THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY

 OR, _A REVELATION OF THE SOUL_

 BY GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

 _VOLUME VII. _

 SIMON P. MAGEE PUBLISHER CHICAGO, ILL. 

 COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY M. WALTER DUNNE

 _Entered at Stationers' Hall, London_

 CONTENTS

 THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY

 CHAPTER I. PAGE

 A HOLY SAINT 1

 CHAPTER II. 

 THE TEMPTATION OF LOVE AND POWER 16

 CHAPTER III. 

 THE DISCIPLE, HILARION 40

 CHAPTER IV. 

 THE FIERY TRIAL 48

 CHAPTER V. 

 ALL GODS, ALL RELIGIONS 99

 CHAPTER VI. 

 THE MYSTERY OF SPACE 143

 CHAPTER VII. 

 THE CHIMERA AND THE SPHINX 151

 ILLUSTRATIONS

 TEMPTATION OF SAINT ANTONY

 FACING PAGE

 "DO NOT RESIST, I AM OMNIPOTENT!" (See page 157) _Frontispiece_

 HE LETS GO THE TORCH IN ORDER TO EMBRACE THE HEAP 26

The Temptation _of_ Saint Antony

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I. 

A HOLY SAINT. 

It is in the Thebaïd, on the heights of a mountain, where a platform, shaped like a crescent, is surrounded by huge stones. 

The Hermit's cell occupies the background. It is built of mud and reeds, flat-roofed and doorless. Inside are seen a pitcher and a loaf of blackbread; in the centre, on a wooden support, a large book; on the ground, here and there, bits of rush-work, a mat or two, a basket and a knife. 

Some ten paces or so from the cell a tall cross is planted in theground; and, at the other end of the platform, a gnarled old palm-treeleans over the abyss, for the side of the mountain is scarped; and atthe bottom of the cliff the Nile swells, as it were, into a lake. 

To right and left, the view is bounded by the enclosing rocks; but, onthe side of the desert, immense undulations of a yellowish ash-colourrise, one above and one beyond the other, like the lines of a sea-coast;while, far off, beyond the sands, the mountains of the Libyan range forma wall of chalk-like whiteness faintly shaded with violet haze. Infront, the sun is going down. Towards the north, the sky has apearl-grey tint; while, at the zenith, purple clouds, like the tufts ofa gigantic mane, stretch over the blue vault. These purple streaks growbrowner; the patches of blue assume the paleness of mother-of-pearl. Thebushes, the pebbles, the earth, now wear the hard colour of bronze, andthrough space floats a golden dust so fine that it is scarcelydistinguishable from the vibrations of light. 

Saint Antony, who has a long beard, unshorn locks, and a tunic ofgoatskin, is seated, cross-legged, engaged in making mats. No sooner hasthe sun disappeared than he heaves a deep sigh, and gazing towards thehorizon:

"Another day! Another day gone! I was not so miserable in former timesas I am now! Before the night was over, I used to begin my prayers; thenI would go down to the river to fetch water, and would reascend therough mountain pathway, singing a hymn, with the water-bottle on myshoulder. After that, I used to amuse myself by arranging everything inmy cell. I used to take up my tools, and examine the mats, to seewhether they were evenly cut, and the baskets, to see whether they werelight; for it seemed to me then that even my most trifling acts wereduties which I performed with ease. At regulated hours I left off mywork and prayed, with my two arms extended. I felt as if a fountain ofmercy were flowing from Heaven above into my heart. But now it is driedup. Why is this? . . . "

He proceeds slowly into the rocky enclosure. 

"When I left home, everyone found fault with me. My mother sank into adying state; my sister, from a distance, made signs to me to come back;and the other one wept, Ammonaria, that child whom I used to meet everyevening, beside the cistern, as she was leading away her cattle. She ranafter me. The rings on her feet glittered in the dust, and her tunic, open at the hips, fluttered in the wind. The old ascetic who hurried mefrom the spot addressed her, as we fled, in loud and menacing tones. Then our two camels kept galloping continuously, till at length everyfamiliar object had vanished from my sight. 

"At first, I selected for my abode the tomb of one of the Pharaohs. Butsome enchantment surrounds those subterranean palaces, amid whose gloomthe air is stifled with the decayed odour of aromatics. From the depthsof the sarcophagi I heard a mournful voice arise, that called me byname--or rather, as it seemed to me, all the fearful pictures on thewalls started into hideous life. Then I fled to the borders of the RedSea into a citadel in ruins. There I had for companions the scorpionsthat crawled amongst the stones, and, overhead, the eagles who werecontinually whirling across the azure sky. At night, I was torn bytalons, bitten by beaks, or brushed with light wings; and horribledemons, yelling in my ears, hurled me to the earth. At last, the driversof a caravan, which was journeying towards Alexandria, rescued me, andcarried me along with them. 

"After this, I became a pupil of the venerable Didymus. Though he wasblind, no one equalled him in knowledge of the Scriptures. When ourlesson was ended, he used to take my arm, and, with my aid, ascend thePanium, from whose summit could be seen the Pharos and the open sea. Then we would return home, passing along the quays, where we brushedagainst men of every nation, including the Cimmerians, clad in bearskin, and the Gymnosophists of the Ganges, who smear their bodies withcow-dung. There were continual conflicts in the streets, some of whichwere caused by the Jews' refusal to pay taxes, and others by theattempts of the seditious to drive out the Romans. Besides, the city isfilled with heretics, the followers of Manes, of Valentinus, ofBasilides, and of Arius, all of them eagerly striving to discuss withyou points of doctrine and to convert you to their views. 

"Their discourses sometimes come back to my memory; and, though I trynot to dwell upon them, they haunt my thoughts. 

"I next took refuge in Colzin, and, when I had undergone a severepenance, I no longer feared the wrath of God. Many persons gatheredaround me, offering to become anchorites. I imposed on them a rule oflife in antagonism to the vagaries of Gnosticism and the sophistries ofthe philosophers. Communications now reached me from every quarter, andpeople came a great distance to see me. 

"Meanwhile, the populace continued to torture the confessors; and I wasled back to Alexandria by an ardent thirst for martyrdom. I found on myarrival that the persecution had ceased three days before. Just as I wasreturning, my path was blocked by a great crowd in front of the Templeof Serapis. I was told that the Governor was about to make one finalexample. In the centre of the portico, in the broad light of day, anaked woman was fastened to a pillar, while two soldiers were scourgingher. At each stroke her entire frame writhed. Suddenly, she cast a wildlook around, her trembling lips parted; and, above the heads of themultitude, her figure wrapped, as it were, in her flowing hair, methought I recognised Ammonaria. . . . Yet this one was taller--andbeautiful, exceedingly!"

He draws his hand across his brow. 

"No! no! I must not think upon it!

"On another occasion, Athanasius asked me to assist him against theArians. At that time, they had confined themselves to attacking him withinvectives and ridicule. Since then, however, he has been calumniated, deprived of his see, and banished. Where is he now? I know not! Peopleconcern themselves so little about bringing me any news! All mydisciples have abandoned me, Hilarion like the rest. 

"He was, perhaps, fifteen years of age when he came to me, and his mindwas so much filled with curiosity that every moment he was asking mequestions. Then he would listen with a pensive air; and, without amurmur, he would run to fetch whatever I wanted--more nimble than a kid, and gay enough, moreover, to make even a patriarch laugh. He was a sonto me!"

The sky is red; the earth completely dark. Agitated by the wind, cloudsof sand rise, like winding-sheets, and then fall again. All at once, ina clear space in the heavens, a flock of birds flits by, forming a kindof triangular battalion, resembling a piece of metal with its edgesalone vibrating. 

Antony glances at them. 

"Ah! how I should like to follow them! How often, too, have I notwistfully gazed at the long boats with their sails resembling wings, especially when they bore away those who had been my guests! What happytimes I used to have with them! What outpourings! None of theminterested me more than Ammon. He described to me his journey to Rome, the Catacombs, the Coliseum, the piety of illustrious women, and athousand other things. And yet I was unwilling to go away with him! Howcame I to be so obstinate in clinging to this solitary life? It mighthave been better for me had I stayed with the monks of Nitria when theybesought me to do so. They occupy separate cells, and yet communicatewith one another. On Sunday the trumpet calls them to the church, whereyou may see three whips hung up, which are reserved for the punishmentof thieves and intruders, for they maintain very severe discipline. 

"Nevertheless, they do not stand in need of gifts, for the faithfulbring them eggs, fruit, and even instruments for removing thorns fromtheir feet. There are vineyards around Pisperi, and those of Pabenumhave a raft, in which they go forth to seek provisions. 

"But I should have served my brethren more effectually by being a simplepriest. I might succour the poor, administer the sacraments, and guardthe purity of domestic life. Besides, all the laity are not lost, andthere was nothing to prevent me from being, for example, a grammarian ora philosopher. I should have had in my room a sphere made of reeds, tablets always in my hand, young people around me, and a crown of laurelsuspended as an emblem over my door. 

"But there is too much pride in such triumphs! Better be a soldier. Iwas strong and courageous enough to manage engines of war, to traversegloomy forests, or, with helmet on head, to enter smoking cities. Morethan this, there would be nothing to hinder me from purchasing with myearnings the office of toll-keeper of some bridge, and travellers wouldrelate to me their histories, pointing out to me heaps of curiousobjects which they had stowed away in their baggage. 

"On festival days the merchants of Alexandria sail along the Canopicbranch of the Nile and drink wine from cups of lotus, to the sound oftambourines, which make all the taverns near the river shake. Beyond, trees, cut cone-fashion, protect the peaceful farmsteads against thesouth wind. The roof of each house rests on slender columns runningclose to one another, like the framework of a lattice, and, throughthese spaces, the owner, stretched on a long seat, can gaze out upon hisgrounds and watch his servants thrashing corn or gathering in thevintage, and the cattle trampling on the straw. His children play alongthe grass; his wife bends forward to kiss him. "

Through the deepening shadows of the night pointed snouts revealthemselves here and there with ears erect and glittering eyes. Antonyadvances towards them. Scattering the wind in their wild rush, theanimals take flight. It was a troop of jackals. 

One of them remains behind, and, resting on two paws, with his body bentand his head on one side, he places himself in an attitude of defiance. 

"How pretty he looks! I should like to pass my hand softly over hisback. "

Antony whistles to make him come near. The jackal disappears. 

"Ah! he is gone to join his fellows. Oh! this solitude! this weariness!"

Laughing bitterly:

"This is such a delightful life--to twist palm branches in the fire tomake shepherds' crooks, to turn out baskets and fasten mats together, and then to exchange all this handiwork with the Nomads for bread thatbreaks your teeth! Ah! wretched me! will there never be an end of this?But, indeed, death would be better! I can bear it no longer! Enough!Enough!"

He stamps his foot, and makes his way through the rocks with rapid step, then stops, out of breath, bursts into sobs, and flings himself upon theground. 

The night is calm; millions of stars are trembling in the sky. No soundis heard save the chattering of the tarantula. 

The two arms of the cross cast a shadow on the sand. Antony, who isweeping, perceives it. 

"Am I so weak, my God? Courage! Let us arise!"

He enters his cell, finds there the embers of a fire, lights a torch, and places it on the wooden stand, so as to illumine the big book. 

"Suppose I take--the 'Acts of the Apostles'--yes, no matter where!

"'_He saw the sky opened with a great linen sheet which was let down byits four corners, wherein were all kinds of terrestrial animals and wildbeasts, reptiles and birds. And a voice said to him: Arise, Peter! Killand eat!_'

"So, then, the Lord wished that His apostle should eat every kind offood? . . . Whilst I . . . "

Antony lets his chin sink on his breast. The rustling of the pages, which the wind scatters, causes him to lift his head, and he reads:

"'_The Jews slew all their enemies with swords, and made a great carnageof them, so that they disposed at will of those whom they hated. _'

"There follows the enumeration of the people slain by them--seventy-fivethousand. They had endured so much! Besides, their enemies were theenemies of the true God. And how they must have enjoyed their vengeance, completely slaughtering the idolaters! No doubt the city was gorged withthe dead! They must have been at the garden gates, on the staircases, and packed so closely together in the various rooms that the doors couldnot be closed! But here am I plunging into thoughts of murder andbloodshed!"

He opens the book at another passage. 

"'_Nebuchadnezzar prostrated himself with his face on the ground andadored Daniel. _'

"Ah! that is good! The Most High exalts His prophets above kings. Thismonarch spent his life in feasting, always intoxicated with sensualityand pride. But God, to punish him, changed him into a beast, and hewalked on four paws!"

Antony begins to laugh; and, while stretching out his arms, disarrangesthe leaves of the book with the tips of his fingers. Then his eyes fallon these words:

"'_Ezechias felt great joy in coming to them. He showed them hisperfumes, his gold and silver, all his aromatics, his sweet-smellingoils, all his precious vases, and the things that were in histreasures. _'

"I can imagine how they beheld, heaped up to the very ceiling, gems, diamonds, darics. A man who possesses such an accumulation of thesethings is not the same as others. While handling them, he assumes thathe holds the result of innumerable exertions, and that he has absorbed, and can again diffuse, the very life of the people. This is a usefulprecaution for kings. The wisest of them all was not wanting in it. Hisfleets brought him ivory--and apes. Where is this? It is----"

He rapidly turns over the leaves. 

"Ah! this is the place:

"'_The Queen of Sheba, being aware of the glory of Solomon, came totempt him, propounding enigmas. _'

"How did she hope to tempt him? The Devil was very desirous to temptJesus. But Jesus triumphed because He was God, and Solomon owing, perhaps, to his magical science. It is sublime, this science; for--as aphilosopher has explained to me--the world forms a whole, all whoseparts have an influence on one another, like the different organs of asingle body. It is interesting to understand the affinities andantipathies implanted in everything by Nature, and then to put them intoplay. In this way one might be able to modify laws that appear to beunchangeable. "

At this point the two shadows traced behind him by the arms of the crossproject themselves in front of him. They form, as it were, two greathorns. Antony exclaims:

"Help, my God!"

