Page 12 (1/2)

5

The stone h, as I’d seen before, and it had a hook on the inside of it by which I could pull it closed behind e I had to lie on my belly And when I dropped down on ht at the end I didn’t like the look of it

I knew that if I’d beencould have induced e like this

But the old va et to the coffin And I felt the fear coround, and crawled as a lizard e As I feared, I could not really raise my head And there was no room to turn and reach for the hook in the stone I had to slip my foot into the hook and crawl forward to pull the stone behind me

Total darkness With rooasped, and the fear welled and I al about the fact that I couldn’t raise ainst the stone and lay still, whi

But as I to do? I, I commenced to crawl, faster and faster My knees scraped the stone My hands sought crevices and cracks to pull led not to try to lift ain in panic

And when my hand suddenly felt solid stone ahead, I pushed upon it with all ht seeped in

I scra in a s was low, curved, and the high as narroith the faht of the night poured in revealing a great fireplace cut in the far wall, the wood ready for the torch, and beside it, beneath the , an ancient stone sarcophagus

My red velvet fur-lined cape lay over the sarcophagus And on a rude bench I gliold, and much Italian lace, as well as red silk breeches and white silk hose and red-heeled slippers

I smoothed back my hair from my face and wiped the thin film of sweat from my upper lip and my forehead It was bloody, this sweat, and when I saw this on my hands, I felt a curious exciteht, and what lies beforeers A lovely zinging pleasure passed through me It was a moment before I could collect myself sufficiently to approach the fireplace

I lifted two sticks of kindling as the old va them very hard and fast, saw them almost disappear as the flaic in this, only skill And as the fire warmed me, I took off my soiled clothes, and with my shirt wiped every last trace of hu on the new gar red Not even Nicolas had had such clothes as these They were clothes for the Court at Versailles, with pearls and tiny rubies worked into their embroidery The lace of the shirt was Valenciennes, which I had seen on own

I put the wolf cape over one from my limbs, I felt like a creature carved froely slow as I allowed arments

In the blaze of the fire, I looked at the coffin The effigy of an old man was carved upon its heavy lid, and I realized inus

But here he lay in tranquility, his jester’s , his hair a neat lets

Three centuries old was this thing surely He lay with his hands folded on his chest, his gar robes, and from his sword that had been carved into the stone, someone had broken out the hilt and part of the scabbard

I stared at this for an inter that it had been carefully chipped aith much effort

Was it the shape of the cross that soer Nothing happened of course, any more than when I’din the dust beside the coffin, I drew a cross there

Again, nothing

Then to the cross I added a few strokes to suggest the body of Christ, his arms, the crook of his knees, his bowed head I wrote "The Lord Jesus Christ," the only words I could write well, save for lancing back uneasily at the words and the little crucifix, I tried to lift the lid of the coffin

Even with this new strength, it was not easy And no mortal man alone could have done it

But what perplexed me was the extent of th And certainly I didn’t have the strength of the old vath of three th of four; it was impossible to calculate

It seemed pretty damned impressive to me at thebut a narrow place, full of shadohere I couldn’t i There were Latin words inscribed around the rim, and I couldn’t read them

This toring for Magnus, my helplessness, threatened to close in onme! And it struck me with full ironic force that I’d felt love for him before he’d leapt into the fire I’d felt love for hiarments

Do devils love each other? Do they walk ar, "Ah, you are s like that to each other? It was a rather detached intellectual question I was asking, as I did not believe in hell But it was a matter of a concept of evil, wasn’t it? All creatures in hell are supposed to hate one another, as all the saved hate the damned, without reservation