Latest / Montezumas Daughter / 38 - Montezuma's Daughter by H Rider Haggard
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Vengeance. During that meal, Bernald DEAs spoke of our first
- 0:10Speaker 1: meeting on the causeway, and of how I had gone
- 0:13Speaker 1: near to killing him in error, thinking that he was Sarkader.
- 0:19Speaker 1: And then he asked me what was my quarrel with Sarkada.
- 0:24Speaker 1: In as few words as possible, I told him the
- 0:27Speaker 1: story of my life, and of all the evil that
- 0:30Speaker 1: de Gacier or Sarkader had worked upon me and mine,
- 0:36Speaker 1: and of how it was through him that I was
- 0:38Speaker 1: in this land that day. Oh he listened amazed, Holy Mother.
- 0:47Speaker 1: He said at length, I always knew him for a villain,
- 0:52Speaker 1: but that if you do not lie, friend Wingfield, he
- 0:56Speaker 1: could be such a man as this. I do not
- 1:00Speaker 1: know now by my word. Had I heard this tale
- 1:05Speaker 1: an hour ago, Sarkada would not have left this camp
- 1:08Speaker 1: till he had entered it or cleared himself by combat
- 1:12Speaker 1: with you. But I fear it is too late. He
- 1:18Speaker 1: was to leave for Mexico at the rising of the
- 1:20Speaker 1: moon to stir up mischief against me, because I granted
- 1:26Speaker 1: you terms not that I fear him there where his
- 1:31Speaker 1: repute is small. I do not lie. Indeed, I answered,
- 1:39Speaker 1: much of this tale I can prove if need be,
- 1:42Speaker 1: and I can tell you I would give half the
- 1:45Speaker 1: life that is left to me to stand face to
- 1:48Speaker 1: face in open fight with him again. Ever has he
- 1:52Speaker 1: escaped me? And the score between us is long now.
- 1:59Speaker 1: As I spoke this, it seemed to me that a
- 2:02Speaker 1: cold and dreadful air played upon my hands and brow,
- 2:06Speaker 1: and a warning sense of present evil crept into my soul,
- 2:12Speaker 1: overcoming me so that I could not stir or speak
- 2:16Speaker 1: for a while. Let us go and see if he
- 2:19Speaker 1: has gone, said DearS, presently, and summoning a guard, he
- 2:24Speaker 1: was about to leave the chamber. It was at this
- 2:28Speaker 1: moment that I chanced to look up and see a
- 2:30Speaker 1: woman standing in the doorway, her hand rested on the doorpost.
- 2:37Speaker 1: Her head, from which the long hair streamed, was thrown back,
- 2:41Speaker 1: and her face was a look of such anguish that
- 2:44Speaker 1: at first so much was she changed. I did not
- 2:47Speaker 1: know her for uttermy. When I knew her, I knew all.
- 2:55Speaker 2: One thing.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Only could conjure up that terror and agony that shone
- 2:59Speaker 1: in her deep eyes. What has chanced to our son?
- 3:06Speaker 1: I asked, dead.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Dead, she answered, in a whisper that seemed to pierce
- 3:17Speaker 2: my marrow. I said nothing, from my heart told me
- 3:23Speaker 2: what had happened? But Diaz asked.