The shadows resume their former position. 

"Ah! it was an illusion--nothing more. It is useless for me to tormentmy soul, I have no need to do so--absolutely no need!"

He sits down and crosses his arms. 

"And yet methought I felt the approach . . . But why should _he_ come?Besides, do I not know his artifices? I have repelled the monstrousanchorite who, with a laugh, offered me little hot loaves; the centaurwho tried to take me on his back; and that vision of a beautiful duskymaid amid the sands, which revealed itself to me as the spirit ofvoluptuousness. "

Antony walks up and down rapidly. 

"It is by my direction that all these holy retreats have been built, full of monks wearing hair-cloths beneath their goatskins, and numerousenough to furnish forth an army. I have healed diseases at a distance. Ihave banished demons. I have waded through the river in the midst ofcrocodiles. The Emperor Constantine has written me three letters; andBalacius, who treated with contempt the letter I sent him, has been tornby his own horses. The people of Alexandria, whenever I reappearedamongst them, fought to get a glimpse of me; and Athanasius was my guidewhen I took my departure. But what toils, too, I have had to undergo!Here, for more than thirty years, have I been constantly groaning in thedesert! I have carried on my loins eighty pounds of bronze, likeEusebius; I have exposed my body to the stings of insects, likeMacarius; I have remained fifty-three nights without closing an eye, like Pachomius; and those who are decapitated, torn with pincers, orburnt, possess less virtue, perhaps, inasmuch as my life is a continualmartyrdom!"

Antony slackens his pace. 

"Certainly there is no one who undergoes so much mortification. Charitable hearts are growing fewer, and people never give me anythingnow. My cloak is worn out, and I have no sandals, nor even a porringer;for I gave all my goods and chattels to the poor and my own family, without keeping a single obolus for myself. Should I not need a littlemoney to get the tools that are indispensable for my work? Oh! notmuch--a little sum! . . . I would husband it. 

"The Fathers of Nicæa were ranged in purple robes on thrones along thewall, like the Magi; and they were entertained at a banquet, whilehonours were heaped upon them, especially on Paphnutius, merely becausehe has lost an eye and is lame since Dioclesian's persecution! Many atime the Emperor has kissed his injured eye. What folly! Moreover, theCouncil had such worthless members! Theophilus, a bishop of Scythia;John, another, in Persia; Spiridion, a cattle-drover. Alexander was tooold. Athanasius ought to have made himself more agreeable to the Ariansin order to get concessions from them!

"How is it they dealt with me? They would not even give me a hearing! Hewho spoke against me--a tall young man with a curling beard--coollylaunched out captious objections; and while I was trying to find wordsto reply to him, they kept looking at me with malignant glances, barkingat me like hyenas. Ah! if I could only get them all sent into exile bythe Emperor, or rather smite them, crush them, behold them suffering. Ihave much to suffer myself!"

He sinks swooning against the wall of his cell. 

"This is what it is to have fasted overmuch! My strength is going. If Ihad eaten, only once, a morsel of meat!"

He half-closes his eyes languidly. 

"Ah! for some red flesh . . . A bunch of grapes to nibble, some curds thatwould quiver on a plate!

"But what ails me now? What ails me now? I feel my heart dilating likethe sea when it swells before the storm. An overwhelming weakness bowsme down, and the warm atmosphere seems to waft towards me the odour ofhair. Still, there is no trace of a woman here. "

He turns towards the little pathway amid the rocks. 

"This is the way they come, poised in their litters on the black arms ofeunuchs. They descend, and, joining together their hands, laden withrings, they kneel down. They tell me their troubles. The need of asuperhuman voluptuousness tortures them. They would like to die; intheir dreams they have seen gods who called them by name; and the edgesof their robes fall round my feet. I repel them. 'Oh! no, ' they say tome, 'not yet! What must I do?' Any penance will appear easy to them. They ask me for the most severe: to share in my own, to live with me. 

"It is a long time now since I have seen any of them! Perhaps, though, this is what is about to happen? And why not? If suddenly I were to hearthe mule-bells ringing in the mountains. It seems to me . . . "

Antony climbs upon a rock, at the entrance of the path, and bendsforward, darting his eyes into the darkness. 

"Yes! down there, at the very end, there is a moving mass, like peoplewho are trying to pick their way. Here it is! They are making amistake. "

Calling out:

"On this side! Come! Come!"

The echo repeats:

"Come! Come!"

He lets his arms fall down, quite dazed. 

"What a shame! Ah! poor Antony!"

And immediately he hears a whisper:

"Poor Antony. "

"Is that anyone? Answer!"

It is the wind passing through the spaces between the rocks that causesthese intonations, and in their confused sonorities he distinguishesvoices, as if the air were speaking. They are low and insinuating, akind of sibilant utterance:

_The first_--"Do you wish for women?"

_The second_--"Nay; rather great piles of money. "

_The third_--"A shining sword. "

_The others_--"All the people admire you. "

"Go to sleep. "

"You will cut their throats. Yes! you will cut their throats. "

At the same time, visible objects undergo a transformation. On the edgeof the cliff, the old palm-tree, with its cluster of yellow leaves, becomes the torso of a woman leaning over the abyss, and poised by hermass of hair. 

Antony re-enters his cell, and the stool which sustains the big book, with its pages filled with black letters, seems to him a bush coveredwith swallows. 

"Without doubt, it is the torch that is making this play of light. Letus put it out!"

He puts it out, and finds himself in profound darkness. 

And, suddenly, through the midst of the air, passes first, a pool ofwater, then a prostitute, the corner of a temple, a figure of a soldier, and a chariot with two white horses prancing. 

These images make their appearance abruptly, in successive shocks, standing out from the darkness like pictures of scarlet above abackground of ebony. 

Their motion becomes more rapid; they pass in a dizzy fashion. At othertimes they stop, and, growing pale by degrees, dissolve--or, rather, they fly away, and instantly others arrive in their stead. 

Antony droops his eyelids. 

They multiply, surround, besiege him. An unspeakable terror seizes holdof him, and he no longer has any sensation but that of a burningcontraction in the epigastrium. In spite of the confusion of his brain, he is conscious of a tremendous silence which separates him from all theworld. He tries to speak; impossible! It is as if the link that boundhim to existence was snapped; and, making no further resistance, Antonyfalls upon the mat. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE TEMPTATION OF LOVE AND POWER. 

Then, a great shadow--more subtle than an ordinary shadow, from whoseborders other shadows hang in festoons--traces itself upon the ground. 

It is the Devil, resting against the roof of the cell and carrying underhis wings--like a gigantic bat that is suckling its young--the SevenDeadly Sins, whose grinning heads disclose themselves confusedly. 

Antony, his eyes still closed, remains languidly passive, and stretcheshis limbs upon the mat, which seems to him to grow softer every moment, until it swells out and becomes a bed; then the bed becomes a shallop, with water rippling against its sides. 

To right and left rise up two necks of black soil that tower above thecultivated plains, with a sycamore here and there. A noise of bells, drums, and singers resounds at a distance. These are caused by peoplewho are going down from Canopus to sleep at the Temple of Serapis. Antony is aware of this, and he glides, driven by the wind, between thetwo banks of the canal. The leaves of the papyrus and the red blossomsof the water-lilies, larger than a man, bend over him. He lies extendedat the bottom of the vessel. An oar from behind drags through the water. From time to time rises a hot breath of air that shakes the thin reeds. The murmur of the tiny waves grows fainter. A drowsiness takespossession of him. He dreams that he is an Egyptian Solitary. 

Then he starts up all of a sudden. 

"Have I been dreaming? It was so pleasant that I doubted its reality. Mytongue is burning! I am thirsty!"

He enters his cell and searches about everywhere at random. 

"The ground is wet! Has it been raining? Stop! Scraps of food! Mypitcher broken! But the water-bottle?"

He finds it. 

"Empty, completely empty! In order to get down to the river, I shouldneed three hours at least, and the night is so dark I could not see wellenough to find my way there. My entrails are writhing. Where is thebread?"

After searching for some time he picks up a crust smaller than an egg. 

"How is this? The jackals must have taken it, curse them!"

And he flings the bread furiously upon the ground. 

This movement is scarcely completed when a table presents itself toview, covered with all kinds of dainties. The table-cloth of byssus, striated like the fillets of sphinxes, seems to unfold itself inluminous undulations. Upon it there are enormous quarters of flesh-meat, huge fishes, birds with their feathers, quadrupeds with their hair, fruits with an almost natural colouring; and pieces of white ice andflagons of violet crystal shed glowing reflections. In the middle ofthe table Antony observes a wild boar smoking from all its pores, itspaws beneath its belly, its eyes half-closed--and the idea of being ableto eat this formidable animal rejoices his heart exceedingly. Then, there are things he had never seen before--black hashes, jellies of thecolour of gold, ragoûts, in which mushrooms float like water-lilies onthe surface of a pool, whipped creams, so light that they resembleclouds. 

And the aroma of all this brings to him the odour of the ocean, thecoolness of fountains, the mighty perfume of woods. He dilates hisnostrils as much as possible; he drivels, saying to himself that thereis enough there to last for a year, for ten years, for his whole life!

In proportion as he fixes his wide-opened eyes upon the dishes, othersaccumulate, forming a pyramid, whose angles turn downwards. The winesbegin to flow, the fishes to palpitate; the blood in the dishes bubblesup; the pulp of the fruits draws nearer, like amorous lips; and thetable rises to his breast, to his very chin--with only one seat and onecover, which are exactly in front of him. 

He is about to seize the loaf of bread. Other loaves make theirappearance. 

"For me! . . . All! but----"

Antony draws back. 

"In the place of the one which was there, here are others! It is amiracle, then, exactly like that the Lord performed! . . . With whatobject? Nay, all the rest of it is not less incomprehensible! Ah! demon, begone! begone!"

He gives a kick to the table. It disappears. 

"Nothing more? No!"

He draws a long breath. 

"Ah! the temptation was strong. But what an escape I have had!"

He raises up his head, and stumbles against an object which emits asound. 

"What can this be?"

Antony stoops down. 

"Hold! A cup! Someone must have lost it while travelling--nothingextraordinary!----"

He wets his finger and rubs. 

"It glitters! Precious metal! However, I cannot distinguish----"

He lights his torch and examines the cup. 

"It is made of silver, adorned with ovolos at its rim, with a medal atthe bottom. "

He makes the medal resound with a touch of his finger-nail. 

"It is a piece of money which is worth from seven to eight drachmas--notmore. No matter! I can easily with that sum get myself a sheepskin. "

The torch's reflection lights up the cup. 

"It is not possible! Gold! yes, all gold!"

He finds another piece, larger than the first, at the bottom, and, underneath that many others. 

"Why, here's a sum large enough to buy three cows--a little field!"

The cup is now filled with gold pieces. 

"Come, then! a hundred slaves, soldiers, a heap wherewith to buy----"

Here the granulations of the cup's rim, detaching themselves, form apearl necklace. 

"With this jewel here, one might even win the Emperor's wife!"

With a shake Antony makes the necklace slip over his wrist. He holds thecup in his left hand, and with his right arm raises the torch to shedmore light upon it. Like water trickling down from a basin, it poursitself out in continuous waves, so as to make a hillock on thesand--diamonds, carbuncles, and sapphires mingled with huge pieces ofgold bearing the effigies of kings. 

"What? What? Staters, shekels, darics, aryandics! Alexander, Demetrius, the Ptolemies, Cæsar! But each of them had not as much! Nothingimpossible in it! More to come! And those rays which dazzle me! Ah! myheart overflows! How good this is! Yes! . . . Yes! . . . More! Never enough!It did not matter even if I kept flinging it into the sea; more wouldremain. Why lose any of it? I will keep it all, without telling anyoneabout it. I will dig myself a chamber in the rock, the interior of whichwill be lined with strips of bronze; and thither will I come to feel thepiles of gold sinking under my heels. I will plunge my arms into it asif into sacks of corn. I would like to anoint my face with it--to sleepon top of it!"

He lets go the torch in order to embrace the heap, and falls to theground on his breast. He gets up again. The place is perfectly empty!

"What have I done? If I died during that brief space of time, the resultwould have been Hell--irrevocable Hell!"

A shudder runs through his frame. 

"So, then, I am accursed? Ah! no, this is all my own fault! I let myselfbe caught in every trap. There is no one more idiotic or more infamous. I would like to beat myself, or, rather, to tear myself out of my body. I have restrained myself too long. I need to avenge myself, to strike, to kill! It is as if I had a troop of wild beasts in my soul. I wouldlike, with a stroke of a hatchet in the midst of a crowd----Ah! adagger! . . . "

He flings himself upon his knife, which he has just seen. The knifeslips from his hand, and Antony remains propped against the wall of hiscell, his mouth wide open, motionless--like one in a trance. 

All the surroundings have disappeared. 

He finds himself in Alexandria on the Panium--an artificial mound raisedin the centre of the city, with corkscrew stairs on the outside. 

In front of it stretches Lake Mareotis, with the sea to the right andthe open plain to the left, and, directly under his eyes, an irregularsuccession of flat roofs, traversed from north to south and from east towest by two streets, which cross each other, and which form, in theirentire length, a row of porticoes with Corinthian capitals. The housesoverhanging this double colonnade have stained-glass windows. Some haveenormous wooden cages outside of them, in which the air from without isswallowed up. 

Monuments in various styles of architecture are piled close to oneanother. Egyptian pylons rise above Greek temples. Obelisks exhibitthemselves like spears between battlements of red brick. In the centresof squares there are statues of Hermes with pointed ears, and of Anubiswith dogs' heads. Antony notices the mosaics in the court-yards, and thetapestries hung from the cross-beams of the ceiling. 

