Black Magic - Marjorie Bowen (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗
- Author: Marjorie Bowen
- Performer: -
Book online «Black Magic - Marjorie Bowen (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗». Author Marjorie Bowen
Title: Black Magic
Author: Marjorie Bowen
A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook
eBook No.: 0605181.txt
Language: English
Date first posted: August 2006
Date most recently updated: August 2006
This eBook was produced by: Richard Scott
Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions
which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice
is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular
paper edition.
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this
file.
This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at
http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html
To contact Project Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.net.au
Black Magic
A Tale of the Rise and Fall of the Antichrist
THE NUN
In the large room of a house in a certain quiet city in Flanders, a
man was gilding a devil.
The chamber looked on to the quadrangle round which the house was
built; and the sun, just overhead, blazed on the vine leaves clinging
to the brick and sent a reflected glow into the sombre spaces of the
room.
The devil, rudely cut out of wood, rested by his three tails and his
curled-back horns against the wall, and the man sat before him on a
low stool.
On the table in front of the open window stood a row of knights in
fantastic armour, roughly modelled in clay; beside them was a pile of
vellum sheets covered with drawings in brown and green.
By the door a figure of St. Michael leant against a chair, and round
his feet were painted glasses of every colour and form.
On the whitewashed wall hung a winged picture representing a
martyrdom; its vivid hues were the most brilliant thing in the room.
The man was dressed in brown; he had a long dark face and straight
dull hair; from the roll of gold leaf on his knee he carefully and
slowly gilded the devil.
The place was utterly silent, the perfect stillness enhanced by the
dazzle of the blinding sun without; presently the man rose and,
crossing to the window, looked out.
He could see the sparse plants bordering the neglected grass-grown
paths, the house opposite with its double row of empty windows and the
yellowing vine-leaves climbing up the tiled roof that cut the polished
blue of the August sky.
In between these windows, that were all closed and glittering in their
golden squares, busts of old and weary philosophers were set; they
peered out blindly into the unfathomable sunshine, and the dry
tendrils of the vine curled across their leanness.
In the centre square of grass was an ancient and broken fountain; some
tall white daisies grew there, and the pure gold of their hearts was
as bright as the gilding on the devil within. The silence and the
blaze of the sun were one and indescribable.
The man at the window rested his elbows on the sill; it was so hot
that he felt it burning through his sleeve; he had the air of one
habitually alone, the unquestioning calm that comes of long silences;
he was young and, in a quiet fashion, well-looking, wide in the brows
and long in the jaw, with a smooth pale skin and cloudy dark eyes, his
hair hung very straightly, his throat was full and beautiful.
In expression he was reserved and sombre; his lips, well shaped but
pale, were resolutely set, and there was a fine curve of strength to
his prominent chin.
After a time of expressionless gazing at the sun-filled garden, he
turned back into the room, and stood in the centre of the floor, with
his teeth set in his forefinger looking ponderingly at the half-gilded
devil.
Then he took a bunch of beautifully wrought keys from his belt, and
swinging them softly in his hand left the chamber.
The house was built without corridors or passages, each room opened
into another and the upper ones were reached by short dark stairways
against the walls; there were many apartments, each of a lordly design
with the windows in the side facing the quadrangle.
As the man moved lightly from one chamber to the next his footfall
displaced dust and his gaze fell on cobwebs and the new nets of
spiders, that hung in some places across the very doorways.
Many curious and gorgeous objects were in those deserted rooms; carved
presses full of tarnished silver, paintings of holy subjects,
furniture covered with rich-hued tapestry, other pieces of arras on
the walls, and in one chamber purple silk hangings worked with ladies’
hair in shades of brown and gold.
One room was full of books, piled up on the floor, and in the midst of
them stood a table bearing strange goblets of shells set in silver and
electrum.
Passing these things without a glance the young man mounted to the
upper storey and unlocked a door whose rusty lock took his utmost
strength to turn. It was a store-room he entered—lit by low long
windows looking on the street and carefully shrouded by linen drawn
across them; the chamber was chokingly full of dust and a sickly musty
smell.
About the floor lay bales of stuff, scarlet, blue and green, painted
tiles, old lanterns, clothes, priests’ garments, wonderfully worked,
glasses and little rusty iron coffers.