- 3:27Speaker 1: Dead, Why what has killed him? De Garcia, I saw
- 3:35Speaker 1: him go, replied Artemi. Then she tossed her arms high
- 3:42Speaker 1: and without another sound, fell backwards to the earth. In
- 3:48Speaker 1: that moment, I think that my heart broke. At least
- 3:55Speaker 1: I know that nothing has had the power to move
- 3:57Speaker 1: me greatly since though this memory moves me day by day,
- 4:02Speaker 1: an hour by hour, till I die and go to
- 4:06Speaker 1: seek my son, say bernal Diaz, I cried, with a
- 4:13Speaker 1: hoarse laugh, did I lie to you concerning this comrade
- 4:18Speaker 1: of yours. Then, springing over Ottomy's body, I left the chamber,
- 4:24Speaker 1: followed by Bernaldaz and the others. Without the door, I
- 4:29Speaker 1: turned to the left towards the camp. I had not
- 4:32Speaker 1: gone a hundred paces when in the moonlight I saw
- 4:36Speaker 1: a small troop of horsemen riding towards us. It was
- 4:40Speaker 1: de Garcia and his servants, and they headed towards a
- 4:44Speaker 1: mountain pass on the road to Mexico. I was not
- 4:48Speaker 1: too late, Halt, cried Bernal Diaz. Here commands me to halt,
- 4:57Speaker 1: said the voice of de Garcia. Aye, all captain, rawed Diaz, Halt,
- 5:04Speaker 1: you devil, you murderer, or you shall be cut down.
- 5:09Speaker 1: I saw him turn pale. These our strange manners, Senor,
- 5:16Speaker 1: He said, of your grace, I ask. At this moment,
- 5:20Speaker 1: de Garcia caught sight of me for the first time,
- 5:23Speaker 1: for I had broken from the hold of Diaz, who
- 5:26Speaker 1: clutched my arm, and was moving towards him. I said nothing,
- 5:32Speaker 1: but there was something in my face which told him
- 5:34Speaker 1: that I knew all and warned him of his doom.
- 5:40Speaker 1: He looked past me, but the narrow road was blocked
- 5:43Speaker 1: with men. I drew near, but he did not wait
- 5:47Speaker 1: for me. Once he put his hand on the hilt
- 5:50Speaker 1: of the sword. Then suddenly he wheeled the horse round
- 5:54Speaker 1: and fled down the street of Jhaka. De Garcia fled,
- 5:59Speaker 1: and I followed after him, running fast and low like
- 6:03Speaker 1: a hound. At first he gained on me, but soon
- 6:07Speaker 1: the road grew rough and he could not gallop over it.
- 6:11Speaker 1: We were clear of the town now, or rather of
- 6:15Speaker 1: its ruins, and traveling along the little path which the
- 6:18Speaker 1: Indians used to bring down snow from Shaka in the
- 6:21Speaker 1: hot weather. Perhaps there are some five miles of this
- 6:25Speaker 1: path before the snow line is reached, beyond which no
- 6:28Speaker 1: Indian dared to set his foot, for the ground above
- 6:32Speaker 1: was wholly Along this path he went, and I was
- 6:36Speaker 1: content to see it, for I knew well that the
- 6:39Speaker 1: traveler cannot leave it, since on either side lie water
- 6:43Speaker 1: courses and cliffs. Mile after mile, de Garcia followed it,
- 6:49Speaker 1: looking now to the left, now to the right, and
- 6:52Speaker 1: now ahead, and the great dome of snow crowned with
- 6:55Speaker 1: fire that towered above him. But he never looked behind him.
- 7:00Speaker 1: He knew what was there, death in the shape of
- 7:04Speaker 1: a man. I came on doggedly, saving all my strength.
- 7:10Speaker 1: I was sure that I must catch him at last.