With a single glance he takes in the two ports (the Grand Port and theEunostus), both round like two circles, and separated by a mole joiningAlexandria to the rocky island, on which stands the tower of thePharos, quadrangular, five hundred cubits high and in nine storys, witha heap of black charcoal flaming on its summit. 

Small ports nearer to the shore intersect the principal ports. The moleis terminated at each end by a bridge built on marble columns fixed inthe sea. Vessels pass beneath, and pleasure-boats inlaid with ivory, gondolas covered with awnings, triremes and biremes, all kinds ofshipping, move up and down or remain at anchor along the quays. 

Around the Grand Port there is an uninterrupted succession of Royalstructures: the palace of the Ptolemies, the Museum, the Posideion, theCæsarium, the Timonium where Mark Antony took refuge, and the Soma whichcontains the tomb of Alexander; while at the other extremity of thecity, close to the Eunostus, might be seen glass, perfume, and paperfactories. 

Itinerant vendors, porters, and ass-drivers rush to and fro, jostlingagainst one another. Here and there a priest of Osiris with a panther'sskin on his shoulders, a Roman soldier, or a group of negroes, may beobserved. Women stop in front of stalls where artisans are at work, andthe grinding of chariot-wheels frightens away some birds who are pickingup from the ground the sweepings of the shambles and the remnants offish. Over the uniformity of white houses the plan of the streets casts, as it were, a black network. The markets, filled with herbage, exhibitgreen bouquets, the drying-sheds of the dyers, plates of colours, andthe gold ornaments on the pediments of temples, luminous points--allthis contained within the oval enclosure of the greyish walls, under thevault of the blue heavens, hard by the motionless sea. But the crowdstops and looks towards the eastern side, from which enormous whirlwindsof dust are advancing. 

It is the monks of the Thebaïd who are coming, clad in goats' skins, armed with clubs, and howling forth a canticle of war and of religionwith this refrain:

"Where are they? Where are they?"

Antony comprehends that they have come to kill the Arians. 

All at once, the streets are deserted, and one sees no longer anythingbut running feet. 

And now the Solitaries are in the city. Their formidable cudgels, studded with nails, whirl around like monstrances of steel. One can hearthe crash of things being broken in the houses. Intervals of silencefollow, and then the loud cries burst forth again. From one end of thestreets to the other there is a continuous eddying of people in a stateof terror. Several are armed with pikes. Sometimes two groups meet andform into one; and this multitude, after rushing along the pavements, separates, and those composing it proceed to knock one another down. Butthe men with long hair always reappear. 

Thin wreaths of smoke escape from the corners of buildings. The leavesof the doors burst asunder; the skirts of the walls fall in; thearchitraves topple over. 

Antony meets all his enemies one after another. He recognises peoplewhom he had forgotten. Before killing them, he outrages them. He ripsthem open, cuts their throats, knocks them down, drags the old men bytheir beards, runs over children, and beats those who are wounded. People revenge themselves on luxury. Those who cannot read, tear thebooks to pieces; others smash and destroy the statues, the paintings, the furniture, the cabinets--a thousand dainty objects whose use theyare ignorant of, and which, for that very reason, exasperate them. Fromtime to time they stop, out of breath, and then begin again. Theinhabitants, taking refuge in the court-yards, utter lamentations. Thewomen lift their eyes to Heaven, weeping, with their arms bare. In orderto move the Solitaries they embrace their knees; but the latter onlydash them aside, and the blood gushes up to the ceiling, falls back onthe linen clothes that line the walls, streams from the trunks ofdecapitated corpses, fills the aqueducts, and rolls in great red poolsalong the ground. 

Antony is steeped in it up to his middle. He steps into it, sucks it upwith his lips, and quivers with joy at feeling it on his limbs and underhis hair, which is quite wet with it. 

The night falls. The terrible clamour abates. 

The Solitaries have disappeared. 

Suddenly, on the outer galleries lining the nine stages of the Pharos, Antony perceives thick black lines, as if a flock of crows had alightedthere. He hastens thither, and soon finds himself on the summit. 

A huge copper mirror turned towards the sea reflects the ships in theoffing. 

Antony amuses himself by looking at them; and as he continues looking atthem, their number increases. 

They are gathered in a gulf formed like a crescent. Behind, upon apromontory, stretches a new city built in the Roman style ofarchitecture, with cupolas of stone, conical roofs, marble work in redand blue, and a profusion of bronze attached to the volutes ofcapitals, to the tops of houses, and to the angles of cornices. A wood, formed of cypress-trees, overhangs it. The colour of the sea is greener;the air is colder. On the mountains at the horizon there is snow. 

Antony is about to pursue his way when a man accosts him, and says:

"Come! they are waiting for you!"

He traverses a forum, enters a court-yard, stoops under a gate, and hearrives before the front of the palace, adorned with a group in waxrepresenting the Emperor Constantine hurling the dragon to the earth. Aporphyry basin supports in its centre a golden conch filled withpistachio-nuts. His guide informs him that he may take some of them. Hedoes so. 

Then he loses himself, as it were, in a succession of apartments. 

Along the walls may be seen, in mosaic, generals offering conqueredcities to the Emperor on the palms of their hands. And on every side arecolumns of basalt, gratings of silver filigree, seats of ivory, andtapestries embroidered with pearls. The light falls from the vaultedroof, and Antony proceeds on his way. Tepid exhalations spread around;occasionally he hears the modest patter of a sandal. Posted in theante-chambers, the custodians--who resemble automatons--bear on theirshoulders vermilion-coloured truncheons. 

At last, he finds himself in the lower part of a hall with hyacinthcurtains at its extreme end. They divide, and reveal the Emperor seatedupon a throne, attired in a violet tunic and red buskins with blackbands. 

A diadem of pearls is wreathed around his hair, which is arranged insymmetrical rolls. He has drooping eyelids, a straight nose, and aheavy and cunning expression of countenance. At the corners of the daïs, extended above his head, are placed four golden doves, and, at the footof the throne, two enamelled lions are squatted. The doves begin to coo, the lions to roar. The Emperor rolls his eyes; Antony steps forward; anddirectly, without preamble, they proceed with a narrative of events. 

[Illustration]

"In the cities of Antioch, Ephesus, and Alexandria, the temples havebeen pillaged, and the statues of the gods converted into pots andporridge-pans. "

The Emperor laughs heartily at this. Antony reproaches him for histolerance towards the Novatians. But the Emperor flies into a passion. "Novatians, Arians, Meletians--he is sick of them all!" However, headmires the episcopacy, for the Christians create bishops, who depend onfive or six personages, and it is his interest to gain over the latterin order to have the rest on his side. Moreover, he has not failed tofurnish them with considerable sums. But he detests the fathers of theCouncil of Nicæa. "Come, let us have a look at them. "

Antony follows him. And they are found on the same floor under a terracewhich commands a view of a hippodrome full of people, and surmounted byporticoes wherein the rest of the crowd are walking to and fro. In thecentre of the course there is a narrow platform on which stands aminiature temple of Mercury, a statue of Constantine, and three bronzeserpents intertwined with each other; while at one end there are threehuge wooden eggs, and at the other seven dolphins with their tails inthe air. 

Behind the Imperial pavilion, the prefects of the chambers, the lords ofthe household, and the Patricians are placed at intervals as far as thefirst story of a church, all whose windows are lined with women. At theright is the gallery of the Blue faction, at the left that of the Green, while below there is a picket of soldiers, and, on a level with thearena, a row of Corinthian pillars, forming the entrance to the stalls. 

The races are about to begin; the horses fall into line. Tall plumesfixed between their ears sway in the wind like trees; and in their leapsthey shake the chariots in the form of shells, driven by coachmenwearing a kind of many-coloured cuirass with sleeves narrow at thewrists and wide in the arms, with legs uncovered, full beard, and hairshaven above the forehead after the fashion of the Huns. 

Antony is deafened by the murmuring of voices. Above and below heperceives nothing but painted faces, motley garments, and plates ofworked gold; and the sand of the arena, perfectly white, shines like amirror. 

The Emperor converses with him, confides to him some important secrets, informs him of the assassination of his own son Crispus, and goes so faras to consult Antony about his health. 

Meanwhile, Antony perceives slaves at the end of the stalls. They arethe fathers of the Council of Nicæa, in rags, abject. The martyrPaphnutius is brushing a horse's mane; Theophilus is scrubbing the legsof another; John is painting the hoofs of a third; while Alexander ispicking up their droppings in a basket. 

Antony passes among them. They salaam to him, beg of him to intercedefor them, and kiss his hands. The entire crowd hoots at them; and herejoices in their degradation immeasurably. And now he has become oneof the great ones of the Court, the Emperor's confidant, first minister!Constantine places the diadem on his forehead, and Antony keeps it, asif this honour were quite natural to him. 

And presently is disclosed, beneath the darkness, an immense hall, lighted up by candelabra of gold. 

Columns, half lost in shadow so tall are they, run in a row behind thetables, which stretch to the horizon, where appear, in a luminous haze, staircases placed one above another, successions of archways, colossi, towers; and, in the background, an unoccupied wing of the palace, whichcedars overtop, making blacker masses above the darkness. 

The guests, crowned with violets, lean upon their elbows on low-lyingcouches. Beside each one are placed amphorae, from which they pour outwine; and, at the very end, by himself, adorned with the tiara andcovered with carbuncles, King Nebuchadnezzar is eating and drinking. Toright and left of him, two theories of priests, with peaked caps, areswinging censers. Upon the ground are crawling captive kings, withoutfeet or hands, to whom he flings bones to pick. Further down stand hisbrothers, with shades over their eyes, for they are perfectly blind. 

A constant lamentation ascends from the depths of the ergastula. Thesoft and monotonous sounds of a hydraulic organ alternate with thechorus of voices; and one feels as if all around the hall there was animmense city, an ocean of humanity, whose waves were beating against thewalls. 

The slaves rush forward carrying plates. Women run about offering drinkto the guests. The baskets groan under the load of bread, and adromedary, laden with leathern bottles, passes to and fro, lettingvervain trickle over the floor in order to cool it. 

Belluarii lead forth lions; dancing-girls, with their hair in ringlets, turn somersaults, while squirting fire through their nostrils;negro-jugglers perform tricks; naked children fling snowballs, which, infalling, crash against the shining silver plate. The clamour is sodreadful that it might be described as a tempest, and the steam of theviands, as well as the respirations of the guests, spreads, as it were, a cloud over the feast. Now and then, flakes from the huge torches, snatched away by the wind, traverse the night like flying stars. 

The King wipes off the perfumes from his visage with his hand. He eatsfrom the sacred vessels, and then breaks them, and he enumerates, mentally, his fleets, his armies, his peoples. Presently, through awhim, he will burn his palace, along with his guests. He calculates onrebuilding the Tower of Babel, and dethroning God. 

Antony reads, at a distance, on his forehead, all his thoughts. Theytake possession of himself--and he becomes Nebuchadnezzar. 

Immediately, he is satiated with conquests and exterminations; and alonging seizes him to plunge into every kind of vileness. Moreover, thedegradation wherewith men are terrified is an outrage done to theirsouls, a means still more of stupefying them; and, as nothing is lowerthan a brute beast, Antony falls upon four paws on the table, andbellows like a bull. 

He feels a pain in his hand--a pebble, as it happened, has hurt him--andhe again finds himself in his cell. 

The rocky enclosure is empty. The stars are shining. All is silence. 

"Once more I have been deceived. Why these things? They arise from therevolts of the flesh! Ah! miserable man that I am!"

He dashes into his cell, takes out of it a bundle of cords, with ironnails at the ends of them, strips himself to the waist, and raising hiseyes towards Heaven:

"Accept my penance, O my God! Do not despise it on account of itsinsufficiency. Make it sharp, prolonged, excessive. It is time! Towork!"

He proceeds to lash himself vigorously. 

"Ah! no! no! No pity!"

He begins again. 

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Each stroke tears my skin, cuts my limbs. This smartshorribly! Ah! it is not so terrible! One gets used to it. It seems to meeven . . . "

Antony stops. 

"Come on, then, coward! Come on, then! Good! good! On the arms, on theback, on the breast, against the belly, everywhere! Hiss, thongs! biteme! tear me! I would like the drops of my blood to gush forth to thestars, to break my back, to strip my nerves bare! Pincers! woodenhorses! molten lead! The martyrs bore more than that! Is that not so, Ammonaria?"

The shadows of the Devil's horns reappear. 

"I might have been fastened to the pillar next to yours, face to facewith you, under your very eyes, responding to your shrieks with mysighs, and our griefs would blend into one, and our souls wouldcommingle. "

He flogs himself furiously. 

"Hold! hold! for your sake! once more! . . . But this is a mere ticklingthat passes through my frame. What torture! What delight! Those are likekisses. My marrow is melting! I am dying!"

And in front of him he sees three cavaliers, mounted on wild asses, cladin green garments, holding lilies in their hands, and all resembling oneanother in figure. 

Antony turns back, and sees three other cavaliers of the same kind, mounted on similar wild asses, in the same attitude. 

He draws back. Then the wild asses, all at the same time, step forward apace or two, and rub their snouts against him, trying to bite hisgarment. Voices exclaim, "This way! this way! Here is the place!" Andbanners appear between the clefts of the mountain, with camels' heads inhalters of red silk, mules laden with baggage, and women covered withyellow veils, mounted astride on piebald horses. 

The panting animals lie down; the slaves fling themselves on the balesof goods, roll out the variegated carpets, and strew the ground withglittering objects. 

A white elephant, caparisoned with a fillet of gold, runs along, shakingthe bouquet of ostrich feathers attached to his head-band. 

