Latest / Black Magic- a Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist / 26 - Black Magic- a Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist by Marjorie Bowen

Transcript

26 - Black Magic- a Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist by Marjorie Bowen · Black Magic- a Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section twenty six of Black Magic by Marjorie Bowen. This
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part two, Chapter four,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: The Dancer in Orange Tirie walked slowly through the gorgeous
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: ruins of Imperial Rome. It was something afternoon and glowingly hot.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: The tiber curled in and about the stone houses and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: broken palaces like a bronze and golden serpent. So smooth
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and glittering it was. He followed the river until it
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: wound round the base of Mount Aventine, and there he
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: paused and looked up at the Emperor's palace, set splendidly
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: on the hill. A little Byzantine chariot, guilt with azure
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: curtains and drawn by a white horse, came towards him.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: The occupant was a lady in a green dress. The
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: grooms ran either side of the horse's head to assist
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: it up the hill. The chariot passed Tyrie at a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: walking pace. The lady was unveiled and the sun was
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: full on her face. It was Jacobia of Martzburg. She
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: did not see him. Her car continued its slow way
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: towards the palace, and Tyrie stood staring after it. He
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: had last seen her ten years and more ago in
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: her steward's arms, in the courtyard of Castle Martzburg. Beyond
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: them Sebastian's wife. The sound of cymbals and laughter roused
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: him from his agitated thoughts. He looked along the road
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that wound by the Tiber, and saw a little crowd approaching,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: evidently following a troop of jugglers or mountebanks. As they
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: came nearer to where he loitered, Tyrie, ever easily attracted
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: by any passing excitement or attraction, could not choose but
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: give them a half sullen attention. The center of the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: group was a girl in an orange gown. They who
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: followed her the mere usual citizens of Rome, some courtiers
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of the emperors, soldiers, merchant's clerks, and the rabble of children, lazy, mongrel,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: foreigners and franks. The dancer stopped and spread a scarlet
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: carpet on the roadway. The crowd gathered about in a circle,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and Tyrie drew up with the rest, interested by what
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: interested them the two facts, namely, that marked the girl
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: as different from her kind. Firstly, she affected the unusual
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: modesty or coquetry of a black mask that completely covered
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: her face, and secondly, she was attended only by a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: hideous ape. Although the mask concealed the charms of her face,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: it was obvious that she was young and probably Greek.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Her figure was tall, full and splendidly graceful. She held
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a pair of brass cymbals and struck them with a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: stormy joyousness above her proud head. The ape, wearing a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: collar of bright red stones and a long blue jacket
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: trimmed with spangles, curled himself on the corner of the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: carpet and went to sleep. The girl began dancing. She
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: had no music save her cymbals, and needed none. Suddenly,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: she lowered the cymbals, struck them together before her breast,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and looked from right to left. Tyrie caught the gleam
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of her dark eyes through the holes in her mask.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: For a while, she crouched together, panting, then drew herself
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: erect and let her hands fall apart. The burning sun
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: shone in her hair, in the metal hems of her robe,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in her sandals, and changed the cymbals into disks of fire.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: She began to sing. Her voice was deep and glorious,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: though muffled by the mass Slowly she moved round the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: red carpet, and the words of her song fell clearly
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: on the hot air.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: If love were all.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: His perfect servant, I would be kissing where his foot
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: might fall, doing him homage on a lowly knee.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: If love we're all, If love we're all.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And no such thing as pride nor empery, nor God,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: nor sins or great or small.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: If love we're all.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: She passed Tyrie so close, her fluttering robe touched his
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: slack hand. He looked at her curiously, for he thought
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: he knew her voice. He had heard many women sing,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and somewhere this one. If love we're all, but love
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: is weak and hade off, giveth him a fall, and
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: with smites him on the cheek.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: If love were all, If love were all, and I
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: had lived glad and meek, nor heard ambition call.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: And valor speak.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: If love were all.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: The song ended as it had begun, on a clash
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: of cymbals. The dancer swung round, stamped her foot, and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: called fiercely to the ape, who leapt up and began
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: running round the crowd, offering a shell and making an
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: ugly jabbering noise. Tyrie flung the hideous thing a silver
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: besm and moved away. He was thinking not of the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: dancer with the unknown memory in her voice, but of
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the lady in the gilt chariot behind the azure curtains, Jacobia,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: how little she had changed. A burst of laughter made
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: him look round. He saw a quick picture the girl's
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: orange dress flashing in the strong sunlight, the ape on