- 7:13Speaker 1: It did not matter when at length he reached the
- 7:18Speaker 1: snow line where the path ended, and for the first
- 7:22Speaker 1: time he looked back there I was some two hundred
- 7:26Speaker 1: paces behind him. I his death was behind him, and
- 7:32Speaker 1: in front of him shone the snow. For a moment,
- 7:36Speaker 1: he hesitated, and I heard the heavy breathing of his
- 7:39Speaker 1: horse in the great stillness. Then he turned and faced
- 7:44Speaker 1: a slope, driving his spurs into the brute's side. The
- 7:49Speaker 1: snow was hard, for here the frost bit sharply, and
- 7:52Speaker 1: for a while, though it was so steep, the horse
- 7:56Speaker 1: traveled over it better than he had done along the pathway. Now,
- 8:00Speaker 1: as before, there was only one road he could take,
- 8:03Speaker 1: For we passed up the crest of the ridge, a
- 8:06Speaker 1: pleat as it were in the garment of the mountain,
- 8:09Speaker 1: and on either side were steeps of snow on which
- 8:12Speaker 1: neither horse nor man might keep his footing. For two
- 8:17Speaker 1: hours or more we followed that ridge, and as we
- 8:20Speaker 1: went through the silence of the haunted vulcan and the
- 8:24Speaker 1: loneliness of his eternal snows, it seemed to me that
- 8:27Speaker 1: my spirit entered into the spirit of my quarry, and
- 8:31Speaker 1: that with his eyes I saw all that was passing
- 8:35Speaker 1: in his heart to a man so wronged. The dream
- 8:40Speaker 1: was pleasant even if it were not true. For I
- 8:44Speaker 1: read there was such agony, such black despair, such haunting memories,
- 8:50Speaker 1: such terror of advancing death, of what lay beyond it,
- 8:54Speaker 1: that no revenge of man's could surpass their torment. And
- 8:59Speaker 1: it was true. I knew that it was true. He
- 9:04Speaker 1: suffered all this and more, for if he had no conscience,
- 9:09Speaker 1: at least he had fear and imagination to quicken and
- 9:13Speaker 1: multiply the fear. Now the snow grew steeper, and the
- 9:18Speaker 1: horse was almost spent, for he could scarcely breathe at
- 9:21Speaker 1: so great a height. In vain did de garcier drive
- 9:26Speaker 1: his spurs into its sides. The gallant beast could do
- 9:30Speaker 1: no more. Suddenly it just fell down. Surely I thought
- 9:36Speaker 1: he will await me now. But even if I had
- 9:40Speaker 1: not fathomed the depths of his terrors, for de Garcia
- 9:43Speaker 1: disengaged himself from the fallen horse, looked towards me, then
- 9:48Speaker 1: fled forward on his feet, casting his armor as he went,
- 9:52Speaker 1: as he might travel more lightly. By this time we
- 9:56Speaker 1: had passed the snow and would come to the edge
- 9:59Speaker 1: of the ice cap that is made by the melting
- 10:01Speaker 1: of the snow with the heat of the inner fires,
- 10:04Speaker 1: or by that of the sun in hot seasons, I
- 10:07Speaker 1: know not, And it's freezing in the winter months, or
- 10:10Speaker 1: in the cold of the nights. At least there is
- 10:14Speaker 1: such a cap on Shaka, measuring nearly a mile in depth,
- 10:18Speaker 1: which lies between the snow and the black rim of
- 10:21Speaker 1: the crater. Up this ice climbed a gacier. And the
- 10:26Speaker 1: task is not the easiest, even for one of the
- 10:29Speaker 1: untroubled mind. For a man must step from crack to crack,
- 10:33Speaker 1: or needle to needle of rough ice that stands upon
- 10:36Speaker 1: the smooth surface, like the bristles on the hog's back.
- 10:40Speaker 1: And woe to him if one breaks, or if he slips,
- 10:44Speaker 1: For then as he falls very shortly, the flesh will
- 10:48Speaker 1: be filed from the bones by the thousand of sword
- 10:51Speaker 1: like points over which he must pass in these descent
- 10:55Speaker 1: towards the snow. Indeed, many times I feared greatly lest
- 11:00Speaker 1: this should chance to degatire, for I did not desire
- 11:04Speaker 1: to lose my vengeance. Thus therefore twice, when I saw
- 11:08Speaker 1: him in danger, I shouted to him, telling him where
- 11:12Speaker 1: to put his feet, for now I was within twenty
- 11:16Speaker 1: paces of him, and strange to say, he obeyed me
- 11:20Speaker 1: without question, forgetting everything in his terror of instant death.
- 11:26Speaker 1: But for myself I had no fear, for I knew
- 11:30Speaker 1: that I should not fall, though the place was one
- 11:33Speaker 1: which I had surely shrunk from climbing at any other time.