On his back, lying on cushions of blue wool, cross-legged, with eyelidshalf-closed and well-poised head, is a woman so magnificently attiredthat she emits rays around her. The attendants prostrate themselves, theelephant bends his knees, and the Queen of Sheba, gliding down by hisshoulder, steps lightly on the carpet and advances towards Antony. Herrobe of gold brocade, regularly divided by furbelows of pearls, jet andsapphires, is drawn tightly round her waist by a close-fitting corsage, set off with a variety of colours representing the twelve signs of theZodiac. She wears high-heeled pattens, one of which is black and strewnwith silver stars and a crescent, whilst the other is white and iscovered with drops of gold, with a sun in their midst. 

Her loose sleeves, garnished with emeralds and birds' plumes, exposes toview her little, rounded arms, adorned at the wrists with bracelets ofebony; and her hands, covered with rings, are terminated by nails sopointed that the ends of her fingers are almost like needles. 

A chain of plate gold, passing under her chin, runs along her cheekstill it twists itself in spiral fashion around her head, over which bluepowder is scattered; then, descending, it slips over her shoulders andis fastened above her bosom by a diamond scorpion, which stretches outits tongue between her breasts. From her ears hang two great whitepearls. The edges of her eyelids are painted black. On her leftcheek-bone she has a natural brown spot, and when she opens her mouthshe breathes with difficulty, as if her bodice distressed her. 

As she comes forward, she swings a green parasol with an ivory handlesurrounded by vermilion bells; and twelve curly negro boys carry thelong train of her robe, the end of which is held by an ape, who raisesit every now and then. 

She says:

"Ah! handsome hermit! handsome hermit! My heart is faint! By dint ofstamping with impatience my heels have grown hard, and I have split oneof my toe-nails. I sent out shepherds, who posted themselves on themountains, with their bands stretched over their eyes, and searchers, who cried out your name in the woods, and scouts, who ran along thedifferent roads, saying to each passer-by: 'Have you seen him?'

"At night I shed tears with my face turned to the wall. My tears, in thelong run, made two little holes in the mosaic-work--like pools of waterin rocks--for I love you! Oh! yes; very much!"

She catches his beard. 

"Smile on me, then, handsome hermit! Smile on me, then! You will find Iam very gay! I play on the lyre, I dance like a bee, and I can tell manystories, each one more diverting than the last. 

"You cannot imagine what a long journey we have made. Look at the wildasses of the green-clad couriers--dead through fatigue!"

The wild asses are stretched motionless on the ground. 

"For three great moons they have journeyed at an even pace, with pebblesin their teeth to cut the wind, their tails always erect, their hamsalways bent, and always in full gallop. You will not find their equals. They came to me from my maternal grandfather, the Emperor Saharil, sonof Jakhschab, son of Jaarab, son of Kastan. Ah! if they were stillliving, we would put them under a litter in order to get home quickly. But . . . How now? . . . What are you thinking of?"

She inspects him. 

"Ah! when you are my husband, I will clothe you, I will fling perfumesover you, I will pick out your hairs. "

Antony remains motionless, stiffer than a stake, pale as a corpse. 

"You have a melancholy air: is it at quitting your cell? Why, I havegiven up everything for your sake--even King Solomon, who has, no doubt, much wisdom, twenty thousand war-chariots, and a lovely beard! I havebrought you my wedding presents. Choose. "

She walks up and down between the row of slaves and the merchandise. 

"Here is balsam of Genesareth, incense from Cape Gardefan, ladanum, cinnamon and silphium, a good thing to put into sauces. There are withinAssyrian embroideries, ivories from the Ganges, and the purple cloth ofElissa; and this case of snow contains a bottle of Chalybon, a winereserved for the Kings of Assyria, which is drunk pure out of the hornof a unicorn. Here are collars, clasps, fillets, parasols, gold dustfrom Baasa, tin from Tartessus, blue wood from Pandion, white furs fromIssidonia, carbuncles from the island of Palæsimundum, and tooth-picksmade with the hair of the tachas--an extinct animal found under theearth. These cushions are from Emathia, and these mantle-fringes fromPalmyra. Under this Babylonian carpet there are . . . But come, then!Come, then!"

She pulls Saint Antony along by the beard. He resists. She goes on:

"This light tissue, which crackles under the fingers with the noise ofsparks, is the famous yellow linen brought by the merchants fromBactriana. They required no less than forty-three interpreters duringtheir voyage. I will make garments of it for you, which you will put onat home. 

"Press the fastenings of that sycamore box, and give me the ivory casketin my elephant's packing-case!"

They draw out of a box some round objects covered with a veil, and bringher a little case covered with carvings. 

"Would you like the buckler of Dgian-ben-Dgian, the builder of thePyramids? Here it is! It is composed of seven dragons' skins placed oneabove another, joined by diamond screws, and tanned in the bile of aparricide. It represents, on one side, all the wars which have takenplace since the invention of arms, and, on the other, all the wars thatwill take place till the end of the world. Above, the thunderboltrebounds like a ball of cork. I am going to put it on your arm, and youwill carry it to the chase. 

"But if you knew what I have in my little case! Try to open it! Nobodyhas succeeded in doing that. Embrace me, and I will tell you. "

She takes Saint Antony by the two cheeks. He repels her withoutstretched arms. 

"It was one night when King Solomon had lost his head. At length, we hadconcluded a bargain. He arose, and, going out with the stride of awolf . . . "

She dances a pirouette. 

"Ah! ah! handsome hermit! you shall not know it! you shall not know it!"

She shakes her parasol, and all the little bells begin to ring. 

"I have many other things besides--there, now! I have treasures shut upin galleries, where they are lost as in a wood. I have summer palaces oflattice-reeds, and winter palaces of black marble. In the midst ofgreat lakes, like seas, I have islands round as pieces of silver allcovered with mother-of-pearl, whose shores make music with the beatingof the liquid waves that roll over the sand. The slaves of my kitchencatch birds in my aviaries, and angle for fish in my ponds. I haveengravers continually sitting to stamp my likeness on hard stones, panting workers in bronze who cast my statues, and perfumers who mix thejuice of plants with vinegar and beat up pastes. I have dressmakers whocut out stuffs for me, goldsmiths who make jewels for me, women whoseduty it is to select head-dresses for me, and attentive house-painterspouring over my panellings boiling resin, which they cool with fans. Ihave attendants for my harem, eunuchs enough to make an army. And then Ihave armies, subjects! I have in my vestibule a guard of dwarfs, carrying on their backs ivory trumpets. "

Antony sighs. 

"I have teams of gazelles, quadrigæ of elephants, hundreds of camels, and mares with such long manes that their feet get entangled with themwhen they are galloping, and flocks with such huge horns that the woodsare torn down in front of them when they are pasturing. I have giraffeswho walk in my gardens, and who raise their heads over the edge of myroof when I am taking the air after dinner. Seated in a shell, and drawnby dolphins, I go up and down the grottoes, listening to the waterflowing from the stalactites. I journey to the diamond country, where myfriends the magicians allow me to choose the most beautiful; then Iascend to earth once more, and return home. "

She gives a piercing whistle, and a large bird, descending from the sky, alights on the top of her head-dress, from which he scatters the bluepowder. His plumage, of orange colour, seems composed of metallicscales. His dainty head, adorned with a silver tuft, exhibits a humanvisage. He has four wings, a vulture's claws, and an immense peacock'stail, which he displays in a ring behind him. He seizes in his beak theQueen's parasol, staggers a little before he finds his equilibrium, thenerects all his feathers, and remains motionless. 

"Thanks, fair Simorg-anka! You who have brought me to the place wherethe lover is concealed! Thanks! thanks! messenger of my heart! He flieslike desire. He travels all over the world. In the evening he returns;he lies down at the foot of my couch; he tells me what he has seen, theseas he has flown over, with their fishes and their ships, the greatempty deserts which he has looked down upon from his airy height in theskies, all the harvests bending in the fields, and the plants that shootup on the walls of abandoned cities. "

She twists her arms with a languishing air. 

"Oh! if you were willing! if you were only willing! . . . I have a pavilionon a promontory, in the midst of an isthmus between two oceans. It iswainscotted with plates of glass, floored with tortoise-shells, and isopen to the four winds of Heaven. From above, I watch the return of myfleets and the people who ascend the hill with loads on their shoulders. We should sleep on down softer than clouds; we should drink cooldraughts out of the rinds of fruit, and we gaze at the sun through acanopy of emeralds. Come!"

Antony recoils. She draws close to him, and, in a tone of irritation:

"How so? Rich, coquettish, and in love?--is not that enough for you, eh?But must she be lascivious, gross, with a hoarse voice, a head of hairlike fire, and rebounding flesh? Do you prefer a body cold as aserpent's skin, or, perchance, great black eyes more sombre thanmysterious caverns? Look at these eyes of mine, then!"

Antony gazes at them, in spite of himself. 

"All the women you ever have met, from the daughter of the cross-roadssinging beneath her lantern to the fair patrician scattering leaves fromthe top of her litter, all the forms you have caught a glimpse of, allthe imaginings of your desire, ask for them! I am not a woman--I am aworld. My garments have but to fall, and you shall discover upon myperson a succession of mysteries. "

Antony's teeth chattered. 

"If you placed your finger on my shoulder, it would be like a stream offire in your veins. The possession of the least part of my body willfill you with a joy more vehement than the conquest of an empire. Bringyour lips near! My kisses have the taste of fruit which would melt inyour heart. Ah! how you will lose yourself in my tresses, caress mybreasts, marvel at my limbs, and be scorched by my eyes, between myarms, in a whirlwind----"

Antony makes the sign of the Cross. 

"So, then, you disdain me! Farewell!"

She turns away weeping; then she returns. 

"Are you quite sure? So lovely a woman?"

She laughs, and the ape who holds the end of her robe lifts it up. 

"You will repent, my fine hermit! you will groan; you will be sick oflife! but I will mock at you! la! la! la! oh! oh! oh!"

She goes off with her hands on her waist, skipping on one foot. 

The slaves file off before Saint Antony's face, together with thehorses, the dromedaries, the elephant, the attendants, the mules, oncemore covered with their loads, the negro boys, the ape, and thegreen-clad couriers holding their broken lilies in their hands--and theQueen of Sheba departs, with a spasmodic utterance which might be eithera sob or a chuckle. 

[Illustration]

CHAPTER III. 

THE DISCIPLE, HILARION. 

When she has disappeared, Antony perceives a child on the threshold ofhis cell. 

"It is one of the Queen's servants, " he thinks. 

This child is small, like a dwarf, and yet thickset, like one of theCabiri, distorted, and with a miserable aspect. White hair covers hisprodigiously large head, and he shivers under a sorry tunic, while hegrasps in his hand a roll of papyrus. The light of the moon, acrosswhich a cloud is passing, falls upon him. 

Antony observes him from a distance, and is afraid of him. 

"Who are you?"

The child replies:

"Your former disciple, Hilarion. "

_Antony_--"You lie! Hilarion has been living for many years inPalestine. "

_Hilarion_--"I have returned from it! It is I, in good sooth!"

_Antony_, draws closer and inspects him--"Why, his figure was bright asthe dawn, open, joyous. This one is quite sombre, and has an agedlook. "

_Hilarion_--"I am worn out with constant toiling. "

_Antony_--"The voice, too, is different. It has a tone that chills you. "

_Hilarion_--"That is because I nourish myself on bitter fare. "

_Antony_--"And those white locks?"

_Hilarion_--"I have had so many griefs. "

_Antony_, aside--"Can it be possible? . . . "

_Hilarion_--"I was not so far away as you imagined. The hermit, Paul, paid you a visit this year during the month of Schebar. It is justtwenty days since the nomads brought you bread. You told a sailor theday before yesterday to send you three bodkins. "

_Antony_--"He knows everything!"

_Hilarion_--"Learn, too, that I have never left you. But you spend longintervals without perceiving me. "

_Antony_--"How is that? No doubt my head is troubled! To-nightespecially . . . "

_Hilarion_--"All the deadly sins have arrived. But their miserablesnares are of no avail against a saint like you!"

_Antony_--"Oh! no! no! Every minute I give way! Would that I were one ofthose whose souls are always intrepid and their minds firm--like thegreat Athanasius, for example!"

_Hilarion_--"He was unlawfully ordained by seven bishops!"

_Antony_--"What does it matter? If his virtue . . . "

_Hilarion_--"Come, now! A haughty, cruel man, always mixed up inintrigues, and finally exiled for being a monopolist. "

_Antony_--"Calumny!"

_Hilarion_--"You will not deny that he tried to corrupt Eustatius, thetreasurer of the bounties?"

_Antony_--"So it is stated, and I admit it. "

_Hilarion_--"He burned, for revenge, the house of Arsenius. "

_Antony_--"Alas!"

_Hilarion_--"At the Council of Nicæa, he said, speaking of Jesus, 'Theman of the Lord. '"

_Antony_--"Ah! that is a blasphemy!"

_Hilarion_--"So limited is he, too, that he acknowledges he knowsnothing as to the nature of the Word. "

_Antony_, smiling with pleasure--"In fact, he has not a very loftyintellect. "

_Hilarion_--"If they had put you in his place, it would have been agreat satisfaction for your brethren, as well as yourself. This life, apart from others, is a bad thing. "

_Antony_--"On the contrary! Man, being a spirit, should withdraw himselffrom perishable things. All action degrades him. I would like not tocling to the earth--even with the soles of my feet. "

_Hilarion_--"Hypocrite! who plunges himself into solitude to freehimself the better from the outbreaks of his lusts! You deprive yourselfof meat, of wine, of stoves, of slaves, and of honours; but how you letyour imagination offer you banquets, perfumes, naked women, andapplauding crowds! Your chastity is but a more subtle kind ofcorruption, and your contempt for the world is but the impotence of yourhatred against it! This is the reason that persons like you are solugubrious, or perhaps it is because they lack faith. The possession ofthe truth gives joy. Was Jesus sad? He used to go about surrounded byfriends; He rested under the shade of the olive, entered the house ofthe publican, multiplied the cups, pardoned the fallen woman, healingall sorrows. As for you, you have no pity, save for your ownwretchedness. You are so much swayed by a kind of remorse, and by aferocious insanity, that you would repel the caress of a dog or thesmile of a child. "

_Antony_, bursts out sobbing--"Enough! Enough! You move my heart toomuch. "

_Hilarion_--"Shake off the vermin from your rags! Get rid of your filth!Your God is not a Moloch who requires flesh as a sacrifice!"

