The Gadfly Part 63

Wearily, patiently, he went through his part in the remaining ceremonies, fulfilling mechanically, from old habit, the rites that had no longer any meaning for him. Then, after the benediction, he knelt down again before the altar and covered his face; and the voice of the priest reading aloud the list of indulgences swelled and sank like a far-off murmur from a world to which he belonged no more.

The voice broke off, and he stood up and stretched out his hand for silence. Some of the congregation were moving towards the doors; and they turned back with a hurried rustle and murmur, as a whisper went through the Cathedral:

"His Eminence is going to speak."

His ministers, startled and wondering, drew closer to him and one of them whispered hastily: "Your Eminence, do you intend to speak to the people now?"

Montanelli silently waved him aside. The priests drew back, whispering together; the thing was unusual, even irregular; but it was within the Cardinal's prerogative if he chose to do it. No doubt, he had some statement of exceptional importance to make; some new reform from Rome to announce or a special communication from the Holy Father.

Montanelli looked down from the altar-steps upon the sea of upturned faces. Full of eager expectancy they looked up at him as he stood above them, spectral and still and white.

"Sh-s.h.!.+ Silence!" the leaders of the procession called softly; and the murmuring of the congregation died into stillness, as a gust of wind dies among whispering tree-tops. All the crowd gazed up, in breathless silence, at the white figure on the altar-steps. Slowly and steadily he began to speak:

"It is written in the Gospel according to St. John: 'G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that the world through Him might be saved.'

"This is the festival of the Body and Blood of the Victim who was slain for your salvation; the Lamb of G.o.d, which taketh away the sins of the world; the Son of G.o.d, Who died for your transgressions. And you are a.s.sembled here in solemn festival array, to eat of the sacrifice that was given for you, and to render thanks for this great mercy. And I know that this morning, when you came to share in the banquet, to eat of the Body of the Victim, your hearts were filled with joy, as you remembered the Pa.s.sion of G.o.d the Son, Who died, that you might be saved.

"But tell me, which among you has thought of that other Pa.s.sion--of the Pa.s.sion of G.o.d the Father, Who gave His Son to be crucified? Which of you has remembered the agony of G.o.d the Father, when He bent from His throne in the heavens above, and looked down upon Calvary?

"I have watched you to-day, my people, as you walked in your ranks in solemn procession; and I have seen that your hearts are glad within you for the remission of your sins, and that you rejoice in your salvation.

Yet I pray you that you consider at what price that salvation was bought. Surely it is very precious, and the price of it is above rubies; it is the price of blood."

A faint, long shudder pa.s.sed through the listening crowd. In the chancel the priests bent forward and whispered to one another; but the preacher went on speaking, and they held their peace.

"Therefore it is that I speak with you this day: I AM THAT I AM. For I looked upon your weakness and your sorrow, and upon the little children about your feet; and my heart was moved to compa.s.sion for their sake, that they must die. Then I looked into my dear son's eyes; and I knew that the Atonement of Blood was there. And I went my way, and left him to his doom.

"This is the remission of sins. He died for you, and the darkness has swallowed him up; he is dead, and there is no resurrection; he is dead, and I have no son. Oh, my boy, my boy!"

The Cardinal's voice broke in a long, wailing cry; and the voices of the terrified people answered it like an echo. All the clergy had risen from their places, and the deacons of honour started forward to lay their hands on the preacher's arm. But he wrenched it away, and faced them suddenly, with the eyes of an angry wild beast.

"What is this? Is there not blood enough? Wait your turn, jackals; you shall all be fed!"

They shrank away and huddled s.h.i.+vering together, their panting breath thick and loud, their faces white with the whiteness of chalk.

Montanelli turned again to the people, and they swayed and shook before him, as a field of corn before a hurricane.

"You have killed him! You have killed him! And I suffered it, because I would not let you die. And now, when you come about me with your lying praises and your unclean prayers, I repent me--I repent me that I have done this thing! It were better that you all should rot in your vices, in the bottomless filth of d.a.m.nation, and that he should live. What is the worth of your plague-spotted souls, that such a price should be paid for them? But it is too late--too late! I cry aloud, but he does not hear me; I beat at the door of the grave, but he will not wake; I stand alone, in desert s.p.a.ce, and look around me, from the blood-stained earth where the heart of my heart lies buried, to the void and awful heaven that is left unto me, desolate. I have given him up; oh, generation of vipers, I have given him up for you!