Before one of these the young man went on his knees and unlocked it.
It contained a number of bits of glass cut to represent gems; he
selected two of an equal size and a clear green colour, then, with the
same gravity and silence with which he had come, he returned to the
workshop. When he saw the devil, half bright gold, half bald wood, he
frowned, then set the green glass in the thing’s hollow eye-sockets.
At the twinkling effect of light and life produced by this his frown
relaxed; he stood for a while contemplating his handiwork, then washed
his brushes and put away his paints and gold leaf.
By now the sun had changed and was shining full into the room casting
hot shadows of the vine leaves over the little clay knights, and
dazzling in St. Michael’s wet red robe.
For the second time the young man left the room, now to go into the
hall and open the door that gave upon the street.
He looked on to an empty marketplace surrounded by small houses
falling into decay, beyond them the double towers of the Cathedral
flying upwards across the gold and blue.
Not long ago the town had been besieged and this part of it
devastated; now new quarters had been built and this left neglected.
Grass grew between the cobbles, and there was no soul in sight.
The young man shaded his eyes and gazed across the dazzling
dreariness; the shadow of his slack, slim figure was cast into the
square of sun thrown across the hall through the open door.
Under the iron bell that hung against the lintel stood a basket of
bread, a can of milk and some meat wrapped in a linen cloth; the youth
took these in and closed the door.
He traversed a large dining-room, finely furnished, a small ante-chamber, came out into the arcaded end of the courtyard, entered the
house by a low door next the pump and so into his workshop again.
There he proceeded to prepare his food; on the wide tiled hearth stood
a tripod and an iron pot; he lit a fire under this, filled the pot
with water and put the meat in; then he took a great book down off a
shelf and bent over it, huddled up on a stool in the corner where the
shade still lingered.
It was a book filled with drawings of strange and horrible things, and
close writing embellished with blood-red capitals. As the young man
read, his face grew hot and flushed where it rested on his hand, and
the heavy volume fell cumbrous either side his knee; not Once did he
look up or change his twisted position, but with parted lips and
absorbed eyes pored over the black lettering.
The sun sank the other side of the house, so that the garden and room
were alike in shadow, and the air became cooler; still the young man
made no movement.
The flames leapt on the hearth and the meat seethed in the pot
unheeded.
Outside the vine leaves curled against the brick, and the stone faces
looked down at the broken fountain, the struggling grass and the tall
white daisies; still the young man, bending lower, his heated cheek
pressed into his palm, his hair touching the page, bent over the great
tome on his knee.
Not the devil with his green eyes staring before him, not St. Michael
in his red robe by the door, not the martyr in the bright winged
picture were more still than he, crouched upon his wooden stool.
Then, without prelude or warning, the heavy clang of a bell woke the
silence into trembling echoes.
The young man dropped the book and sprang to his feet; red and white
chased across his face, he stood panting, bewildered, with one hand on
his heart, and dazed eyes.
Again the bell sounded.
It could only be that which hung at the front door; not for years had
one rung it; he picked up the book, put it back on the shelf, and
stood irresolute.
For a third time the iron clang, insistent, impatient, rang through
the quiet.
The young man frowned, pushed back the hair from his hot forehead and
went, with a light and cautious step, across the courtyard, through
the dark dining-chamber into the hall.
Here for a second he hesitated, then drew back the bolt and opened the
door.
Two men stood without.
One was most gorgeously attired, the other wore a dark cloak and
carried his hat in his hand. “You cannot want me,” said the youth,
surveying them. “And there is no one else here.” His voice fell full
and low, of a soft quality, but the tone was sombre and cold.
The splendidly-dressed stranger answered—“If you are Master Dirk
Renswoude, we are most desirous to see and speak with you.”
The young man opened the door a little wider. “I am Dirk Renswoude,
but I know neither of you!”
“I did not think so,” the other answered. “Still, we have a matter to
ask you of. I am Balthasar of Courtrai and this is my friend, whom you
may call Theirry, born of Dendermonde.” “Balthasar of Courtrai!”
repeated the youth softly; he stood aside and motioned them to enter.
When they had passed into the hall he carefully bolted the door; then
turned to them with a grave absorbed manner.
“Will you follow me?” he said, and went before them to his workroom.
The sun had left chamber
Comments (0)