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: her shoulder hurling, the contents of the shell in the air,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: which glittered for a second with silver pieces, and the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: jesting crowd closing round both. He passed on moodily into
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the center of the town. In the unrest and agitation
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: of his thoughts, he had determined to seek Cardinal Capriola,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: since the Cardinal gave no sign of sending for him,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: even of remembering him. But to day it was useless
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: to journey to the palace on the Palatine, for the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: conclave sat in the Vatican, and the Cardinal would be
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: of their number. The streets, the wine shops, the public
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: squares were full of a mixed and excited mob, the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: adherents of the Emperor who wished to see a German pontiff,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: and they who were ardent romans or churchmen came here
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and there to open brawls. The endless processions that crossed
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: and recrossed from the various mon monasteries and churches were
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: interrupted by the lawless jeers of the Frankish inhabitants, who,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: under a strong emperor and a weak pope, had begun
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to assume the bearing of conquerors. Hirie left them all
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: too concerned, as always in his own small affairs, to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: have any interest in larger issues. He turned into the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Via Sacra, and there, under the splendid but broken arch
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: of Constantine, he saw again the dancing girl and her ape.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: She looked at him intently, of that he could have
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: no doubt despite her mask, and as he turned his
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: hesitating steps towards the Palatine, she rose and followed him.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: As he ascended the narrow, gray road that wound above
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the city, he kept looking over his shoulder, and she
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: was always there, following with the ape on her shoulder.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: They passed scattered huts, monasteries, decaying temples, and villas, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: came out on to the deserted stretches of the upper Palatine,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: where the fragmentary glories of another world lay under the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: cypress and olive trees. Here, Tyrie paused and again looked
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: half fearfully for the bright figure of the dancer. She
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: stood not far from him, leaning against a slender shaft
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: of marble, the sole remaining column of a temple to
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: some heathen god. Tyrie flung himself on a low marble
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: seat that stood in the shade of a cypress, and
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: his blood red robe was vivid even in the shadow.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: He looked at the veiled city at his feet, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: at the dancing girl resting against the time stained, moss
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: grown column. She loosened the cymbals from her hands and
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: flung them on the ground. The ape jumped from her
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: shoulder and caught them up again. She sang her passionate
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: little song. As she sang, another and very different scene
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was suddenly brought to Tyrie's mind. He remembered a night
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: when he had slept on the edge of a pine
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: forest in Germany many years ago, and had suddenly awoke. Nay,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: he had dreamt he heard singing, and a woman singing.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: If it were not so mad a thought, he would
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: have said, this woman singing, He turned bitter dark eyes
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: towards her. Why had she followed him? Swiftly and lightly,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: she came across the grass, glittering from head to foot
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: in the sunlight, and paused before him. Sirtz, you should
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: be in Rome to day, she said. The conclave come
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: to their decision this afternoon. Do you wish to hear
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: it announced from the Vatican? Nay, smiled Tyrie, I would
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: rather see you dance. Her answer was mocking. You care
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: nothing for my dancing. I would wager to stir any
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: man in Rome's sooner than you. Tyrie flushed. Why did
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: you follow me? He asked in a half indifferent dislike.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: She seated herself on the other end of his marble bench.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: My reasons are better than my dancing, and would could
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I speak them have more effect on you? She leant
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: towards him across the length of the bench, and the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: perfume of her orange garments mingled with the odor of
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the violets. Take me for something other than what I appear,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: she continued, in a mournful and passionate voice. In being here,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I risk an unthinkable fate. I stake the proudest hopes,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the fairest fortune. Who are you, cried Tyrie? Why are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: you masked? She drew back instantly, and her tone changed
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to scorn again. When there are many pilgrims in Rome,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the monks bid us poor fools wear masks, lest with
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: our silly faces we lure souls away from God. Tyrie
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: was silent. The dancing girl laughed softly. Are you thinking
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: of her? She asked. He turned with a start, thinking
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of whom. He demanded the lady in the Byzantine chariot,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Jacobia of Martsburg. He sprang up, who are you? And
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: what do you know of me? This at least that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: you have not forgotten her? Yet you would be emperor too,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: would you not? Ye are some witch? He said. I
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: come from Thessaly, where we have skill in magic. She answered,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: And now she sat erect, her yellow dress, casting a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: glowing reflection into the marble. And I tell you this,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: she added passionately. If you would be emperor, let that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: woman be. She will do not for you. Let her go.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: This is a warning, Tyrie of dender Monday. His face flushed,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: his eyes sparkled. Have I a chance of wearing the
