The Gold Sickle; Or, Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen. A Tale of Druid GaulSue, Eugène
History
The Gold Sickle; Or, Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen. A Tale of Druid Gaul
Sue, Eugène
Druids and druidism -- Fiction; Gaul -- History -- To 58 B.C. -- Fiction
"We Gauls have the right knowledge of God. We hold the secret of death.
_Man is immortal both in body and soul._ Our destiny from world to world
is to see and learn, to the end that at each of these journeys, if we
have led wicked and impure lives, we may purify ourselves and become
better--still better if we have been just and good; and that thus, from
new birth to new birth man rises incessantly towards perfection as
endless as his life!"
"Happy, therefore, are the brave who voluntarily leave this world for
other regions where they will ever see new and marvelous sights in the
company of those whom they have loved! Happy, therefore, happy the brave
Julyan! He is about to meet again with his friend, and with him see and
know _what none of us has yet seen or known, and what all of us shall
see and know_! Happy Julyan! Glory, glory to Julyan!"
And all the bards and all the druids, the female druids and the virgins
of the Isle of Sen repeated in chorus to the sound of the harps and the
cymbals:
"Happy, Happy Julyan! Glory to Julyan!"
And all the tribes, feeling the thrill of curiosity of death and certain
that they all would eventually become acquainted with the marvels of the
other worlds, repeated with their thousands of voices:
"Happy Julyan! Happy Julyan!"
Standing erect upon his pyre, his face radiant, and at his feet the body
of Armel, Julyan raised his inspired eyes towards the brilliant moon,
opened his blouse, drew his long knife, held up the nosegay of vervain
to heaven with his left hand, and with his right firmly plunged his
knife into his breast, uttering as he did so in a strong voice:
"Happy--happy am I. I am to join Armel!"
The pyre was immediately lighted. Julyan, raised for a last, time his
nosegay of vervain to heaven, and then vanished in the midst of the
blinding flames, while the chants of the bards and the clang of harp and
cymbals resounded far and wide.
In their impatience to see and know the mysteries of the other world, a
large number of men and women of the tribes rushed towards Julyan's pyre
for the purpose of departing with him and of offering to Hesus an
immense hecatomb with their bodies. But Talyessin, the eldest of the
druids, ordered the ewaghs to restrain and hold these faithful people
back. He cried out to them:
"Enough blood has flown without that which is still to flow. But the
hour has come when the blood of Gaul should flow only for freedom. The
blood that is shed for liberty is also an agreeable offering to the
All-Powerful."
It was not without great effort that the ewaghs prevented the threatened
rush of voluntary human sacrifices. The pyre of Julyan and Armel burned
until the flames had nothing more to feed upon.
Again profound silence fell upon the crowd. Hena, the virgin of the Isle
of Sen, had ascended the third pyre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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