Lysbeth, a Tale of the DutchHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Netherlands -- History -- House of Habsburg, 1477-1556 -- Fiction
“In the family vault of the noble Count van Valkenburg, whom your
reverence buried three days ago. Fortunately the masons have not yet
come to cement down the stone. If your Excellencies find it close, you
can get air by standing upon the coffin of the noble Count.”
Adrian did find it close, and took the hint, to discover that in a line
with his head was some filigree stonework, pierced with small
apertures, the front doubtless of the marble tomb in the church above,
for through them he could see the pale moon rays wavering on the
pavement of the choir. As he looked the priest at his side muttered:
“Hark! The doors are down. Aid us, St. Pancras!” and falling upon his
knees he began to pray very earnestly.
Yielding at last to the blows of the battering-beam, the great portals
had flown open with a crash, and now through them poured the mob. On
they came with a rush and a roar, like that of the sea breaking through
a dyke, carrying in their hands torches, lanterns hung on poles, axes,
swords and staves, till at length they reached the screen of wonderful
carved oak, on the top of which, rising to a height of sixty feet above
the floor of the church, stood the great Rood, with the images of the
Virgin and St. John on either side. Here, of a sudden, the vastness and
the silence of the holy place which they had known, every one, from
childhood, with its echoing aisles, the moonlit, pictured windows, its
consecrated lamps twinkling here and there like fisher lights upon the
darkling waters, seemed to take hold of them. As at the sound of the
Voice Divine sweeping down the wild waves at night, the winds ceased
their raving and the seas were still, so now, beneath the silent
reproach of the effigy of the White Christ standing with uplifted hand
above the altar, hanging thorn-crowned upon the Rood, kneeling agonised
within the Garden, seated at the Holy Supper, on His lips the New
Commandment, “As I have loved you, so ye also love one another,” their
passions flickered down and their wrath slept.
“They are not here, let us be going,” said a voice.
“They are here,” answered another voice, a woman’s voice with a note of
vengeance in it. “I tracked them to the doors, the Spanish murderer
Ramiro, the spy Hague Simon, the traitor Adrian, called van Goorl, and
the priests, the priests, the priests who butcher us.”
“Let God deal with them,” said the first voice, which to Adrian sounded
familiar. “We have done enough. Go home in peace.”
Now muttering, “The pastor is right. Obey the Pastor Arentz,” the more
orderly of the multitude turned to depart, when suddenly, from the far
end of the transept, arose a cry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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