_Antony_--"Still, suffering is blessed. The cherubim bend down toreceive the blood of confessors. "

_Hilarion_--"Then admire the Montanists! They surpass all the rest. "

_Antony_--"But it is the truth of the doctrine that makes the martyr. "

_Hilarion_--"How can he prove its excellence, seeing that he testifiesequally on behalf of error?"

_Antony_--"Be silent, viper!"

_Hilarion_--"It is not perhaps so difficult. The exhortations offriends, the pleasure of outraging popular feeling, the oath they take, a certain giddy excitement--a thousand things, in fact, go to helpthem. "

Antony draws away from Hilarion. Hilarion follows him--"Besides, thisstyle of dying introduces great disorders. Dionysius, Cyprian, andGregory avoided it. Peter of Alexandria has disapproved of it; and theCouncil of Elvira . . . "

_Antony_, stops his ears--"I will listen to no more!"

_Hilarion_, raising his voice--"Here you are again falling into yourhabitual sin--laziness. Ignorance is the froth of pride. You say, 'Myconviction is formed; why discuss the matter?' and you despise thedoctors, the philosophers, tradition, and even the text of the law, ofwhich you know nothing. Do you think you hold wisdom in your hand?"

_Antony_--"I am always hearing him! His noisy words fill my head. "

_Hilarion_--"The endeavours to comprehend God are better than yourmortifications for the purpose of moving him. We have no merit save ourthirst for truth. Religion alone does not explain everything; and thesolution of the problems which you have ignored might render it moreunassailable and more sublime. Therefore, it is essential for each man'ssalvation that he should hold intercourse with his brethren--otherwisethe Church, the assembly of the faithful, would be only a word--and thathe should listen to every argument, and not disdain anything, or anyone. Balaam the soothsayer, Æschylus the poet, and the sybil of Cumæ, announced the Saviour. Dionysius the Alexandrian received from Heaven acommand to read every book. Saint Clement enjoins us to study Greekliterature. Hermas was converted by the illusion of a woman that heloved!"

_Antony_--"What an air of authority! It appears to me that you aregrowing taller . . . "

In fact, Hilarion's height has progressively increased; and, in ordernot to see him, Antony closes his eyes. 

_Hilarion_--"Make your mind easy, good hermit. Let us sit down here, onthis big stone, as of yore, when, at the break of day, I used to saluteyou, addressing you as 'Bright morning star'; and you at once began togive me instruction. It is not finished yet. The moon affords ussufficient light. I am all attention. "

He has drawn forth a calamus from his girdle, and, cross-legged on theground, with his roll of papyrus in his hand, he raises his head towardsAntony, who, seated beside him, keeps his forehead bent. 

"Is not the word of God confirmed for us by the miracles? And yet thesorcerers of Pharaoh worked miracles. Other impostors could do the same;so here we may be deceived. What, then, is a miracle? An occurrencewhich seems to us outside the limits of Nature. But do we know allNature's powers? And, from the mere fact that a thing ordinarily doesnot astonish us, does it follow that we comprehend it?"

_Antony_--"It matters little; we must believe in the Scripture. "

_Hilarion_--"Saint Paul, Origen, and some others did not interpret itliterally; but, if we explain it allegorically, it becomes the heritageof a limited number of people, and the evidence of its truth vanishes. What are we to do, then?"

_Antony_--"Leave it to the Church. "

_Hilarion_--"Then the Scripture is useless?"

_Antony_--"Not at all. Although the Old Testament, I admit, has--well, obscurities . . . But the New shines forth with a pure light. "

_Hilarion_--"And yet the Angel of the Annunciation, in Matthew, appearsto Joseph, whilst in Luke it is to Mary. The anointing of Jesus by awoman comes to pass, according to the First Gospel, at the beginning ofhis public life, but according to the three others, a few days beforehis death. The drink which they offer him on the Cross is, in Matthew, vinegar and gall, in Mark, wine and myrrh. If we follow Luke andMatthew, the Apostles ought to take neither money nor bag--in fact, noteven sandals or a staff; while in Mark, on the contrary, Jesus forbidsthem to carry with them anything except sandals and a staff. Here iswhere I get lost . . . "

_Antony_, in amazement--"In fact . . . In fact . . . "

_Hilarion_--"At the contact of the woman with the issue of blood, Jesusturned round, and said, 'Who has touched me?' So, then, He did not knowwho touched Him? That is opposed to the omniscience of Jesus. If thetomb was watched by guards, the women had not to worry themselves aboutan assistant to lift up the stone from the tomb. Therefore, there wereno guards there--or rather, the holy women were not there at all. AtEmmaüs, He eats with His disciples, and makes them feel His wounds. Itis a human body, a material object, which can be weighed, and which, nevertheless, passes through stone walls. Is this possible?"

_Antony_--"It would take a good deal of time to answer you. "

_Hilarion_--"Why did He receive the Holy Ghost, although He was the Son?What need had He of baptism, if He were the Word? How could the Deviltempt Him--God?

"Have these thoughts never occurred to you?"

_Antony_--"Yes! often! Torpid or frantic, they dwell in my conscience. Icrush them out; they spring up again, they stifle me; and sometimes Ibelieve that I am accursed. "

_Hilarion_--"Then you have nothing to do but to serve God?"

_Antony_--"I have always need to adore Him. "

After a prolonged silence, Hilarion resumes:

"But apart from dogma, entire liberty of research is permitted us. Doyou wish to become acquainted with the hierarchy of Angels, the virtueof Numbers, the explanation of germs and metamorphoses?"

_Antony_--"Yes! yes! My mind is struggling to escape from its prison. Itseems to me that, by gathering my forces, I shall be able to effectthis. Sometimes--even for an interval brief as a lightning-flash--I feelmyself, as it were, suspended in mid-air; then I fall back again!"

_Hilarion_--"The secret which you are anxious to possess is guarded bysages. They live in a distant country, sitting under gigantic trees, robed in white, and calm as gods. A warm atmosphere nourishes them. Allaround leopards stride through the plains. The murmuring of fountainsmingles with the neighing of unicorns. You shall hear them; and the faceof the Unknown shall be unveiled!"

_Antony_, sighing--"The road is long and I am old!"

_Hilarion_--"Oh! oh! men of learning are not rare! There are some ofthem even very close to you here! Let us enter!"

CHAPTER IV. 

THE FIERY TRIAL. 

And Antony sees in front of him an immense basilica. The light projectsitself from the lower end with the magical effect of a many-colouredsun. It lights up the innumerable heads of the multitude which fills thenave and surges between the columns towards the side-aisles, where onecan distinguish in the wooden compartments altars, beds, chainlets oflittle blue stones, and constellations painted on the walls. 

In the midst of the crowd groups are stationed here and there; menstanding on stools are discoursing with lifted fingers; others arepraying with arms crossed, or lying down on the ground, or singinghymns, or drinking wine. Around a table the faithful are carrying on thelove-feasts; martyrs are unswathing their limbs to show their wounds;old men, leaning on their staffs, are relating their travels. 

Amongst them are people from the country of the Germans, from Thrace, Gaul, Scythia and the Indies--with snow on their beards, feathers intheir hair, thorns in the fringes of their garments, sandals coveredwith dust, and skins burnt by the sun. All costumes are mingled--mantlesof purple and robes of linen, embroidered dalmatics, woollen jackets, sailors' caps and bishops' mitres. Their eyes gleam strangely. They havethe appearance of executioners or of eunuchs. 

Hilarion advances among them. Antony, pressing against his shoulder, observes them. He notices a great many women. Several of them aredressed like men, with their hair cut short. He is afraid of them. 

_Hilarion_--"These are the Christian women who have converted theirhusbands. Besides, the women are always for Jesus--even theidolaters--as witness Procula, the wife of Pilate, and Poppæa, theconcubine of Nero. Don't tremble any more! Come on!"

There are fresh arrivals every moment. 

They multiply; they separate, swift as shadows, all the time making agreat uproar, or intermingling yells of rage, exclamations of love, canticles, and upbraidings. 

_Antony_, in a low tone--"What do they want?"

_Hilarion_--"The Lord said, 'I may still have to speak to you about manythings. ' They possess those things. "

And he pushes him towards a throne of gold, five paces off, where, surrounded by ninety-five disciples, all anointed with oil, pale andemaciated, sits the prophet Manes--beautiful as an archangel, motionlessas a statue--wearing an Indian robe, with carbuncles in his plaitedhair, a book of coloured pictures in his left hand, and a globe underhis right. The pictures represent the creatures who are slumbering inchaos. Antony bends forward to see him. Then Manes makes his globerevolve, and, attuning his words to the music of a lyre, from whichbursts forth crystalline sounds, he says:

"The celestial earth is at the upper extremity, the mortal earth at thelower. It is supported by two angels, the Splenditenens and theOmophorus, with six faces. 

"At the summit of Heaven, the Impassible Divinity occupies the highestseat; underneath, face to face, are the Son of God and the Prince ofDarkness. 

"The darkness having made its way into His kingdom, God extracted fromHis essence a virtue which produced the first man; and He surrounded himwith five elements. But the demons of darkness deprived him of one part, and that part is the soul. 

"There is but one soul, spread through the universe, like the water of astream divided into many channels. This it is that sighs in the wind, grinds in the marble which is sawn, howls in the voice of the sea; andit sheds milky tears when the leaves are torn off the fig-tree. 

"The souls that leave this world emigrate towards the stars, which areanimated beings. "

Antony begins to laugh:

"Ah! ah! what an absurd hallucination!"

_A man_, beardless, and of austere aspect--"Why?"

Antony is about to reply. But Hilarion tells him in an undertone, thatthis man is the mighty Origen; and Manes resumes:

"At first, they stay in the moon, where they are purified. After that, they ascend to the sun. "

_Antony_, slowly--"I know nothing to prevent us from believing it. "

_Manes_--"The end of every creature is the liberation of the celestialray shut up in matter. It makes its escape more easily through perfumes, spices, the aroma of old wine, the light substances that resemblethought. But the actions of daily life withhold it. The murderer will beborn again in the body of a eunuch; he who slays an animal will becomethat animal. If you plant a vine-tree, you will be fastened in itsbranches. Food absorbs those who use it. Therefore, mortify yourselves!fast!"

_Hilarion_--"They are temperate, as you see!"

_Manes_--"There is a great deal of it in flesh-meats, less in herbs. Besides, the Pure, by the force of their merits, despoil vegetables ofthat luminous spark, and it flies towards its source. The animals, bygeneration, imprison it in the flesh. Therefore, avoid women!"

_Hilarion_--"Admire their countenance!"

_Manes_--"Or, rather, act so well that they may not be prolific. It isbetter for the soul to sink on the earth than to languish in carnalfetters. "

_Antony_--"Ah! abomination!"

_Hilarion_--"What matters the hierarchy of iniquities? The Church hasdone well to make marriage a sacrament!"

_Saturninus_, in Syrian costume--"He propagates a dismal order ofthings! The Father, in order to punish the rebel angels, commanded themto create the world. Christ came in order that the God of the Jews, whowas one of those angels----"

_Antony_--"An angel? He! the Creator?"

_Gerdon_--"Did He not desire to kill Moses and deceive the prophets? anddid He not lead the people astray, spreading lying and idolatry?"

_Marcion_--"Certainly, the Creator is not the true God!"

_Saint Clement of Alexandria_--"Matter is eternal!"

_Bardesanes_, as one of the Babylonian Magi--"It was formed by the sevenplanetary spirits. "

_The Hernians_--"The angels have made the souls!"

_The Priscillianists_--"The world was made by the Devil. "

_Antony_, falls backward--"Horror!"

_Hilarion_, holding him up--"You drive yourself to despair too quickly!You don't rightly comprehend their doctrine. Here is one who hasreceived his from Theodas, the friend of Saint Paul. Hearken to him!"

And, at a signal from Hilarion, Valentinus, in a tunic of silver cloth, with a hissing voice and a pointed skull, cries:

"The world is the work of a delirious God!"

_Antony_, hangs down his head--"The work of a delirious God!"

After a long silence:

"How is that?"

_Valentinus_--"The most perfect of the Æons, the Abysm, reposed on thebosom of Profundity together with Thought. From their union sprangIntelligence, who had for his consort Truth. 

"Intelligence and Truth engendered the Word and Life, which in theirturn engendered Man and the Church; and this makes eight Æons. "

He reckons on his fingers:

"The Word and Truth produced ten other Æons, that is to say, fivecouples. Man and the Church produced twelve others, amongst whom werethe Paraclete and Faith, Hope and Charity, Perfection and Wisdom, Sophia. 

"The entire of those thirty Æons constitutes the Pleroma, orUniversality of God. Thus, like the echoes of a voice that is dyingaway, like the exhalations of a perfume that is evaporating, like thefires of a sun that is setting, the Powers that have emanated from theHighest Powers are always growing feeble. 

