I spent a wearying and troubled night, for in my dreams I was a memberⒶalteration in the MS of that ruined family and suffering with it through a dragging long stretch of years; and the infamous priest whose life had been saved at cost of these pains and sorrowsⒶalteration in the MS seemed always present and drunk and mocking. At last I woke. In the dimmest of cold gray dawns I made out a figure sitting by my bed—an old and white-headed man in the coarse dress of a peasant.

“Ah,” I said, “who are you, good man?”

[begin page 324]

It was 44. He said, in a wheezy old voice, that he was merely showing himself to me so that I would recognize him when I saw him later.Ⓐalteration in the MS Then he disappeared, and I did the same, by his order. Soon we were sailing over the village in the frosty air, and presently we came to earth in an open spaceⒶalteration in the MS behind the monastery. It was a solitude, except that a thinly and rustily clad old woman was there, sitting on the frozen ground and fastened to a post by a chain around her waist. She could hardly hold her head up for drowsiness and the chill in her bones. A pitiful spectacle she was, in the vague dawn and the stillness, with the faint winds whispering around her and the powdery snow-whorls frisking and playing and chasing each other over the black ground. Forty-Four made himself visible, and stood by, looking down upon her. She raised her old head wearily, and when she saw that it was a kindly face that was before her she said appealingly—Ⓐalteration in the MS

“Have pity on me—I am so tired and so cold, and the night has been so long, so long! light the fire and put me out of my misery!”Ⓐalteration in the MS

“Ah, poor soul, I am not the executioner, but tell me if I can serve you, and I will.”

She pointed to a pile of fagots, and said,Ⓐalteration in the MS

“They are for me, a few can be spared to warm me, they will not be missed, there will be enough left to burn me with, oh, much more than enough, for this old body is sapless and dry. Be good to me!”

“You shall have your wish,” said 44, and placed a fagot before her and lit it with a touch of his finger.

The flame flashed crackling up, and the woman stretched her lean hands over it, and out of her eyes she looked the gratitude that was too deep for words. It was weirdⒶemendation and patheticⒶalteration in the MS to see her getting comfort and happiness out of that fuel that had been provided to inflict upon her an awful death! Presently she looked up wistfully and said—

“You are good to me, you are veryⒶalteration in the MS good to me, and I have no friends. I am not bad—you must not think I am bad, I am only poor and old, and smitten in my wits these many many years. They think I am a witch; it is the priest, Adolf, that caught me, and it is [begin page 325] he that has condemned me. But I amⒶalteration in the MS not that—no, God forbid! You do not believe I am a witch?—say you do not believe that of me.”

“Indeed I do not.”

“Thank you for that kind word! . . . . . How long it is that I have wandered homeless—oh, many years, many! . . . . Once I had a home—I do not know where it was; and four sweet girls and a son—how dear they were! The name . . . . .Ⓐalteration in the MS the name . . . . . but I have forgotten the name. All dead, now, poor things, these many years.Ⓐalteration in the MS . . . . . If you could have seen my son! ah, so good he was, and a painter . . . . oh, such pictures he painted! . . . . Once he saved a man's life . . . . . or it could have been a woman's . . . . . .a person drowning in the ice—”

She lost her way in a tangle of vague memories, and fell to nodding her head and mumbling and muttering to herself, and I whispered anxiously in the ear of 44—

“You will save her? You will get the word to the priest, and when he knows who she is he will set her free and we will restore her to her family, God be praised!”

“No,” answered 44.

“No? Why?”

“She was appointed from the beginning of timeⒶalteration in the MS to die at the stake this day.”

“How do you know?”

He made no reply. I waited a moment, in growing distress, then said—

“At least I will speak! I will tell her story.Ⓐalteration in the MS I will make myself visible, and I—”

“It is not so written,” he said; “that which is not foreordained will not happen.”

