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to ask of simple peasants in 1917 Portugal.) On July 13 a much larger crowd gathered as the three children knelt and addressed the entity whom only they could see. Ti Marto, one of the adults, reported that he heard a sound “‘like a horsefly in an empty waterpot.” Hopeful cripples and blind men urged the children to ask for a miracle. Lucia relayed the request and said that the Lady answered, ‘Continue to come here every month. In October I will tell you who I am and what I wish and will perform a miracle that everyone will have to believe. “When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light,” the Lady continued, ‘know that it is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its crimes... To prevent this I come to ask the consecration of Russia... If they listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.” Naturally, these small and simple children knew nothing of Russia (the Russian Revolution began on March 8, 1917) and could not have regarded it as any kind of threat. It was at this July contact that the children were allegedly given a secret which has never been formally revealed. When adults pressed her for details, Lucia would only say that this secret was ‘‘good for some, for others bad.”” The visions of Fatima were now the sensation of Portugal. In August the children were seized and imprisoned by the Administrator of Ourem, who threatened them and tried to make them confess that it was all a hoax. But the children stuck to their story, even when threatened with death. The three youngsters were still being detained in Ourem when August 13 rolled around, but a crowd of 6,000 gathered at the Cova, and according to their testimony, a flash of light appeared in the sky and then something resembling a small, transparent cloud slowly floated down to rest briefly on top of the evergreen tree. At the same moment, all the faces in the crowd were bathed in a multicolored light. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinto were freed and returned to the meadow on August 19. They reportedly saw and spoke with the Lady again on that day. Thirty days later, on September 13, the roads around Fatima were teeming with pilgrims, priests, nuns, poor people, and rich. As is usual in events like this, most of these people came to beg for favors from the Lady; they wanted their ailments healed and their troubles righted. They mobbed the poor youngsters and pleaded for miracles, even though the promised miracle of October was common knowledge, and the children es es Rea Rn | Dn EOS could only repeat that earlier promise. Among the crowds in the field that day was the Reverend Doctor 230 / Operation Trojan Horse