"But Sophia, desirous of knowing the Father, rushed out of the Pleroma;and the Word then made another pair, Christ and the Holy Ghost, whobound together all the Æons, and all together they formed Jesus, theflower of the Pleroma. Meanwhile, the effort of Sophia to escape hadleft in the void an image of her, an evil substance, Acharamoth. TheSaviour took pity on her, and delivered her from her passions; and fromthe smile of Acharamoth on being set free Light was born; her tears madethe waters, and her sadness engendered gloomy Matter. From Acharamothsprang the Demiurge, the fabricator of the worlds, the heavens, and theDevil. He dwells much lower down than the Pleroma, without evenbeholding it, so that he imagines he is the true God, and repeatsthrough the mouths of his prophets: 'Besides me there is no God. ' Thenhe made man, and cast into his soul the immaterial seed, which was theChurch, the reflection of the other Church placed in the Pleroma. 

"Acharamoth, one day, having reached the highest region, shall unitewith the Saviour; the fire hidden in the world shall annihilate allmatter, shall then consume itself, and men, having become pure spirits, shall espouse the angels!"

_Origen_--"Then the Demon shall be conquered, and the reign of God shallbegin!"

Antony represses an exclamation, and immediately Basilides, catching himby the elbow:

"The Supreme Being, with his infinite emanations, is called Abraxas, andthe Saviour with all his virtues, Kaulakau, otherwise rank-upon-rank, rectitude-upon-rectitude. The power of Kaulakau is obtained by the aidof certain words inscribed on this calcedony to facilitate memory. "

And he shows on his neck a little stone on which fantastic lines areengraved. 

"Then you shall be transported into the invisible; and, unfettered bylaw, you shall despise everything, including virtue itself. As for us, the Pure, we must avoid sorrow, after the example of Kaulakau. "

_Antony_--"What! and the Cross?"

The Elkhesaites, in hyacinthine robes, reply to him:

"The sadness, the vileness, the condemnation, and the oppression of myfathers are effaced, thanks to the new Gospel. We may deny the inferiorChrist, the man-Jesus; but we must adore the other Christ generated inhis person under the wing of the Dove. Honour marriage! The Holy Spiritis feminine!"

Hilarion has disappeared; and Antony, pressed forward by the crowd, finds himself facing the Carpocratians, stretched with women uponscarlet cushions:

"Before re-entering the centre of unity, you will have to pass through aseries of conditions and actions. In order to free yourself from thePowers of Darkness, do their works for the present! The husband goes tohis wife and says, 'Act with charity towards your brother, ' and she willkiss you. "

The Nicolaites, assembled around a smoking dish:

"This is meat offered to idols; let us take it! Apostacy is permittedwhen the heart is pure. Glut your flesh with what it asks for. Try todestroy it by means of debaucheries. Prounikos, the mother of Heaven, wallows in iniquity. "

The Marcosians, with rings of gold and dripping with balsam:

"Come to us, in order to be united with the Spirit! Come to us, in orderto drink immortality!"

And one of them points out to him, behind some tapestry, the body of aman with an ass's head. This represents Sabaoth, the father of theDevil. As a mark of hatred he spits upon it. 

Another discloses a very low bed strewn with flowers, saying as he doesso:

"The spiritual nuptials are about to be consummated. "

A third holds forth a goblet of glass while he utters an invocation. Blood appears in it:

"Ah! there it is! there it is! the blood of Christ!"

Antony turns aside; but he is splashed by the water, which leaps out ofa tub. 

The Helvidians cast themselves into it head foremost, muttering:

"Man regenerated by baptism is incapable of sin!"

Then he passes close to a great fire, where the Adamites are warmingthemselves completely naked to imitate the purity of Paradise; and hejostles up against the Messalians wallowing on the stone floorhalf-asleep, stupid:

"Oh! run over us, if you like; we shall not budge! Work is a sin; alloccupation is evil!"

Behind those, the abject Paternians, men, women, and children, pell-mell, on a heap of filth, lift up their hideous faces, besmearedwith wine:

"The inferior parts of the body, having been made by the Devil, belongto him. Let us eat, drink, and enjoy!"

_Ætius_--"Crimes come from the need here below of the love of God!"

But all at once a man, clad in a Carthaginian mantle, jumps among them, with a bundle of thongs in his hand; and striking at random to right andleft of him violently:

"Ah! imposters, brigands, simoniacs, heretics, and demons! the vermin ofthe schools! the dregs of Hell! This fellow here, Marcion, is a sailorfrom Sinope excommunicated for incest. Carpocras has been banished as amagician; Ætius has stolen his concubine; Nicolas prostituted his ownwife; and Manes, who describes himself as the Buddha, and whose name isCubricus, was flayed with the sharp end of a cane, so that his tannedskin swings at the gates of Ctesiphon. "

Antony has recognised Tertullian, and rushes forward to meet him. 

"Help, master! help!"

_Tertullian_, continuing--"Break the images! Veil the virgins! Pray, fast, weep, mortify yourselves! No philosophy! no books! After Jesus, science is useless!"

All have fled; and Antony sees, instead of Tertullian, a woman seated ona stone bench. She sobs, her head resting against a pillar, her hairhanging down, and her body wrapped in a long brown simar. 

Then they find themselves close to each other far from the crowd; and asilence, an extraordinary peacefulness, ensues, such as one feels in awood when the wind ceases and the leaves flutter no longer. This womanis very beautiful, though faded and pale as death. They stare at eachother, and their eyes mutually exchange a flood of thoughts, as it were, a thousand memories of the past, bewildering and profound. At lastPriscilla begins to speak:

"I was in the lowest chamber of the baths, and I was lulled to sleep bythe confused murmurs that reached me from the streets. All at once Iheard loud exclamations. The people cried, 'It is a magician! it is theDevil!' And the crowd stopped in front of our house opposite to theTemple of Æsculapius. I raised myself with my wrists to the height ofthe air-hole. On the peristyle of the temple was a man with an ironcollar around his neck. He placed lighted coals on a chafing-dish, andwith them made large furrows on his breast, calling out, 'Jesus! Jesus!'The people said, 'That is not lawful! let us stone him!' But he did notdesist. The things that were occurring were unheard of, astounding. Flowers, large as the sun, turned around before my eyes, and I heard aharp of gold vibrating in mid-air. The day sank to its close. My armslet go the iron bars; my strength was exhausted; and when he bore meaway to his house--"

_Antony_--"Whom are you talking about?"

_Priscilla_--"Why, of Montanus!"

_Antony_--"But Montanus is dead. "

_Priscilla_--"That is not true. "

_A voice_--"No, Montanus is not dead!"

Antony comes back; and near him, on the other side upon a bench, asecond woman is seated--this one being fair, and paler still, withswellings under her eyelids, as if she had been a long time weeping. Without waiting for him to question her, she says:

_Maximilla_--"We were returning from Tarsus by the mountains, when, at aturn of the road, we saw a man under a fig-tree. He cried from adistance, 'Stop!' and he sprang forward, pouring out abuse on us. Theslaves rushed up to protect us. He burst out laughing. The horsespranced. The mastiffs all began to howl. He was standing up. Theperspiration fell down his face. The wind made his cloak flap. 

"While addressing us by name, he reproached us for the vanity of ouractions, the impurity of our bodies; and he raised his fist towards thedromedaries on account of the silver bells which they wore under theirjaws. His fury filled my very entrails with terror; nevertheless, it wasa voluptuous sensation, which soothed, intoxicated me. At first, theslaves drew near. 'Master, ' said they, 'our beasts are fatigued'; thenthere were the women: 'We are frightened'; and the slaves ran away. After that, the children began to cry, 'We are hungry. ' And, as noanswer was given to the women, they disappeared. And now he began tospeak. I perceived that there was some one close beside me. It was myhusband: I listened to the other. The first crawled between the stones, exclaiming, 'Do you abandon me?' and I replied, 'Yes! begone!' in orderto accompany Montanus. "

_Antony_--"A eunuch!"

_Priscilla_--"Ah! coarse heart, you are astonished at this! YetMagdalen, Jane, Martha and Susanna did not enter the couch of theSaviour. Souls can be madly embraced more easily than bodies. In orderto retain Eustolia with impunity, the Bishop Leontius mutilatedhimself--cherishing his love more than his virility. And, then, it isnot my own fault. A spirit compels me to do it; Eotas cannot cure me. Nevertheless, he is cruel. What does it matter? I am the last of theprophetesses; and, after me, the end of the world will come. "

_Maximilla_--"He has loaded me with his gifts. None of the others lovedme so much, nor is any of them better loved. "

_Priscilla_--"You lie! I am the person he loves!"

_Maximilla_--"No: it is I!"

They fight. 

Between their shoulders appears a negro's head. 

_Montanus_, covered with a black cloak, fastened by two dead men'sbones:

"Be quiet, my doves! Incapable of terrestrial happiness, we by thisunion attain to spiritual plenitude. After the age of the Father, theage of the Son; and I inaugurate the third, that of the Paraclete. Hislight came to me during the forty nights when the heavenly Jerusalemshone in the firmament above my house at Pepuza. 

"Ah! how you cry out with anguish when the thongs flagellate you! Howyour aching limbs offer themselves to my burning caresses! How youlanguish upon my breast with an inconceivable love! It is so strong thatit has revealed new worlds to you, and you can now behold spirits withyour mortal eyes. "

Antony makes a gesture of astonishment. 

_Tertullian_, coming up close to Montanus--"No doubt, since the soul hasa body, that which has no body exists not. "

_Montanus_--"In order to render it less material I have introducednumerous mortifications--three Lents every year, and, for each night, prayers, in saying which the mouth is kept closed, for fear the breath, in escaping, should sully the mental act. It is necessary to abstainfrom second marriages--or, rather, from marriage altogether! The angelssinned with women. "

The Archontics, in hair-shirts:

"The Saviour said, 'I came to destroy the work of the woman. '"

The Tatianists, in hair-cloths of rushes:

"She is the tree of evil! Our bodies are the garments of skin. "

And, ever advancing on the same side, Antony encounters the Valesians, stretched on the ground, with red plates below their stomachs, beneaththeir tunics. 

They present to him a knife. 

"Do like Origen and like us! Is it the pain you fear, coward? Is it thelove of your flesh that restrains you, hypocrite?"

And while he watches them struggling, extended on their backs swimmingin their own blood, the Cainites, with their hair fastened by vipers, pass close to him, shouting in his ears:

"Glory to Cain! Glory to Sodom! Glory to Judas!

"Cain begot the race of the strong; Sodom terrified the earth with itschastisement, and it is through Judas that God saved the world! Yes, Judas! without him no death and no Redemption!"

They pass out through the band of Circoncellions, clad in wolf-skin, crowned with thorns, and carrying iron clubs. 

"Crush the fruit! Attack the fountain-head! Drown the child! Plunder therich man who is happy, and who eats overmuch! Strike down the poor manwho casts an envious glance at the ass's saddle-cloth, the dog's meal, the bird's nest, and who is grieved at not seeing others as miserable ashimself. 

"As for us--the Saints--in order to hasten the end of the world, wepoison, burn, massacre. The only salvation is in martyrdom. We giveourselves up to martyrdom. We take off with pincers the skin of ourheads; we spread our limbs under the ploughs; we cast ourselves into themouths of furnaces. Shame on baptism! Shame on the Eucharist! Shame onmarriage! Universal damnation!"

Then, throughout the basilica, there is a fresh accession of frenzy. TheAudians draw arrows against the Devil; the Collyridians fling blue veilsto the ceiling; the Ascitians prostrate themselves before a wineskin;the Marcionites baptise a corpse with oil. Close beside Appelles, awoman, the better to explain her idea, shows a round loaf of bread in abottle; another, surrounded by the Sampsians, distributes like a hostthe dust of her sandals. On the bed of the Marcosians, strewn withroses, two lovers embrace each other. The Circoncellions cut oneanother's throats; the Velesians make a rattling sound; Bardesanessings; Carpocras dances; Maximilla and Priscilla utter loud groans; andthe false prophetess of Cappadocia, quite naked, resting on a lion andbrandishing three torches, yells forth the Terrible Invocation. 

The pillars are poised like trunks of trees; the amulets round the necksof the Heresiarchs have lines of flame crossing each other; theconstellations in the chapels move to and fro, and the walls recedeunder the alternate motion of the crowd, in which every head is a wavewhich leaps and roars. 

Meanwhile, from the very depths of the uproar rises a song with burstsof laughter, in which the name of Jesus recurs. These outbursts comefrom the common people, who all clap their hands in order to keep timewith the music. In the midst of them is Arius, in the dress of a deacon:

"The fools who declaim against me pretend to explain the absurd; and, inorder to destroy them entirely, I have composed little poems so comicalthat they are known by heart in the mills, the taverns, and the ports. 

"A thousand times no! the Son is not co-eternal with the Father, nor ofthe same substance. Otherwise He would not have said, 'Father, removefrom Me this chalice! Why do ye call Me good? God alone is good! I go tomy God, to your God!' and other expressions, proving that He was acreated being. It is demonstrated to us besides by all His names: lamb, shepherd, fountain, wisdom, Son of Man, prophet, good way, corner-stone. "

_Sabellius_--"As for me, I maintain that both are identical. "

_Arius_--"The Council of Antioch has decided the other way. "

_Antony_--"Who, then, is the Word? Who was Jesus?"

_The Valentinians_--"He was the husband of Acharamoth when she hadrepented!"

_The Sethianians_--"He was Sem, son of Noah!"

_The Theodotians_--"He was Melchisidech!"

_The Merinthians_--"He was nothing but a man!"

_The Apollonarists_--"He assumed the appearance of one! He simulated thePassion!"

_Marcellus of Ancyra_--"He is a development of the Father!"

_Pope Calixtus_--"Father and Son are the two forms of a single God!"

_Methadius_--"He was first in Adam, and then in man!"

_Cerinthus_--"And He will come back to life again!"

_Valentinus_--"Impossible--His body is celestial. "

_Paul of Samosta_--"He is God only since His baptism. "

_Hermogenes_--"He dwells in the sun. "

And all the heresiarchs form a circle around Antony, who weeps, with hishead in his hands. 

