[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
artificially prepared?"
Holy Week would have been less lonely than the earlier weeks of
Lent, had the hermits not been, by then, past caring; for some of the Pas-
siontide liturgy was carried outside the abbey walls to touch the penitents at
their vigil sites; twice the Eucharist came forth, and on Maundy Thursday the
abbot himself made the rounds, with Cheroki and thirteen monks, to perform the
Mandatum at each hermitage. Abbot Arkos' vestments were concealed under a
Page 23
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
cowl, and the lion almost managed to seem humble kitten as he knelt, and
washed and kissed the feet of his fasting subjects with maximum economy of
movement and a minimum of flourish and dis-
play, while the others chanted the antiphons. "Mandatum flovum do vobis:
ut diligatis invicem. . ." On Good Friday a Procession of the Cross brought
out a veiled crucifix, stopping at each hermitage to unveil it gradually
before the penitent, lifting the cloth inch by inch for the Adoration, while
the monks chanted the Reproaches:
"My people, what have I done to thee? or in what have I grieved thee? Answer.
. . I exalted thee with virtuous power; and thou hangest me from the gibbet of
a cross. . . ."
Reports filtered to the abbot.
"Bring him here," he grunted at a recorder, as soon as he heard that Francis
could walk. His tone sent the recorder scurrying.
"Do you deny saying these things?" Arkos growled.
"I don't remember saying them, m'Lord Abbot," said the novice, eying the
abbot's ruler. "I may have been raving."
"Assuming that you were raving--would you say it again now?"
"About the pilgrim being the Beatus? Oh, no, Magister meus!"
"Then assert the contrary."
"I don't think the pilgrim was the Beatus."
"Why not just a straightforward: He was not?"
"Well, never having seen the Blessed Leibowitz personally, I
wouldn't--"
"Enough!" the abbot ordered. "Too much! That's all I want to see of you and
hear of you for a long, long time! Out! But just one thing--DON'T
expect to profess your vows with the others this year. You won't be permit-
ted."
For Francis it was like a blow in the stomach with the end of a log.
6
As topic for conversation, the pilgrim remained forbidden subject matter in
the abbey; but with respect to the relics and the fallout shelter the
prohibition was, of necessity, gradually relaxed--except for their discoverer
who remained under orders not to discuss them, and preferably to think of the
matter as little as possible. Still, he could not avoid hearing things now and
again, and he knew that in one of the abbey's workshops, monks were at work on
the documents, not only his own but some others that had been found in the
ancient desk, before the abbot ordered that the shelter be closed.
Closed! The news jolted Brother Francis. The shelter scarcely had been
touched. Beyond his own adventure, there had been no attempt to
historian was forced to write: Neither the contents of the Memorabilia nor
any archaeological source yet uncovered disclose the name of the ruler who
occupied the White Palace during the middle and late sixties, although
Fr. Barcus has claimed, not without supporting evidence, that his name was--"
And yet, it was clearly recorded in the Memorabilia that Emily had worn a gold
tooth.
It was not surprising that the Lord Abbot commanded that the crypt be sealed
forthwith. Remembering how he had lifted the ancient skull and turned it to
face the wall, Brother Francis suddenly feared the wrath of
Heaven. Emily Leibowitz had vanished from the face of the Earth at the
beginning of the Flame Deluge, and only after many years would her wid-
ower admit that she was dead.
It was said that God, in order to test mankind which had become swelled with
pride as in the time of Noah, had commanded the wise men of that age, among
them the Blessed Leibowitz, to devise great engines of war such as had never
before been upon the Earth, weapons of such might that they contained the very
Page 24
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
fires of Hell, and that God had suffered these magi to place the weapons in
the hands of princes, and to say to each prince: "Only because the enemies
have such a thing have we devised this for thee, in order that they may know
that thou hast it also, and fear to strike. See to it, m'Lord, that thou
fearest them as much as they shall now fear thee, that none may unleash this
dread thing which we have wrought."
But the princes, putting the words of their wise men to naught, thought each
to himself: If I but strike quickly enough, and in secret, I shall destroy
those others in their sleep, and there will be none to fight back; the earth
shall be mine.
Such was the folly of princes, and there followed the Flame Deluge.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]