“You do not believe anything you hear or read, Sergius Thord!” he said— “Will you twist your whole life into a crooked attitude of suspicion against all mankind?” He who was named Sergius Thord, lifted himself slowly from the shoulders upwards, the action making his great height and broad chest even more apparent than before. A gleam of white teeth shone under his black moustache.
“I do not twist my life into a crooked attitude, Johan Zegota,” he replied. “If it is crooked, others have twisted it for me! Why should I believe what I hear, since it is the fashion to lie? Why should I accept what I read, since it is the business of the press to deceive the public? And why do you ask me foolish questions? You should be better instructed, seeing that your creed is the same as mine!”
“Have I ever denied it?” exclaimed Zegota warmly— “But I have said, and I say again that I believe the news is true, — and that these howling hypocrites,—” this with an angry gesture of his hand towards the open square where the chanting priests who headed the procession were coming into view— “have truly received an unlooked-for check from the King!”
Sergius Thord laid one hand heavily on his shoulder.
“When the King — when any king — does anything useful in the world, then you may hang me with your own hands, Zegota! When did you ever hear, except in myths of the past, of a monarch who cared for his people more than his crown? Tell me that! Tell me of any king who so truly loved the people he was called upon to govern, that he sacrificed his own money, as well as his own time, to remedy their wrongs? — to save them from unjust government, to defend them from cruel taxation? — to see that their bread was not taken from their mouths by foreign competition? — and to make it possible for them to live in the country of their birth in peace and prosperity? Bah! There never was such a king! And that this man, — who has for three years left us to the mercy of the most accursed cheat and scoundrel minister that ever was in power, — has now declared his opposition to the Jesuits’, is more than I will or can believe.”
“If it were true?” — suggested Zegota, with a more than usually vicious tug at his beard.
“If it were true, it would not alter my opinion, or set aside my intention,” replied Thord,— “I would admit that the King had done one good deed before going to hell! Look! Here come the future traitresses of men — girls trained by priests to deceive their nearest and dearest! Poor children! They know nothing as yet of the uses to which their lives are destined! If they could but die now, in their innocent faith and stupidity, how much better for all the world!”
As he spoke, the wind, swooping into the square, and accompanied by a pattering gust of rain, fell like a fury upon the leaders of the religious procession and tore one of the great banners out of the hands of the priest who held it, beating it against his head and face with so much force that he fell backward to the ground under its weight, while from a black cloud above, a flash of lightning gleamed, followed almost instantaneously by a loud clap of thunder, which shook the square with a mighty reverberation like that of a bursting bomb. The children screamed, — and ran towards the Cathedral pellmell; and for a few moments there ensued indescribable confusion, the priests, the people, and the white-veiled girls getting mixed together in a wild hurly-burly. Sergius Thord suddenly left his companion’s side, and springing on a small handcart that stood empty near the centre of the square, his tall figure rose up all at once like a dark apparition above the heads of the assembled crowd, and his voice, strong, clear, and vibrating with passion, rang out like a deep alarm bell, through all the noise of the storm.
“Whither are you going, O foolish people? To pray to God? Pray to Him here, then, under the flash of His lightning! — in the roll of His thunder! — beneath His cathedral-canopy of clouds! Pray to Him with all your hearts, your brains, your reason, your intelligence, and leave mere lip-service and mockery to priests; and to these poor children, who, as yet, know no better than to obey tyrants! Would you find out God? He is here — with me, — with you! — in the earth, in the sky, in the sun and storm! Whenever Truth declares a living fact, God speaks, — whenever we respond to that Truth, God hears! No church, no cathedral contains His presence more than we shall find it here — with us — where we stand!”
The people heard, and a great silence fell upon them. All faces were turned toward the speaker, and none appeared to heed the great drops of fast-falling rain. One of the priests who was trying to marshal the scattered children into their former order, so that they might enter the Cathedral in the manner arranged for the religious service, looked up to see the cause of the sudden stillness, and muttered a curse under his breath. But even while the oath escaped his lips, he gave the signal for the sacred chanting to be resumed, and in another moment the ‘Litany of the Virgin’ was started in stentorian tones by the leaders of the procession. Intimidated by the looks, as well as by the commands of the priests, the girls and children joined in the chanting with tremulous voices, as they began to file through the Cathedral doors and enter the great nave. But a magnetic spell, stronger than any invocation of the Church, had fallen upon the crowd, and they all stood as though caught in the invisible web of some enchanter, their faces turned upwards to where Thord’s tall figure towered above them. His eyes glittered as he noted the sudden hush of attention which prevailed, and lifting his rough cap from his head, he waved it towards the open door of the Cathedral, through which the grand strains of the organ rolling out from within gave forth solemn invitation: —
“Sancta Dei Genitrix, Ora pro nobis!”
sang the children, as they passed in line under the ancient porch, carved with the figures of forgotten saints and bishops, whose stone countenances had stared at similar scenes through the course of long centuries.