A Jew, with red beard, and his skin spotted with leprosy, advances closeto him, and chuckling horribly:

"His soul was the soul of Esau. He suffered from the disease ofBellerophon; and his mother, the woman who sold perfumes, surrenderedherself to Pantherus, a Roman soldier, under the corn-sheaves, oneharvest evening. "

Antony eagerly lifts up his head, and gazes at them without uttering aword; then, treading right over them:

"Doctors, magicians, bishops and deacons, men and phantoms, back! back!Ye are all lies!"

_The Heresiarchs_--"We have martyrs, more martyrs than yours, prayersmore difficult, higher outbursts of love, and ecstasies quite asprotracted. "

_Antony_--"But no revelation. No proofs. "

Then all brandish in the air rolls of papyrus, tablets of wood, piecesof leather; and strips of cloth; and pushing them one before the other:

_The Corinthians_--"Here is the Gospel of the Hebrews!"

_The Marcionites_--"The Gospel of the Lord! The Gospel of Eve!"

_The Encratites_--"The Gospel of Thomas!"

_The Cainites_--"The Gospel of Judas!"

_Basilides_--"The treatise of the spirit that has come!"

_Manes_--"The prophecy of Barcouf!"

Antony makes a struggle and escapes them, and he perceives, in a cornerfilled with shadows, the old Ebionites, dried up like mummies, theirglances dull, their eyebrows white. 

They speak in a quavering tone:

"We have known, we ourselves have known, the carpenter's son. We were ofhis own age; we lived in his street. He used to amuse himself bymodelling little birds with mud; without being afraid of cutting thebenches, he assisted his father in his work, or rolled up, for hismother, balls of dyed wool. Then he made a journey into Egypt, whence hebrought back wonderful secrets. We were in Jericho when he discoveredthe eater of grasshoppers. They talked together in a low tone, withoutanyone being able to hear them. But it was since that occurrence that hemade a noise in Galilee and that many stories have been circulatedconcerning him. "

They repeat, tremulously:

"We have known, we ourselves; we have known him. "

_Antony_--"One moment! Tell me! pray tell me, what was his face like?"

_Tertullian_--"Fierce and repulsive in its aspect; for he was laden withall the crimes, all the sorrows, and all the deformities of the world. "

_Antony_--"Oh! no! no! I imagine, on the contrary, that there was abouthis entire person a superhuman beauty. "

_Eusebius of Cæsarea_--"There is at Paneadæ, close to an old ruin, inthe midst of a rank growth of weeds, a statue of stone, raised, as it ispretended, by the woman with the issue of blood. But time has gnawedaway the face, and the rain has obliterated the inscription. "

A woman comes forth from the group of Carpocratians. 

_Marcellina_--"I was formerly a deaconess in a little church at Rome, where I used to show the faithful images, in silver, of St. Paul, Homer, Pythagoras and Jesus Christ. 

"I have kept only his. "

She draws aside the folds of her cloak. 

"Do you wish it?"

_A voice_--"He reappears himself when we invoke him. It is the hour. Come!"

And Antony feels a brutal hand laid on him, which drags him along. 

He ascends a staircase in complete darkness, and, after proceeding forsome time, arrives in front of a door. Then his guide (is it Hilarion?he cannot tell) says in the ear of a third person, "The Lord is about tocome, "--and they are introduced into an apartment with a low ceiling andno furniture. What strikes him at first is, opposite him, a longchrysalis of the colour of blood, with a man's head, from which raysescape, and the word _Knouphis_ written in Greek all around. It risesabove a shaft of a column placed in the midst of a pedestal. On theother walls of the apartment, medallions of polished brass representheads of animals--that of an ox, of a lion, of an eagle, of a dog, andagain, an ass's head! The argil lamps, suspended below these images, shed a flickering light. Antony, through a hole in the wall, perceivesthe moon, which shines far away on the waves, and he can evendistinguish their monotonous ripple, with the dull sound of a ship'skeel striking against the stones of a pier. 

Men, squatting on the ground, their faces hidden beneath their cloaks, give vent at intervals to a kind of stifled barking. Women are sleeping, with their foreheads clasped by both arms, which are supported by theirknees, so completely shrouded by their veils that one would say theywere heaps of clothes arranged along the wall. Beside them, children, half-naked, and half devoured with vermin, watch the lamps burning, withan idiotic air;--and they are doing nothing; they are awaitingsomething. 

They speak in low voices about their families, or communicate to oneanother remedies for their diseases. Many of them are going to embark atthe end of the day, the persecution having become too severe. ThePagans, however, are not hard to deceive. "They believe, the fools, thatwe adore Knouphis!"

But one of the brethren, suddenly inspired, places himself in front ofthe column, where they have laid a loaf of bread, which is on the top ofa basket full of fennel and hartwort. 

The others have taken their places, forming, as they stand, threeparallel lines. 

The inspired one unrolls a paper covered with cylinders joined together, and then begins:

"Upon the darkness the ray of the Word descended, and a violent cryburst forth, which seemed like the voice of light. "

All responding, while they sway their bodies to and fro:

"Kyrie eleison!"

_The inspired one_--"Man, then, was created by the infamous God ofIsrael, with the assistance of those here, "--pointing towards themedallions--"Aristophaios, Oraios, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi and Iaô!

"And he lay on the mud, hideous, feeble, shapeless, without the power ofthought. "

All, in a plaintive tone:

"Kyrie eleison!"

_The inspired one_--"But Sophia, taking pity on him, quickened him witha portion of her spirit. Then, seeing man so beautiful, God was seizedwith anger, and imprisoned him in His kingdom, interdicting him from thetree of knowledge. Still, once more, the other one came to his aid. Shesent the serpent, who, with its sinuous advances, prevailed on him todisobey this law of hate. And man, when he had tasted knowledge, understood heavenly matters. "

All, with energy:

"Kyrie eleison!"

_The inspired one_--"But Jaldalaoth, in order to be revenged, plungedman into matter, and the serpent along with him!"

All, in very low tones:

"Kyrie eleison!"

They close their mouths and then become silent. 

The odours of the harbour mingle in the warm air with the smoke of thelamps. Their wicks, spluttering, are on the point of being extinguished, and long mosquitoes flutter around them. Antony gasps with anguish. Hehas the feeling that some monstrosity is floating around him--the horrorof a crime about to be perpetrated. 

But the inspired one, stamping with his feet, snapping his fingers, tossing his head, sings a psalm, with a wild refrain, to the sound ofcymbals and of a shrill flute:

"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!

"Swift One, that runs without feet, captor that takes without hands!Sinuous as the waves, round as the sun, darkened with spots of gold;like the firmament, strewn with stars! like the twistings of thevine-tree and the windings of entrails!

"Unbegotten! earth-devourer! ever young! perspicacious! honoured atEpidaurus! good for men! who cured King Ptolemy, the soldiers of Moses, and Glaucus, son of Minos!

"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!"

All repeat:

"Come! come! come! come forth from thy cavern!"

However, there is no manifestation. 

"Why, what is the matter with him?"

They proceed to deliberate, and to make suggestions. One old man offersa clump of grass. Then there is a rising in the basket. The green herbsare agitated; the flowers fall, and the head of a python appears. 

He passes slowly over the edge of the loaf, like a circle turning rounda motionless disc; then he develops, lengthens; he becomes of enormousweight. To prevent him from grazing the ground, the men support him withtheir breasts, the women with their heads, and the children with thetips of their fingers; and his tail, emerging through the hole in thewall, stretches out indefinitely, even to the depths of the sea. Hisrings unfold themselves, and fill the apartment. They wind themselvesround Antony. 

The Faithful, pressing their mouths against his skin, snatch the breadwhich he has nibbled. 

"It is thou! it is thou!

"Raised at first by Moses, crushed by Ezechias, re-established by theMessiah. He drank thee in the waters of baptism; but thou didst quit himin the Garden of Olives, and then he felt all his weakness. 

"Writhing on the bar of the Cross, and higher than his head, slaveringabove the crown of thorns, thou didst behold him dying; for thou artJesus! yes, thou art the Word! thou art the Christ!"

Antony swoons in horror, and falls in his cell, upon the splinters ofwood, where the torch, which had slipped from his hand, is burningmildly. This commotion causes him to half-open his eyes; and heperceives the Nile, undulating and clear, under the light of the moon, like a great serpent in the midst of the sands--so much so that thehallucination again takes possession of him. He has not quitted theOphites; they surround him, address him by name, carry off baggages, anddescend towards the port. He embarks along with them. 

A brief period of time flows by. Then the vault of a prison encircleshim. In front of him, iron bars make black lines upon a background ofblue; and at its sides, in the shade, are people weeping and praying, surrounded by others who are exhorting and consoling them. 

Without, one is attracted by the murmuring of a crowd, as well as by thesplendour of a summer's day. Shrill voices are crying out watermelons, water, iced drinks, and cushions of grass to sit down on. From time totime, shouts of applause burst forth. He observes people walking ontheir heads. 

Suddenly, comes a continuous roaring, strong and cavernous, like thenoise of water in an aqueduct: and, opposite him, he perceives, behindthe bars of another cage, a lion, who is walking up and down; then a rowof sandals, of naked legs, and of purple fringes. 

Overhead, groups of people, ranged symmetrically, widen out from thelowest circle, which encloses the arena, to the highest, where mastshave been raised to support a veil of hyacinth hung in the air on ropes. Staircases, which radiate towards the centre, intersect, at equaldistances, those great circles of stone. Their steps disappear fromview, owing to the vast audience seated there--knights, senators, soldiers, common people, vestals and courtesans, in woollen hoods, insilk maniples, in tawny tunics with aigrettes of precious stones, tuftsof feathers and lictors' rods; and all this assemblage, muttering, exclaiming, tumultuous and frantic, stuns him like an immense tubboiling over. In the midst of the arena, upon an altar, smokes a vesselof incense. 

The people who surround him are Christians, delivered up to the wildbeasts. The men wear the red cloak of the high-priests of Saturn, thewomen the fillets of Ceres. Their friends distribute fragments of theirgarments and rings. In order to gain admittance into the prison, theyrequire, they say, a great deal of money; but what does it matter? Theywill remain till the end. 

Amongst these consolers Antony observes a bald man in a black tunic, aportion of whose face is plainly visible. He discourses with them on thenothingness of the world, and the happiness of the Elect. Antony isfilled with transports of Divine love. He longs for the opportunity ofsacrificing his life for the Saviour, not knowing whether he is himselfone of these martyrs. But, save a Phrygian, with long hair, who keepshis arms raised, they all have a melancholy aspect. An old man issobbing on a bench, and a young man, who is standing, is musing withdowncast eyes. 

The old man has refused to pay tribute at the angle of a cross-road, before a statue of Minerva; and he regards his companions with a lookwhich signifies:

"You ought to succour me! Communities sometimes make arrangements bywhich they might be left in peace. Many amongst you have even obtainedletters falsely declaring that you have offered sacrifice to idols. "

He asks:

"Is it not Peter of Alexandria who has regulated what one ought to dowhen one is overcome by tortures?"

Then, to himself:

"Ah! this is very hard at my age! my infirmities render me so feeble!Perchance, I might have lived to another winter!"

The recollection of his little garden moves him to tears; and hecontemplates the side of the altar. 

The young man, who had disturbed by violence a feast of Apollo, murmurs:

"My only chance was to fly to the mountains!"

"The soldiers would have caught you, " says one of the brethren. 

"Oh! I could have done like Cyprian; I should have come back; and thesecond time I should have had more strength, you may be sure!"

Then he thinks of the countless days he should have lived, with all thepleasures which he will not have known;--and he, likewise, contemplatesthe side of the altar. 

But the man in the black tunic rushes up to him:

"How scandalous! What? You a victim of election? Think of all thesewomen who are looking at you! And then, God sometimes performs amiracle. Pionius benumbed the hands of his executioners; and the bloodof Polycarp extinguished the flames of his funeral-pile. "

He turns towards the old man. "Father, father! You ought to edify us byyour death. By deferring it, you will, without doubt, commit some badaction which will destroy the fruit of your good deeds. Besides, thepower of God is infinite. Perhaps your example will convert the entirepeople. "

And, in the den opposite, the lions stride up and down, withoutstopping, rapidly, with a continuous movement. The largest of them allat once fixes his eyes on Antony and emits a roar, and a mass of vapourissues from his jaws. 

The women are jammed up against the men. 

The consoler goes from one to another:

"What would ye say--what would any of you say--if they burned you withplates of iron; if horses tore you asunder; if your body, coated withhoney, was devoured by insects? You will have only the death of a hunterwho is surprised in a wood. "

Antony would much prefer all this than the horrible wild beasts; heimagines he feels their teeth and their talons, and that he hears hisback cracking under their jaws. 

A belluarius enters the dungeon; the martyrs tremble. One alone amongstthem is unmoved--the Phrygian, who has gone into a corner to pray. Hehad burned three temples. He now advances with lifted arms, open mouth, and his head towards Heaven, without seeing anything, like asomnambulist. 

The consoler exclaims:

"Keep back! Keep back! The Spirit of Montanus will destroy ye!"

All fall back, vociferating:

"Damnation to the Montanist!"

They insult him, spit upon him, would like to strike him. The lions, prancing, bite one another's manes. The people yell:

"To the beasts! To the beasts!"

The martyrs, bursting into sobs, catch hold of one another. A cup ofnarcotic wine is offered to them. They quickly pass it from hand tohand. 

Near the door of the den another belluarius awaits the signal. It opens;a lion comes out. 

He crosses the arena with great irregular strides. Behind him in a rowappear the other lions, then a bear, three panthers, and leopards. Theyscatter like a flock in a prairie. 

The cracking of a whip is heard. The Christians stagger, and, in orderto make an end of it, their brethren push them forward. 

Antony closes his eyes. 

