnings one after another recalcitrant tyrants, his hand brake the fetters of the nations that wept...."

2 "Napoleon, visiting Florence after his Leghorn expedition, lay one night at San Miniato at the house of an old Abbé Buonaparte...." (Memorial of St. Helena, by the Count de Las Cases—reprint of 1823, 1824, Vol. I, p. 149.)

3 "I stayed for the night at San Miniato. I had a relative living there, an old Canon...." (Memoirs of Dr. F. Antommarchi on the Last Moments of Napoleon, 1825, vol. I, p. 155.)