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"Amadeo," he said "We are the Children of Darkness," he explained patiently "We vae of man, as is pestilence We are part of the trials and tribulations of this world; we drink blood, and we kill for the glory of God ould test his human creatures "

"Don't speak horrors " I put ed

"Oh, but you know it's true," he insisted without raising his voice "You know it as you see me in my robes and you look aboutLord as were the monks of old before they learned to paint their walls with erotic paintings "

"You talk madness, and I don't knohy you do it " I would not remember the Monastery of the Caves!

"I do it because I have foundHigher Would you be damned and alone, and selfish and without purpose? Would you turn your back on a design so otten! Did you think you could live forever without the splendor of that great sche to deny the handiwork of God in every beautiful thing which you coveted and made your own?"

I fe

ll silent Don't think on the old Russian saints Wisely, he did not press On the contrary, very softly, without the devilish lilt, he began to sing the Latin hymn

Dies irae, dies ilia Solvet saeclum infavilla Teste David cum Sibylla Quantus tremor estfuturus

That day of wrath, that day will turn the earth to ashes As both David and Sybelle have foretold How great a tremor there will be

"And on that Day, that Final Day, we shall have duties for Hiels shall take the Evil souls down into the inferno as is His Divine Will "

I looked up at hiain "And then the final plea of this hymn, that He have mercy on us, was His Passion not for us?"

I sang it softly in Latin:

Recordare, Jesu pie,

Quod sum causa tuae viae

Remember, merciful Jesus,