- 11:38Speaker 1: All this while we had been traveling towards Jacka's fiery
- 11:42Speaker 1: crest by the bright moonlight. But now the dawn broke
- 11:46Speaker 1: suddenly on the mountaintop, and the flame died away in
- 11:50Speaker 1: the heart of the pillar of smoke. It was wonderful
- 11:54Speaker 1: to see the red glory that shone upon the ice
- 11:56Speaker 1: cap and on us, two men who crept light flies
- 12:00Speaker 1: across it, while the mountain's breast and the world below
- 12:05Speaker 1: were plunged in the shadows of night. Now we have
- 12:09Speaker 1: a better light to climb by, Comrade, I called to
- 12:13Speaker 1: de Ghasia, and my voice rang strangely among the ice cliffs,
- 12:17Speaker 1: whenever a man's voice had echoed before. As I spoke,
- 12:22Speaker 1: the mountain rumbled and bellowed beneath us, shaking like the
- 12:26Speaker 1: wind tossed tree, as though in wrath at the desecration
- 12:30Speaker 1: of its sacred solitudes. With the rumbling came a shower
- 12:34Speaker 1: of gray ash that rained down upon us, and for
- 12:38Speaker 1: a little while hid the Gasha from my sight. I
- 12:42Speaker 1: heard him call out in fear, and was afraid lest
- 12:46Speaker 1: he had fallen. But presently the ashes cleared away, and
- 12:51Speaker 1: I saw him standing safely on the lava rim that
- 12:54Speaker 1: surrounds the crater. Now I thought he will shorely make
- 13:00Speaker 1: us stand, For could he have found courage? It had
- 13:04Speaker 1: been easy for him to kill me with his sword,
- 13:07Speaker 1: which he still wore. As I climbed from the ice
- 13:10Speaker 1: to the hot lava, it seemed that he thought of it,
- 13:14Speaker 1: for he turned and glared at me like a devil,
- 13:18Speaker 1: then went on again, leaving me wondering where he believed
- 13:21Speaker 1: that he would find refuge. Some three hundred paces from
- 13:27Speaker 1: the edge of the ice, the smoke and steam of
- 13:29Speaker 1: the crater rose into the air, and between the two
- 13:33Speaker 1: was lava so hot that in places it was difficult
- 13:37Speaker 1: to walk upon. Across this bed that trembled as I
- 13:42Speaker 1: passed over it, went de Gacia somewhat slowly, for now
- 13:47Speaker 1: he was weary, and I followed him at my ease,
- 13:51Speaker 1: getting my breath again. Presently I saw that he had
- 13:58Speaker 1: come to the edge of the crater, for he leaned
- 14:00Speaker 1: forward and looked over, and I thought that he was
- 14:04Speaker 1: about to destroy himself by plunging into it. But if
- 14:08Speaker 1: such thoughts had been in his mind, he forgot them
- 14:12Speaker 1: when he had seen what sort of nest this was
- 14:14Speaker 1: to sleep in. For turning, he came back towards me,
- 14:19Speaker 1: sword up, and we met within a dozen paces of
- 14:24Speaker 1: the edge. I say met, but in truth we did
- 14:28Speaker 1: not meet, for he stopped again, well out of reach
- 14:32Speaker 1: of my sword. I sat down upon a block of
- 14:36Speaker 1: lava and looked at him. It seemed to me that
- 14:40Speaker 1: I could not feast my eyes enough upon his face.