“Sancta Dei Genitrix, ora pro nobis!” echoed Sergius Thord— “Do you hear it, O men? Do you hear it, O women? What does it teach you? ‘Holy Mother of God!’ Who was she? Was she not merely a woman to whom God descended? And what is the lesson she gives you? Plainly this — that men should be as gods, and women as the mothers of gods! For every true and brave man born into the world has God within him, — is made of God, and must return to God! And every woman who gives birth to one such, true, brave man, has given a God-incarnated being to the world! ‘Sancta Dei Genitrix!’ Be all as mothers of gods, O women! Be as gods, O men! Be as gods in courage, in truth, in wisdom, in freedom! Suffer not devils to have command of you! For devils there are, as there are gods; — evil there is, as there is good. Fiends are born of women as gods are — and yet evil itself is of God, inasmuch as without God there can be neither evil nor good. Let us help God, we His children, to conquer evil by conquering it in ourselves — and by refusing to give it power over us! So shall God show us all goodness, — all pity! So shall He cease to afflict His children; so will He cease to torture us with undeserved sorrows and devilish agonies, for which we are not to blame!”
He paused. The singing had ceased; the children’s procession had entered the Cathedral, and the doors still stood wide open. But the people remained outside, crowded in the square, and gathering momentarily in greater numbers.
“Look you!” cried Sergius Thord— “The building which is called the Sanctuary of God, stands open — why do you not all enter there? Within are precious marbles, priceless pictures, jewels and relics — and a great altar raised up by the gifts of wicked dead kings, who by money sought to atone for their sins to the people. There are priests who fast and pray in public, and gratify all the lusts of appetite in private. There are poor and ignorant women who believe whatsoever these priests tell them — all this you can see if you go inside yonder. Why do you not go? Why do you remain with me?”
A faint murmur, like the rising ripple of an angry sea, rose from the crowd, but quickly died away again into silence.
“Shall I tell you why you stay?” went on Thord,— “Because you know I am your friend — and because you also know that the priests are your enemies! Because you kn
ow that I tell you the truth, and that the priests tell you lies! Because you feel that all the promises made to you of happiness in Heaven cannot explain away to your satisfaction the causes of your bitter suffering and poverty on earth! Because you are gradually learning that the chief business of priestcraft is to deceive the people and keep them down, — down, always down in a state of wretched ignorance. Learn, learn all you can, my brothers — take the only good thing modern government gives you — Education! Education is thrown at us like a bone thrown to a dog, half picked by others and barely nourishing — but take it, take it, friends, for in it you shall find the marrow of vengeance on your tyrants and oppressors! The education of the masses means the downfall of false creeds, — the ruin of all false priests! For it is only through the ignorance of the many that tyrannical dominion is given into the hands of the few! Slavish submission to a corrupt government would be impossible if we all refused to be slaves. O friends, O brothers, throw off your chains! Break down your prison doors! Some good you have done already — be brave and strong to do more! Press forward fearlessly and strive for liberty and justice! To-day we are told that the King has refused crown-lands to the Jesuits. Shall we be told to-morrow that the King has dismissed Carl Pérousse from office?”
A long wild shout told how this suggestion had gone straight home to the throng.
“Shall we be told this, I ask? No! Ten thousand times no! The refusal of the King to grant the priests any wider dominion over us is merely an act of policy inspired by terror. The King is afraid! He fears the people will revolt against the Church, and so takes part with them lest there should be trouble in the land, but he never seems to think there may be another kind of revolt against himself! His refusal to concede more place for the accursed practice of Jesuitry is so far good; but his dismissal of Pérousse would be still better!”
A perfect hurricane of applause from the people gave emphatic testimony to the truth of these words.
“What is this man, Carl Pérousse?” he went on— “A man of the people — whose oaths were sworn to the people, — whom the people themselves brought into power because he promised to remain faithful to them! He is false, — a traitor and political coward! A mere manufacturer of kitchen goods, who through our folly was returned to this country’s senate; — and through our still further credulity is now set in almost complete dominion over us. Well! We have suffered and are suffering for our misplaced belief in him; — the question is, how long shall we continue to suffer? How long are we to be governed by the schemes of Carl Pérousse, the country’s turncoat, — the trafficker in secret with Jew speculators? It is for you to decide! It is for you to work out your own salvation! It is for you to throw off tyranny, and show yourselves free men of reason and capacity! Just as the priests chant long prayers to cover their own iniquity, so do the men of government make long speeches to disguise their own corruption. You know you cannot believe their promises. Neither can you believe the press, for if this is not actually bought by Pérousse, it is bribed. And you cannot trust the King; for he is as a house divided against itself which must fall! Slave of his own passions, and duped by women, what is he but a burden to the State? Justice and power should be on the side of kings, — but the days are come when self-interest and money can even buy a throne! O men, O women, rouse up your hearts and minds to work for yourselves, to redress wrongs, — to save your country! Rouse up in your thousands, and with your toil-worn hands pull down the pillars of iniquity and vice that overshadow and darken the land! Fight against the insolent pride of wealth which strives to crush the poor; rouse, rouse your hearts! — open your eyes and see the evils which are gathering thick upon us! — and like the lightnings pent up in yonder clouds, leap forth in flame and thunder, and clear the air!”
