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falco falcone 29i
29I
quantity of snow. And while they grow stiff with
cold, the eternal fire beneath them shakes the
mountain.
They remember that Lucifero and all the
condemned are down there. They shudder to think
that Falco has brought them to the gate of hell.
They make their way, however, across the ice field
and reach the steep ash-cone itself, on the very top
of the mountain. Here they struggle upwards,
through gliding ashes and pumice-stone. When
they are half-way up the cone, Falco takes the
wreath and beckons to the others to wait. He
alone shall ascend the height.
It grows light all at once, and as Falco reaches the
top the sun appears. Mongibello, and even the old
Etna-robber, stand enveloped in the most glorious
morning light. But Etna’s shadow is thrown over
the whole of Sicily, and it seems as if Falco, who
stands up there, reached from sea to sea, right across
the island.
Falco stands there and looks about him. He
looks over towards Italy; he fancies he sees Naples
and Rome. He lets his eyes roam over the seas,
toward the land of the Turks in the east and the
Saracen country in the south. He feels as if all this
lay at his feet and acknowledged his greatness.
Then Falco lays the wreath down on Mongibello’s
top.
When he comes down to his companions he
presses their hands earnestly. In descending the
cone, they notice that he picks up a pumice-stone
and puts it in his pocket. Falco takes away with
him a remembrance of the sweetest moment of his
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