- 14:44Speaker 1: And what a face it was, that of a more
- 14:47Speaker 1: than murderer about to meet his reward. Would that I
- 14:53Speaker 1: could pain to show it? For no words can tell
- 14:56Speaker 1: the fearfulness of those red and sunken eyes. Though grinning
- 15:00Speaker 1: teeth and quivering lips. I think that when the enemy
- 15:04Speaker 1: of mankind has cast his last die and won his
- 15:08Speaker 1: last soul, he too will look thus as he passes
- 15:13Speaker 1: into doom. At length de Gassier, I said, why do
- 15:20Speaker 1: you not kill me and make an end? He asked, hoarsely,
- 15:26Speaker 1: where is the hurry, cousin? For hard and twenty years
- 15:30Speaker 1: I have sought you? Shall we then part? So soon?
- 15:35Speaker 1: Let us talk? Awhile before we part, to meet no more.
- 15:40Speaker 1: Perhaps of your courtesy, you will answer me a question,
- 15:44Speaker 1: for I am curious. Why have you wrought these evils
- 15:49Speaker 1: on me and mine? Surely you must have reason for
- 15:53Speaker 1: what seemed to be an empty and foolish wickedness. I
- 15:59Speaker 1: spoke to him thus, calmly and coldly, feeling no passion,
- 16:03Speaker 1: feeling nothing, For in that strange hour I was no
- 16:07Speaker 1: longer Thomas Wingfield. I was no longer human. I was
- 16:12Speaker 1: a force an instrument. I could think of my dead
- 16:17Speaker 1: son without sorrow. He did not seem dead to me,
- 16:22Speaker 1: for I partook of the nature that he had put
- 16:25Speaker 1: on in this change of death. I could even think
- 16:29Speaker 1: of Degacia without hate, as though he also were nothing
- 16:34Speaker 1: but a tool in some other hand. Moreover, I knew
- 16:40Speaker 1: that he was mine body and mind, and that he
- 16:45Speaker 1: must answer, and truly so surely as he must die.
- 16:50Speaker 1: When I chose to kill him, he tried to shut
- 16:54Speaker 1: his lips, but they opened of themselves, and word by
- 16:58Speaker 1: word the truth was dragged from his black heart, as
- 17:02Speaker 1: though he stood already before the judgment seat. I loved
- 17:08Speaker 1: your mother, my cousin, he said, speaking slowly and painfully
- 17:16Speaker 1: from a child. I loved her only in the world,
- 17:20Speaker 1: as I love her to this hour. But she hated
- 17:25Speaker 1: me because I was wicked, and feared me because I
- 17:28Speaker 1: was cruel. Then she saw your father and loved him,
- 17:34Speaker 1: and brought about his escape from the Holy Office, whither
- 17:38Speaker 1: I had delivered him to be tortured and burnt, and
- 17:42Speaker 1: fled with him to England. I was jealous, and would
- 17:46Speaker 1: have been revenged if I might, but there was no way.
- 17:52Speaker 1: I led an evil life, and when nearly twenty years
- 17:56Speaker 1: had gone. By chance took me to England on a
- 18:01Speaker 1: trading journey. By chance, I learned that your father and
- 18:06Speaker 1: mother lived near Yamouth, and I determined to see her.
- 18:12Speaker 1: Though at that time I had no thought of killing her.
- 18:18Speaker 1: Fortune favored me, and we met in the woodlands, and
- 18:23Speaker 1: I saw that she was still beautiful, and I knew
- 18:28Speaker 1: that I loved her more than ever before. I gave
- 18:34Speaker 1: her a choice to fly with me or to die,
- 18:39Speaker 1: and after a while she died. But as she shrank
- 18:46Speaker 1: up the wooded hillside before my sword, of a sudden
- 18:49Speaker 1: she stood still and said, listen before me, one, I
- 18:56Speaker 1: have a death vision. As I have fled from you,
- 19:00Speaker 1: So shall you fly before one of my blood in
- 19:04Speaker 1: a place of fire and rock and snow. And as
- 19:09Speaker 1: you drive me to the gates of heaven, so shall
- 19:12Speaker 1: he drive you into the mouth of hell in such
- 19:16Speaker 1: a place as this, cousin, I said, in such a
- 19:21Speaker 1: place as this, he whispered, glancing round. Continue again he
- 19:32Speaker 1: strove to be silent, But again my will mastered him,
- 19:36Speaker 1: and he spoke. It was too late to spare her
- 19:41Speaker 1: if I wished to escape myself. So I killed her
- 19:45Speaker 1: and fled, But terror entered my heart, terror which has
- 19:49Speaker 1: never left it to this hour. For always before my
- 19:53Speaker 1: eyes was the vision of him, of your mother's blood,
- 19:57Speaker 1: before whom I should fly as she fled before me.
