“Pilgrims from many lands have been here, and tell of prodigies, visions, and wonders. In the south of France there are pestilence and famine, and human flesh has been sold in the butchers’ shops; in Germany a fiery iron rod has been seen in the sky, and here in Italy these endless pilgrimages have recommenced. In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been plundered, and the temple of the False Prophet erected. The whole of Christendom is trembling, for in the immoral Popes of the last century they have seen the Antichrist. Christ’s ambassador is murdered; yes, my friend Adalbert was the last up there in Poland: the heathen have reconquered all Christ’s conquests in Asia and Africa. The followers of the False Prophet are in Spain, Sicily, and Naples, and threaten Rome. This can mean nothing less than the Last Judgment and destruction of the world, as announced in the Apocalypse.” “So it is the old story again?” “Story! Get thee hence Satan, for thou savourest not the things which be of God, but those which be of men.” “Do you call me Satan?” “Yes, when you deny the Word. Is it not written in John’s Apocalypse, ‘And when the thousand years are accomplished, Satan will be let loose from his prison. And he shall go to deceive the nations which are in the four ends of the earth, Gog and Magog’? There you have the northern peoples who are now in England, Normandy, and Sicily. Is not Theodora the great Babylonian Harlot? Is not the deceiver Muhammed the Wild Beast?” “Wait, my son! I might quote a verse from the same chapter: ‘He who hath part in the first resurrection shall reign with Christ a thousand years.’ So that the Millennium is _beginning_ now, and cannot end forthwith.” “The old one ends, and the new begins.” “Just so! The old dark age is past, and we await Christ’s second coming on earth. If you retained the hope, you would see the new era dawn.” “I do not believe a word of what you say. The last year of the thousand years is here, and now I go out in the desert to await, with fasting, prayer, and penance, the day of the Lord, and the coming of my Redeemer. I will pray for you, my father, but here our ways part, and you will see me no more.” The Emperor departed, and Silvester remained alone. “I wait!” he said to himself, “but meanwhile I look after our worldly affairs.” And he unfolded a map of the then known world. With a piece of red chalk he drew crosses and crowns, for the most part in the North. But above Jerusalem he drew a flag with a lance. * * * * *