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: imperial crown? He cried? May I I rule the west?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Tell me that witch. She whistled the ape on her side.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I am no witch, but I warn you to think
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: no more of Jacobea of Martzburg. He answered hotly. I
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: love not to hear her name on your tongue. She
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: is nothing to me. I need not your warning. The
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: dancer rose for your own sake. Forget her, Tirie of
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: dender Monday, and you may be indeed Emperor of the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: West and Caesar of the Romans. How came you by
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: your knowledge? He asked, and clutched the cypress trunk. I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: read your fortune in your eyes, she answered. We in
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Thessaly have skill in these things, as I have said.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Look at the city beneath us. Is it not worth
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: much to rain in it? The gold vapor that lay
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: about the distant hills seemed to be resolving into heavy
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: menacing clouds. Tirie, following the direction of her slender pointing finger,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: gazed at the city and saw the clouds beyond A
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: storm gathers, he said, and knew not why. He shivered
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: suddenly until his pearl earrings tinkled on the collar round
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: his neck. The dancer laughed wildly and musically. Come with
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: me to the Piazza of Saint Peter, she said, and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you shall hear strange words. With that, she caught hold
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of his blood red garments and drew him towards the city.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: As they went down the road that wound through the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: glorious desolation, Tyrie heard the sound of pattering feet and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: looked over his shoulder. It was the Ape who followed them.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: He walked on his hind legs. How tall he was.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Tyrie had not thought him so large, nor of such
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a human semblance. The dancer was silent, and Tyrie could
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: not speak. When they entered the city gates, the dun
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: colored clouds had swallowed up the gold vapor and half
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: covered the sky. As they crossed the Tiber and neared
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the Vatican, the last beams of the sun disappeared under
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the shadow of the oncoming storm. Enormous crowds were gathered
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: in the Piazza of Saint Peter. It seemed as if
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: all Rome had assembled there. Many faces were turned towards
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the sky, and the sudden gloom that had overspread the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: city seemed to infect the people, for they were mostly silent,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: even somber. The enormous and terrible Ape cleared an easy
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: way for himself through the crowd, and Tyrie and the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: dancing girl followed until they had pushed through the press
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of people and found themselves under the windows of the Vatican.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I cannot see, she said, not even the window. He,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: with an an instinct to assist her and an impulse
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to use his strength, caught her round the waist and
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: lifted her up. For a second. Her breast touched his.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: He felt her heart beating violently behind her thin robe,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and an extraordinary sensation took possession of him, occasioned by
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the touch of her, the sense of her in his arms,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: there was communicated, as if from her heart to his,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: a high and rapturous passion. It was the most terrible
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: and the most splendid feeling he had ever known, at
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: once an agony and a delight such as he had
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: never dreamed of before. Unconsciously he gave an exclamation and
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: loosened his hold. She slipped to the ground with a
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: stifled and miserable cry. Let me alone, she said, wildly,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Let me alone. Who are you? He whispered excitedly, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: tried to catch hold of her again, but the great
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Ape came between them, and the seething crowd roughly pushed him.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Cardinal Maria Orsini had stepped out on to one of
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the balconies of the Vatican. He looked over the expectant crowd,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: then up at the black and angry sky, and seemed
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: for a moment to hesitate. When he spoke, his words
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: fell into a great stillness. The Sacred College has elected
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a successor to Saint Peter in the person of Louis
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: of Dendermonde, Abbot of the Brethren of the Sacred Heart
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: in Paris, Bishop of Ostia, and Cardinal Capriola, who will
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: ascend the papal throne under the name of Michael the Second.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: He finished the cries of triumph from the Romans, The
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: yells of rage from the Franks were drowned in a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: sudden and awful peal of thunder. The lightning darted across
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the black heavens and fell on the Vatican and cast
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Al San Angello. The clouds were rent in two. Behind
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the Temple of Mars, the Avenger and a thunderbolt fell
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: with a hideous crash into the Forum of Augustus. Kirie,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: whipped with terror, turned with the frightened crowd to flee.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: He heard the dancing girl laugh and tried to snatch
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: at her orange garments, but she swept by him and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: was lost in the surge. Rome quivered under the onslaught
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of the thunder, and the lightning alone lit the murky
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: hot gloom. The reign of the Antichrist has begun, shrieked Tyrie,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and laughed insanely. End of section twenty six. Recording by
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Molly Craig,