- 20:01Speaker 1: Who shall drive me into the mouth of hell? Well,
- 20:06Speaker 1: that must be yonder, Cousin, I said, pointing with my
- 20:10Speaker 1: sword towards the pit of the Creator. It is yonder.
- 20:16Speaker 1: I have looked, but only for the body, Cousin, not
- 20:21Speaker 1: for the spirit. Only for the body, not for the spirit,
- 20:27Speaker 1: he repeated, after me, Continue, I said. Afterwards. On the
- 20:36Speaker 1: same day I met you, Thomas Wingfield, already your dead
- 20:41Speaker 1: mother's prophecy had taken hold of me, and seeing one
- 20:44Speaker 1: of her blood, I strove to kill him lest he
- 20:48Speaker 1: should kill me. As he will do presently. Cousin, as
- 20:55Speaker 1: he will do presently, he repeated, like a talking bird.
- 21:02Speaker 1: You know what happened and how I escaped. I fled
- 21:06Speaker 1: to Spain and strove to forget, but I could not.
- 21:11Speaker 1: One night I saw a face in the streets of
- 21:14Speaker 1: Seville that reminded me of your face. I did not
- 21:18Speaker 1: think that it could be you, Yet so strong was
- 21:21Speaker 1: my fear that I determined to fly to the far Indies.
- 21:27Speaker 1: You met me on the night of my flight, when
- 21:30Speaker 1: I was bidding farewell to a lady, one Isabella Diseguence,
- 21:37Speaker 1: her cousin. I bade farewell to her afterwards and delivered
- 21:42Speaker 1: her dying words to you. Now she waits to welcome
- 21:46Speaker 1: you again, she and her child. Oh, he shuddered and
- 21:53Speaker 1: went on. In the ocean, we met again. You rose
- 21:58Speaker 1: out of the sea. I did not dare to kill
- 22:01Speaker 1: you at once. I thought that you must die in
- 22:04Speaker 1: the slavehold, and that none could bear witness against me
- 22:08Speaker 1: and hold me guilty of your blood. You did not die.
- 22:14Speaker 1: Even the sea could not destroy you. But I thought
- 22:19Speaker 1: that you were dead. I came to Anahuac in the
- 22:23Speaker 1: train of quarters, and again we met. Oh. That time
- 22:28Speaker 1: you nearly killed me. Afterwards I had my revenge, and
- 22:34Speaker 1: I tortured you well. I meant to murder you on
- 22:38Speaker 1: the morrow, though first I would taut you, for terror
- 22:42Speaker 1: can be very cruel, But you escaped me. Long years passed.
- 22:50Speaker 1: I wandered hither and thither to Spain, back to Mexico
- 22:54Speaker 1: and elsewhere. But wherever I went, my fear, the ghosts
- 23:00Speaker 1: of the dead, and my dreams went with me, and
- 23:04Speaker 1: I was never fortunate. Only the other day I joined
- 23:09Speaker 1: the company of Diaz as an adventurer. Not till we
- 23:13Speaker 1: reached the city of Pie did I learn that you
- 23:16Speaker 1: were the captain of the Ottomy. It was said that
- 23:20Speaker 1: you were long dead, and you know the rest. Why
- 23:26Speaker 1: did you murder my son cousin? Was he not of
- 23:32Speaker 1: your mother's blood, of the blood that should bring my
- 23:35Speaker 1: doom upon me? And did I owe you no reward
- 23:39Speaker 1: for all the terror of these many years? Moreover, he
- 23:43Speaker 1: is foolish who strives to slay the father and spares
- 23:47Speaker 1: the son. He is dead, and I am glad that
- 23:51Speaker 1: I killed him, though he haunts me now with the others,
- 23:57Speaker 1: and shall haunt you eternally. Now let us make an end.