A burst of frantic acclamation from the crowd followed this wild harangue, and while the loud roar of voices yet echoed aloft, a band of armed police came into view, marching steadily up from the lower streets of the city. Sergius Thord smiled as he saw them approach.
“Yonder comes the Law!” he said— “A few poor constables, badly paid, who if they could find anything better to do than to interfere with their fellow-men would be glad of other occupation! Before they come any nearer, disperse yourselves, my friends, and so save them trouble! Go all to your homes and think on my words; — or enter the Cathedral and pray, those who will — but let this place be as empty of you in five minutes as though you never had been here! Disperse, — and farewell! We shall meet again!”
He leaped down from his position and disappeared, and in obedience to his command the crowd began to melt away with almost miraculous speed. Before the police could reach the centre of the square, there were only some thirty or forty people left, and these were quietly entering the Cathedral where the service for the saint whose feast day was being celebrated was now in full and solemn progress.
For one instant, on the first step of the great porch, Sergius Thord and his companion, Johan Zegota, met, — but making a rapid sign to each other with the left hand, they as quickly separated, — Zegota to enter the Cathedral, Thord to walk rapidly down one of the narrowest and most unfrequented streets to the lower precincts of the city.
The afternoon grew darker, and the weather more depressing, and by the time evening closed in, the rain was pouring persistently. The wind had ceased, and the thunder had long since died away, its force drenched out by the weight of water in the clouds. The saint’s day had ended badly for all concerned; — many of the children who had taken part in the procession had been carried home by their parents wet through, all the pretty white frocks and veils of the little girls having been completely soaked and spoilt by the unkind elements. A drearier night had seldom gloomed over this fair city of the southern sea, and down in the quarters of the poor, where men and women dwelt all huddled miserably in overcrowded tenements, and sin and starvation kept hideous company together, the streets presented as dark and forbidding an aspect as the heavy skies blackly brooding above. Here and there a gas-lamp flared its light upon the drawn little face of some child crouching asleep in a doorway, or on the pinched and painted features of some wretched outcast wending her way to the den she called ‘home.’ The loud brutal laughter of drunken men was mingled with the wailing of half-starved and fretful infants, and the mean, squalid houses swarmed with the living spawn of every vice and lust in the calendar of crime. Deep in the heart of the so-called civilized, beautiful and luxurious city, this ‘quarter of the poor,’ the cancer of the social body, throbbed and ate its destructive way slowly but surely on, and Sergius Thord, who longed to lay a sharp knife against it and cut it out, for the health of the whole community, was as powerless as Dante in hell to cure the evils he witnessed. Yet it was not too much to say that he would have given his life to ease another’s pain, — as swiftly and as readily as he would have taken life without mercy, in the pursuit of what he imagined to be a just vengeance.
“How vain, after all, is my labour!” he thought— “How helpless I am to move the self-centred powers of the Government and the Throne! Even were all these wretched multitudes to rise with me, and make havoc of the whole city, should we move so much as one step higher out of the Gehenna of poverty and crime? Almost I doubt it!”
He walked on past dark open doorways, where some of the miserable inhabitants of the dens within, stood to inhale the fresh wet air of the rainy night. His tall form was familiar to most of them, — if they were considered as wolves of humanity in the sight of the law, they were all faithful dogs to him; doing as he bade, running where he commanded, ready at any moment to assemble at any given point and burn and pillage, or rob and slay. There were no leaders in the political government, — but this one leader of the massed poor could, had he chosen, have burned down the city. But he did not choose. He had a far-sighted, clear brain, — and though he had sworn to destroy abuses wherever he could find them, he moved always with caution; and his plans were guided, not by impulse alone, but by earnest consid
eration for the future. He was marked out by the police as a dangerous Socialist; and his movements were constantly tracked and dodged, but so far, he had done nothing which could empower his arrest. He was a free subject in a free country; and provided he created no open disturbance he had as much liberty as a mission preacher to speak in the streets to those who would stop to listen. He paused now in his walk at the door of one house more than commonly dingy and tumble-down in appearance, where a man lounged outside in his shirt-sleeves, smoking.
“Is all well with you, Matsin?” he asked gently.
“All is well!” answered the man called Matsin,— “better than last night. The child is dead.”
“Dead!” echoed Thord,— “And the mother — —”
Delphi Collected Works of Marie Corelli (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Eight Book 22) Page 530