He was bringing a fresh fagot. A burly man suddenlyⒶalteration in the MS appeared, from the monastery, and ran toward himⒶalteration in the MS and struck the fagot from his hand, saying roughly—

“You meddling old fool, mind what you are about! Pick it up and carry it back.”

“And if I don't—what then?”

[begin page 326]

In his fury at being so addressed by so mean and humble a person the man struck a blow at 44's jaw with his formidable fist, but 44 caught the fist in his hand and crushed it; it was sickening to hear the bones crunch. The man staggered away, groaning and cursing, and 44 picked up the fagot and renewed the old woman's fire with it. I whispered—Ⓐalteration in the MS

“Quick—disappear, and let us get away from here; that man will soon—”

“Yes, I know,” said 44, “he is summoning his underlings; they will arrest me.”

“Then come—come along!”

“What good would it do?Ⓐalteration in the MS It is written. What is written must happen. But it is of no consequence, nothing will come of it.”

They came running—half a dozen—and seizⒶemendationed him and dragged him away, cuffing him with fists and beating him withⒶalteration in the MS sticks till he was red with his own blood. I followed, of course, but I was merely a substanceless spirit, and there was nothing that I could do in his defence. They chained him in a dim chamber under the monastery and locked the doors andⒶalteration in the MS departed, promising him further attentions when they should be through with burning the witch. I was troubled beyond measure, but he was not. He said he would use this opportunity to increase the magician's reputation: he would spread the report that the aged hand-crusher was the magician in disguise.

“They will find nothing here but the prisoner's clothes when they come,” he said, “then they will believe.”

He vanishedⒶalteration in the MS out of the clothes, and they slumped down in a pile. He could certainly do some wonderful things, feather-headed and frivolous as he was! ThereⒶalteration in the MS was no way of accounting for 44. We soared out through the thick walls as if they had been made of air, and followed a procession of chanting monks to the place of the burning. People were gathering, and soon they came flocking in crowds, men, women, youthsⒶalteration in the MS, maidens; and there were even children in arms.

There was a half hour of preparation: a rope ring was widelyⒶalteration in the MS drawn around the stake to keep the crowd at a distance; within this a platform was placed for the use of the preacher—Adolf. When all [begin page 327] was ready he came, imposinglyⒶalteration in the MS attended, and was escorted with proper solemnity and ceremony to this pulpit. He began his sermon at once and with business-like energy. He was very bitter upon witches, “familiars of the Fiend, enemies of God, abandoned of the angels, foredoomed to hell;” and in closing he denounced this present one unsparingly, and forbade any to pity her.

It was all lost upon the prisoner; she was warm, she was comfortable, she was worn out with fatigue and sorrow andⒶalteration in the MS privation, her gray head was bowed upon her breast, she was asleep. The executioners moved forward and raised her upon her feet and drew her chains tight, around her breast. She looked drowsily around upon the people while the fagots were being piled, then her head drooped again, and again she slept.

The fire was applied and the executioners stepped aside, their mission accomplished. A hush spread everywhere: there was no movement, there was not a sound, the massed people gazed, with lips apart and hardly breathing, their faces petrified in a common expression, partly of pity, mainly of horror. During more than a minute that strange and impressive absence of motion and movement continued, then it was broken in a way to make any being with a heart in his breast shudder—a man lifted his little child and sat her upon his shoulder, that she might see the better!

The blue smoke curled up about the slumberer and trailed away upon the chilly air; a red glow began to show at the base of the fagotsⒶemendation; this increased in size and intensity and a sharp crackling sound broke upon the stillness; suddenly a sheetⒶalteration in the MS of flame burst upward and swept the face of the sleeper, setting her hair on fire, she uttered an agonizing shriek which was answered by a horrified groan from the crowd, then she cried out “Thou art merciful and good to Thy sinful servant, blessed be Thy holy NameⒶalteration in the MS—sweet Jesus receive my spirit!”