- 24:02Speaker 1: You have your sword, Use it if you can. It
- 24:06Speaker 1: will be easier to die fighting. I cannot. He groaned,
- 24:13Speaker 1: My doom is upon me, as you will. And I
- 24:19Speaker 1: came at him, sword up. He ran from before me,
- 24:25Speaker 1: moving backwards and keeping his eyes fixed upon mine, as
- 24:29Speaker 1: I have seen a rat do when a snake is
- 24:31Speaker 1: about to swallow it. Now we were upon the edge
- 24:35Speaker 1: of the crater, and looking over I saw an awful sight,
- 24:39Speaker 1: For there some thirty feet beneath us, a red hot lava,
- 24:44Speaker 1: growing sullenly. Beneath a shifting paol of smoke rolled and
- 24:49Speaker 1: spouted like a thing alive. Jets of steam flew upwards
- 24:53Speaker 1: from its screaming sound. Lines of noxious vapors, many colored,
- 25:00Speaker 1: rept and twisted upon its surface, and a hot and
- 25:03Speaker 1: horrid stench poisoned the heated air. Here, indeed, was such
- 25:08Speaker 1: a gate as I could wish for Ta Garsha to
- 25:11Speaker 1: pass through to his own abode. I looked, pointed with
- 25:18Speaker 1: my sword and laughed. He looked and shrieked aloud. For
- 25:25Speaker 1: now all his manhood had left him. So great was
- 25:29Speaker 1: his terror of what lay beyond the end. Yes, this
- 25:33Speaker 1: proud and haughty spaniard screamed and wept and prayed for mercy.
- 25:39Speaker 1: He who had done so many villainies beyond forgiveness, prayed
- 25:44Speaker 1: for mercy that he might find time to repent. I
- 25:48Speaker 1: stood and watched him, and so dreadful was his aspect
- 25:53Speaker 1: that horror struck me even through the calm of my
- 25:56Speaker 1: frozen heart. It is time to finish, I said, and
- 26:03Speaker 1: again I lifted my sword, only to let it fall,
- 26:07Speaker 1: for suddenly his brain gave way and de Gacia went
- 26:11Speaker 1: mad before my eyes. Of all that followed, I will
- 26:17Speaker 1: not write with his madness. Courage came back to him,
- 26:22Speaker 1: and he began to fight, but not with me. He
- 26:27Speaker 1: began to perceive me no more. But nevertheless he fought
- 26:32Speaker 1: and desperately, thrusting at the air. It was terrible to
- 26:37Speaker 1: see him thus doing battle with his invisible foes, and
- 26:40Speaker 1: to hear his screams and curses, as inch by inch
- 26:44Speaker 1: they drove him back to the edge of the crater.
- 26:48Speaker 1: Here he stood awhile, like one who makes a last
- 26:51Speaker 1: stand against an overpowering strength, thrusting and striking furiously. Twice
- 26:59Speaker 1: he nearly fell, as though beneath a mortal wound, but
- 27:03Speaker 1: recovering himself, fought on with nothingness. Then, with a sharp cry,
- 27:13Speaker 1: suddenly he threw his arms wide, as a man does
- 27:16Speaker 1: who is pierced through the heart. His sword dropped from
- 27:21Speaker 1: his hand, and he fell backwards into the pit. I
- 27:29Speaker 1: turned my eyes away, for I wish to see no more.
- 27:36Speaker 1: But often I have wondered who or what it was
- 27:40Speaker 1: that dealt de Gacia his death wound. End of Chapter
- 27:51Speaker 1: thirty seven. Recording by Patrick seventy nine