It was the last night of the old year, and the stars sat, each upon hisruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. Thenight was dark and troubled, the dread winds were abroad, and fast andfrequent hurried the clouds beneath the thrones of the kings of night.And ever and anon fiery meteors flashed along the depths of heaven,and were again swallowed up in the grave of darkness. But far below hisbrethren, and with a lurid haze around his orb, sat the discontentedstar that had watched over the hunters of the North.
And on the lowest abyss of space there was spread a thick and mightygloom, from which, as from a caldron, rose columns of wreathing smoke;and still, when the great winds rested for an instant on their paths,voices of woe and laughter, mingled with shrieks, were heard boomingfrom the abyss to the upper air.
And now, in the middest night, a vast figure rose slowly from the abyss,and its wings threw blackness over the world. High upward to the throneof the discontented star sailed the fearful shape, and the star trembledon his throne when the form stood before him face to face.
And the shape said, "Hail, brother! all hail!"
"I know thee not," answered the star; "thou art not the archangel thatvisitest the kings of night."
And the shape laughed loud. "I am the fallen star of the morning! I amLucifer, thy brother! Hast thou not, O sullen king, served me and mine;and hast thou not wrested the earth from thy Lord who sittest above, andgiven it to me, by darkening the souls of men with the religion of fear?Wherefore come, brother, come; thou hast a throne prepared beside my ownin the fiery gloom. Come! The heavens are no more for thee!"
Then the star rose from his throne, and descended to the side ofLucifer; for ever hath the spirit of discontent had sympathy with thesoul of pride. And they sank slowly down to the gulf of gloom.
It was the first night of the new year, and the stars sat each on hisruby throne, and watched with sleepless eyes upon the world. But sorrowdimmed the bright faces of the kings of night, for they mourned insilence and in fear for a fallen brother.
And the gates of the heaven of heavens flew open with a golden sound,and the swift archangel fled down on his silent wings; and the archangelgave to each of the stars, as before, the message of his Lord, and toeach star was his appointed charge. And when the heraldry seemed donethere came a laugh from the abyss of gloom, and half-way from the gulfrose the lurid shape of Lucifer the fiend!
"Thou countest thy flock ill, O radiant shepherd! Behold! one star ismissing from the three thousand and ten!"
"Back to thy gulf, false Lucifer!--the throne of thy brother hath beenfilled."
And, lo! as the archangel spake, the stars beheld a young andall-lustrous stranger on the throne of the erring star; and his facewas so soft to look upon that the dimmest of human eyes might have gazedupon its splendour unabashed: but the dark fiend alone was dazzledby its lustre, and, with a yell that shook the flaming pillars of theuniverse, he plunged backward into the gloom.
Then, far and sweet from the arch unseen, came forth the voice of God,--
"Behold! on the throne of the discontented star sits the star of Hope;and he that breathed into mankind the religion of Fear hath a successorin him who shall teach earth the religion of Love!"
And evermore the star of Fear dwells with Lucifer, and the star of Lovekeeps vigil in heaven!
The Pilgrims of the Rhine Page 48