Then the flames swallowed her up and hid her from sight. Adolf stood sternly gazing upon his work. There was now a sudden movement upon the outskirts of the crowd, and a monk came plowing his way through and delivered a message to the priest—Ⓐalteration in the MSevidently a pleasant one to the receiver of it,Ⓐalteration in the MS if signs go for anything. AdolfⒶalteration in the MS cried out—

[begin page 328]

“Remain, everybody! It is reported to me that that arch malignant the magicianⒶalteration in the MS, that son of Satan, is caught, and lies a chained prisoner under the monastery, disguised as an aged peasant. He is already condemned to the flames, no preliminaries are needed, his time is come. Cast the witch's ashes to the winds, clear the stake! Go—you, and you, and you—bring the sorcerer!”

The crowd woke up! this was a show to their taste. Five minutes passed—ten. What might the matter be? Adolf was growing fiercely impatient. Then the messengers returned, crestfallen. They said the magician was gone—gone, through the bolted doors and the massive walls; nothing was left of him but his peasant clothes! And they held them up for all to see.

The crowd stood amazed, wondering, speechless—and disappointed. Adolf began to storm and curse. Forty-Four whispered—

“The opportunity is come. I will personate the magician and make some more reputation for him. Oh, just watch meⒶalteration in the MS raise the limit!Ⓐalteration in the MS”

So the next moment there was a commotion in the midst of the crowd, which fell apart in terror exposing to view the supposedⒶalteration in the MS magicianⒶemendation in his glittering oriental robes; and his face was white with fright, and he was trying to escape. But there was no escape for him, for there was one there whose boast it was that he feared neither Satan nor his servants—this being Adolf the admired. Others fell back cowed, but not he; he plunged after the sorcerer, he chased him, gained upon him, shouted, “Yield—in His NameⒶalteration in the MS I command!”

An awful summons! Under the blasting might of it the spurious magician reeled and fell as if he had been smitten by a bolt from the sky. I grieved for him with all my heart and in the deepest sincerity, and yet I rejoiced for that at last he had learned the power of that Name at which he had so often and so recklessly scoffed. And all too late, too late, forever and ever too late—ah, why had he not listened to me!

There were no cowards there, now! Everybody was brave, everybody was eager to help drag the victim to the stake, they swarmed about him like raging wolves; they jerked him this way and that, they beat him and reviled him, they cuffed him and kicked him, he [begin page 329] wailing, sobbing, beggingⒶalteration in the MS for pity, the conquering priest exulting, scoffing, boasting, laughing. Briskly they bound him to the stake and piled the fagots around himⒶalteration in the MS and applied the fire; and there the forlorn creature stood weeping and sniffling and pleadingⒶalteration in the MS in his fantastic robes, a sorry contrast to that poor humble Christian who but a little while before had faced death there so bravely. Adolf lifted his hand and pronounced with impressive solemnity the words—

“Depart, damned soul, to the regions of eternal woe!”

Whereat the weeping magician laughed sardonicallyⒶalteration in the MS in his face and vanished away, leaving his robes empty and hanging collapsed in the chains! There was a whisper at my ear—

“Come, August, let us to breakfast and leave these animalsⒶalteration in the MS to gape and stare while Adolf explains to them the unexplainable—a job just in his lineⒶalteration in the MS. By the time I have finished with the sorcerer he will have a dandyⒶalteration in the MS reputation—don't you think?”Ⓐalteration in the MS

So all his pretence of being struck down by the Name was a blasphemous jest. And I had taken it so seriously, so confidingly, innocently, exultantly. I was ashamed. Ashamed of him, ashamed of myself. Oh, manifestly nothing was serious to him, levity was the blood and marrow of him, death was a joke; his ghastly fright,Ⓐalteration in the MS his moving tears, his frenzied supplications—by God, it was all just coarse and vulgar horse-play! The only thing he was capable of being interested in, was his damned magician's reputation! I was too disgusted to talk, I answered him nothing, but left him to chatter over his degraded performance unobstructed, and rehearse it and chuckle over it and glorify it up to his taste.