On one side of the bed stood the Dark Master, on the other stood the
White Master, and between, prone with anguish, lay the body which
contained the soul for which the opposing forces of good and evil
struggled. Alice clung to her father and Montrose knelt prayerfully by
the bed. The room was charged with battling powers, but in that dread
moment of choice the influence of both stood aloof from the soul, which
had to make its choice by what knowledge it had garnered painfully
through many incarnations. Enistor felt suddenly feeble, felt that he
was in a dense gloom, pricked here and there with wan lights, which
represented all the good he had gained: and great indeed was the
blackness of evil. Of himself he could do nothing, yet he knew
intuitively that behind the gloom was a glorious and radiant Power of
Love, which would dispel the evil when called upon. Narvaez offered him
the kingdoms of the world, which rise and fall and pass away as a
burning scroll: Eberstein offered him the glories of eternal good, which
endure for ever and ever. He had in many lives tested the lower: now was
the time to reach out to the higher. Yet so strong was the temptation of
the flesh that the man paused, hesitated, faltered and held his peace.
Alice sensed the conflict, and strove to surrender her gain of good to
him who had treated her so cruelly.
"If it is permitted, let what I can give go to help my father," she
cried, and then the miracle happened.
Enistor felt an inrush of light, not very strong yet wholly pure, and it
was sufficient to turn the scale in spite of the strong insistence of
the evil darkness. Yet not in such strength could he conquer. Something
greater was needed, but the aid of Alice gave him power to call upon the
greater might. "Hear us, oh! Christ: graciously hear us, oh! Lord
Christ," he cried, in the suddenly remembered words of the Litany, and
in broken tones.
Narvaez retreated suddenly with a snarl of baffled rage, driven back by
a glorious power, which flooded the being of his escaping victim with
ineffable light. As by magic the darkness vanished, and the radiant
tenderness of Perfect Love descended upon the weary soul. Enistor's face
grew young and bright. With an expression of joyful awe, he stretched
out imploring hands of surrender and remorse. What he beheld Eberstein
saw, as his head was reverently bent, and Narvaez saw also, for he fell
back slowly towards the door; driven into his self-created darkness by
the overwhelming glory of the Cross. Alice, clinging to Montrose,
murmured incoherently: "Do you see Him: do you see Him? There. With His
hand on my father's head."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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