Father Christmas

“There is a heavy security presence but nothing has changed,” agrees Father Javier.

There was a rumor that Alessandro and his father had both died; but no one knew anything certainly.

And he was gone, and out of sight on the swift galloping Benito, before Father Gaspara bethought himself.

At this same time they seized in Nangasaqui a servant of the father provincial, Matheo Couros, who was washing his clothes.

He wanted to tell her that if she called her father, it would mean the end of everything for them, but he withheld this.

The Father had been in sore straits of mind, as month after month had passed without tidings of his "blessed child."