"Take your salvation, since it is yours! I fling it to you as a bone is flung to a pack of snarling curs! The price of your banquet is paid for you; come, then, and gorge yourselves, cannibals, bloodsuckers--carrion beasts that feed on the dead! See where the blood streams down from the altar, foaming and hot from my darling's heart--the blood that was shed for you! Wallow and lap it and smear yourselves red with it! s.n.a.t.c.h and fight for the flesh and devour it--and trouble me no more! This is the body that was given for you--look at it, torn and bleeding, throbbing still with the tortured life, quivering from the bitter death-agony; take it, Christians, and eat!"

He had caught up the sun with the Host and lifted it above his head; and now flung it cras.h.i.+ng down upon the floor. At the ring of the metal on stone the clergy rushed forward together, and twenty hands seized the madman.

Then, and only then, the silence of the people broke in a wild, hysterical scream; and, overturning chairs and benches, beating at the doorways, trampling one upon another, tearing down curtains and garlands in their haste, the surging, sobbing human flood poured out upon the street.

EPILOGUE.

"GEMMA, there's a man downstairs who wants to see you." Martini spoke in the subdued tone which they had both unconsciously adopted during these last ten days. That, and a certain slow evenness of speech and movement, were the sole expression which either of them gave to their grief.

Gemma, with bare arms and an ap.r.o.n over her dress, was standing at a table, putting up little packages of cartridges for distribution. She had stood over the work since early morning; and now, in the glaring afternoon, her face looked haggard with fatigue.

"A man, Cesare? What does he want?"

"I don't know, dear. He wouldn't tell me. He said he must speak to you alone."

"Very well." She took off her ap.r.o.n and pulled down the sleeves of her dress. "I must go to him, I suppose; but very likely it's only a spy."

"In any case, I shall be in the next room, within call. As soon as you get rid of him you had better go and lie down a bit. You have been standing too long to-day."

"Oh, no! I would rather go on working."

She went slowly down the stairs, Martini following in silence. She had grown to look ten years older in these few days, and the gray streak across her hair had widened into a broad band. She mostly kept her eyes lowered now; but when, by chance, she raised them, he s.h.i.+vered at the horror in their shadows.

In the little parlour she found a clumsy-looking man standing with his heels together in the middle of the floor. His whole figure and the half-frightened way he looked up when she came in, suggested to her that he must be one of the Swiss guards. He wore a countryman's blouse, which evidently did not belong to him, and kept glancing round as though afraid of detection.

"Can you speak German?" he asked in the heavy Zurich patois.

"A little. I hear you want to see me."

"You are Signora Bolla? I've brought you a letter."

"A--letter?" She was beginning to tremble, and rested one hand on the table to steady herself.

"I'm one of the guard over there." He pointed out of the window to the fortress on the hill. "It's from--the man that was shot last week. He wrote it the night before. I promised him I'd give it into your own hand myself."

She bent her head down. So he had written after all.

"That's why I've been so long bringing it," the soldier went on. "He said I was not to give it to anyone but you, and I couldn't get off before--they watched me so. I had to borrow these things to come in."

He was fumbling in the breast of his blouse. The weather was hot, and the sheet of folded paper that he pulled out was not only dirty and crumpled, but damp. He stood for a moment shuffling his feet uneasily; then put up one hand and scratched the back of his head.

"You won't say anything," he began again timidly, with a distrustful glance at her. "It's as much as my life's worth to have come here."

"Of course I shall not say anything. No, wait a minute----"

As he turned to go, she stopped him, feeling for her purse; but he drew back, offended.

"I don't want your money," he said roughly. "I did it for him--because he asked me to. I'd have done more than that for him. He'd been good to me--G.o.d help me!"

The little catch in his voice made her look up. He was slowly rubbing a grimy sleeve across his eyes.

"We had to shoot," he went on under his breath; "my mates and I. A man must obey orders. We bungled it, and had to fire again--and he laughed at us--he called us the awkward squad--and he'd been good to me----"

There was silence in the room. A moment later he straightened himself up, made a clumsy military salute, and went away.

She stood still for a little while with the paper in her hand; then sat down by the open window to read. The letter was closely written in pencil, and in some parts hardly legible. But the first two words stood out quite clear upon the page; and they were in English:

"Dear Jim."