 * * * * *

He opens them again. But darkness envelops him. Ere long, it growsbright once more; and he is able to trace the outlines of a plain, aridand covered with knolls, such as may be seen around a deserted quarry. Here and there a clump of shrubs lifts itself in the midst of the slabs, which are on a level with the soil, and above which white forms arebending, more undefined than clouds. Others rapidly make theirappearance. Eyes shine through the openings of long veils. By theirindolent gait and the perfumes which exhale from them, Antony knows theyare ladies of patrician rank. There are also men, but of inferiorcondition, for they have visages at the same time simple and coarse. 

One of the women, with a long breath:

"Ah! how pleasant is the air of the chilly night in the midst ofsepulchres! I am so fatigued with the softness of couches, the noise ofday, and the oppressiveness of the sun!"

_A woman_, panting--"Ah! at last, here I am! But how irksome to havewedded an idolater!"

_Another_--"The visits to the prisons, the conversations with ourbrethren, all excite the suspicions of our husbands! And we must evenhide ourselves from them when making the sign of the Cross; they wouldtake it for a magical conjuration. "

_Another_--"With mine, there was nothing but quarrelling all day long. Idid not like to submit to the abuses to which he subjected my person;and, for revenge, he had me persecuted as a Christian. "

_Another_--"Recall to your memory that young man of such striking beautywho was dragged by the heels behind a chariot, like Hector, from theEsquiline Gate to the Mountains of Tibur; and his blood stained thebushes on both sides of the road. I collected the drops--here they are!"

She draws from her bosom a sponge perfectly black, covers it withkisses, and then flings herself upon the slab, crying:

"Ah! my friend! my friend!"

_A man_--"It is just three years to-day since Domitilla's death. She wasstoned at the bottom of the Wood of Proserpine. I gathered her bones, which shone like glow-worms in the grass. The earth now covers them. "

He flings himself upon a tombstone. 

"O my betrothed! my betrothed!"

And all the others, scattered through the plain:

"O my sister!" "O my brother!" "O my daughter!" "O my mother!"

They are on their knees, their foreheads clasped with their hands, ortheir bodies lying flat with both arms extended; and the sobs which theyrepress make their bosoms swell almost to bursting. They gaze up at thesky, saying:

"Have pity on her soul, O my God! She is languishing in the abode ofshadows. Deign to admit her into the Resurrection, so that she mayrejoice in Thy light!"

Or, with eyes fixed on the flagstones, they murmur:

"Be at rest--suffer no more! I have brought thee wine and meat!"

_A widow_--"Here is pudding, made by me, according to his taste, withmany eggs, and a double measure of flour. We are going to eat togetheras of yore, is not that so?"

She puts a little of it on her lips, and suddenly begins to laugh in anextravagant fashion, frantically. 

The others, like her, nibble a morsel and drink a mouthful; they tellone another the history of their martyrs; their sorrow becomes vehement;their libations increase; their eyes, swimming with tears, are fixed onone another; they stammer with inebriety and desolation. Gradually theirhands touch; their lips meet; their veils are torn away, and theyembrace one another upon the tombs in the midst of the cups and thetorches. 

The sky begins to brighten. The mist soaks their garments; and, as ifthey were strangers to one another, they take their departure bydifferent roads into the country. 

The sun shines forth. The grass has grown taller; the plain has becometransformed. Across the bamboos, Antony sees a forest of columns of abluish-grey colour. Those are trunks of trees springing from a singletrunk. From each of its branches descend other branches which penetrateinto the soil; and the whole of those horizontal and perpendicularlines, indefinitely multiplied, might be compared to a giganticframework were it not that here and there appears a little fig-tree witha dark foliage like that of a sycamore. Between the branches hedistinguishes bunches of yellow flowers and violets, and ferns as largeas birds' feathers. Under the lowest branches may be seen at differentpoints the horns of a buffalo, or the glittering eyes of an antelope. Parrots sit perched, butterflies flutter, lizards crawl upon the ground, flies buzz; and one can hear, as it were, in the midst of the silence, the palpitation of an all-permeating life. 

At the entrance of the wood, on a kind of pile, is a strange sight--aman coated over with cows' dung, completely naked, more dried-up than amummy. His joints form knots at the extremities of his bones, which arelike sticks. He has clusters of shells in his ears, his face is verylong, and his nose is like a vulture's beak. His left arm is held erectin the air, crooked, and stiff as a stake; and he has remained there solong that birds have made a nest in his hair. 

At the four corners of his pile four fires are blazing. The sun is rightin his face. He gazes at it with great open eyes, and without looking atAntony. 

"Brahmin of the banks of the Nile, what sayest thou?"

Flames start out on every side through the partings of the beams; andthe gymnosophist resumes:

"Like a rhinoceros, I am plunged in solitude. I dwelt in the tree thatwas behind me. "

In fact, the large fig-tree presents in its flutings a naturalexcavation of the shape of a man. 

"And I fed myself on flowers and fruits with such an observance ofprecepts that not even a dog has seen me eat. 

"As existence proceeds from corruption, corruption from desire, desirefrom sensation, and sensation from contact, I have avoided every kind ofaction, every kind of contact, and--without stirring any more than thepillar of a tombstone--exhaling my breath through my two nostrils, fixing my glances upon my nose; and, observing the ether in my spirit, the world in my limbs, the moon in my heart, I pondered on the essenceof the great soul, whence continually escape, like sparks of fire, theprinciples of life. I have, at last, grasped the supreme soul in allbeings, all beings in the supreme soul; and I have succeeded in makingmy soul penetrate the place into which my senses used to penetrate. 

"I receive knowledge directly from Heaven, like the bird Tchataka, whoquenches his thirst only in the droppings of the rain. From the veryfact of my having knowledge of things, things no longer exist. For menow there is no hope and no anguish, no goodness, no virtue, neitherday nor night, neither thou nor I--absolutely nothing. 

"My frightful austerities have made me superior to the Powers. Acontraction of my brain can kill a hundred kings' sons, dethrone gods, overrun the world. "

He utters all this in a monotonous voice. The leaves all around him arewithered. The rats fly over the ground. 

He slowly lowers his eyes towards the flames, which are rising, thenadds:

"I have become disgusted with form, disgusted with perception, disgustedeven with knowledge itself--for thought does not outlive the transitoryfact that gives rise to it; and the spirit, like the rest, is but anillusion. 

"Everything that is born will perish; everything that is dead will cometo life again. The beings that have actually disappeared will sojourn inwombs not yet formed, and will come back to earth to serve with sorrowother creatures. But, as I have resolved through an infinite number ofexistences, under the guise of gods, men, and animals, I give uptravelling, and no longer wish for this fatigue. I abandon the dirty innof my body, walled in with flesh, reddened with blood, covered withhideous skin, full of uncleanness; and, for my reward, I shall, finally, sleep in the very depths of the absolute, in annihilation. "

The flames rise to his breast, then envelop him. His head stretchesacross as if through the hole of a wall. His eyes are perpetually fixedin a vacant stare. 

Antony gets up again. The torch on the ground has set fire to thesplinters of wood, and the flames have singed his beard. Bursting intoan exclamation, Antony tramples on the fire; and, when only a heap ofcinders is left:

"Where, then, is Hilarion? He was here just now. I saw him! Ah! no; itis impossible! I am mistaken! How is this? My cell, those stones, thesand, have not, perhaps, any more reality. I must be going mad. Stay!where was I? What was happening here?

"Ah! the gymnosophist! This death is common amongst the Indian sages. Kalanos burned himself before Alexander; another did the same in thetime of Augustus. What hatred of life they must have had!--unless, indeed, pride drove them to it. No matter, it is the intrepidity ofmartyrs! As to the others, I now believe all that has been told me ofthe excesses they have occasioned. 

"And before this? Yes, I recollect! the crowd of heresiarchs . . . Whatshrieks! what eyes! But why so many outbreaks of the flesh andwanderings of the spirit?

"It is towards God they pretend to direct their thoughts in all thesedifferent ways. What right have I to curse them, I who stumble in my ownpath? When they have disappeared, I shall, perhaps, learn more. This onerushed away too quickly; I had not time to reply to him. Just now it isas if I had in my intellect more space and more light. I am tranquil. Ifeel myself capable . . . But what is this now? I thought I hadextinguished the fire. "

A flame flutters between the rocks; and, speedily, a jerky voice makesitself heard from the mountains in the distance. 

"Are those the barkings of a hyena, or the lamentations of some losttraveller?"

Antony listens. The flame draws nearer. 

 * * * * *

And he sees approaching a woman who is weeping, resting on the shoulderof a man with a white beard. She is covered with a purple garment all inrags. He, like her, is bare-headed, with a tunic of the same colour, andcarries a bronze vase, whence arises a small blue flame. 

Antony is filled with fear, --and yet he would fain know who this womanis. 

_The stranger_ (_Simon_)--"This is a young girl, a poor child, whom Itake everywhere with me. "

He raises the bronze vase. Antony inspects her by the light of thisflickering flame. She has on her face marks of bites, and traces ofblows along her arms. Her scattered hair is entangled in the rents ofher rags; her eyes appear insensible to the light. 

_Simon_--"Sometimes she remains thus a long time without speaking oreating, and utters marvellous things. "

_Antony_--"Really?"

_Simon_--"Eunoia! Eunoia! relate what you have to say!"

She turns around her eyeballs, as if awakening from a dream, passes herfingers slowly across her two lids, and in a mournful voice:

_Helena_ (_Eunoia_)--"I have a recollection of a distant region, of thecolour of emerald. There is only a single tree there. "

Antony gives a start. 

"At each step of its huge branches a pair of spirits stand. The branchesaround them cross each other, like the veins of a body, and they watchthe eternal life circulating from the roots, where it is lost in shadowup to the summit, which reaches beyond the sun. I, on the second branch, illumined with my face the summer nights. "

_Antony_, touching his forehead--"Ah! ah! I understand! the head!"

_Simon_, with his finger on his lips--"Hush! Hush!"

_Helena_--"The vessel remained convex: her keel clave the foam. He saidto me, 'What does it matter if I disturb my country, if I lose mykingdom! You will be mine, in my own house!'

"How pleasant was the upper chamber of his palace! He would lie downupon the ivory bed, and, smoothing my hair, would sing in an amorousstrain. At the end of the day, I could see the two camps and thelanterns which they were lighting; Ulysses at the edge of his tent;Achilles, armed from head to foot, driving a chariot along theseashore. "

_Antony_--"Why, she is quite mad! Wherefore? . . . "

_Simon_--"Hush! Hush!"

_Helena_--"They rubbed me with unguents, and sold me to the people toamuse them. One evening, standing with the sistrum in my hand, I wascoaxing Greek sailors to dance. The rain, like a cataract, fell upon thetavern, and the cups of hot wine were smoking. A man entered without thedoor having been opened. "

_Simon_--"It was I! I found you. Here she is, Antony; she who is calledSigeh, Eunoia, Barbelo, Prounikos! The Spirits who govern the world werejealous of her, and they bound her in the body of a woman. She was theHelen of the Trojans, whose memory the poet Stesichorus had renderedinfamous. She has been Lucretia, the patrician lady violated by thekings. She was Delilah, who cut off the hair of Samson. She was thatdaughter of Israel who surrendered herself to he-goats. She has lovedadultery, idolatry, lying and folly. She was prostituted by everynation. She has sung in all the cross-ways. She has kissed every face. At Tyre, she, the Syrian, was the mistress of thieves. She drank withthem during the nights, and she concealed assassins amid the vermin ofher tepid bed. "

_Antony_--"Ah! what is coming over me?"

_Simon_, with a furious air--

"I have redeemed her, I tell you, and re-established her in all hersplendour, such as Caius Cæsar Agricola became enamoured of when hedesired to sleep with the Moon!"

_Antony_---"Well! well!"

_Simon_--"But she really is the Moon! Has not Pope Clement written thatshe was imprisoned in a tower? Three hundred persons came to surroundthe tower; and on each of the murderers, at the same time, the moon wasseen to appear, --though there are not many moons in the world, or manyEunoias!"

_Antony_--"Yes! . . . I think I recollect . . . "

And he falls into a reverie. 

_Simon_--"Innocent as Christ, who died for men, she has devoted herselfto women. For the powerlessness of Jehovah is demonstrated by thetransgression of Adam, and we must shake off the old law, opposed, as itis, to the order of things. I have preached the new Gospel in Ephraimand in Issachar, along the torrent of Bizor, behind the lake of Houleh, in the valley of Mageddo, and beyond the mountains, at Bostra and atDamas. Let those who are covered with wine-dregs, those who are coveredwith dirt, those who are covered with blood, come to me; and I willwash out their defilement with the Holy Spirit, called by the Greeks, Minerva. She is Minerva! She is the Holy Spirit! I am Jupiter Apollo, the Christ, the Paraclete, the great power of God incarnated in theperson of Simon!"

_Antony_--"Ah! it is you! . . . It is you! But I know your crimes! You wereborn at Gittha on the borders of Samaria. Dositheus, your first master, dismissed you! You execrate Saint Paul for having converted one of yourwomen; and, vanquished by Saint Peter, in your rage and terror, youflung into the waves the bag which contained your magical instruments!"

_Simon_--"Do you desire them?"

Antony looks at him, and an inner voice murmurs in his breast, "Whynot?"

Simon resumes:

"He who understands the powers of Nature and the substance of spiritsought to perform miracles. It is the dream of all sages--and the desireof which gnaws you; confess it!

"Amongst the Romans I flew so high in the circus that they saw me nomore. Nero ordered me to be decapitated; but it was a sheep's head thatfell to the ground instead of mine. Finally, they buried me alive; but Icame back to life on the third day. The proof of it is that I am here!"

He gives him his hands to smell. They have the odour of a corpse. Antonyrecoils. 

"I can make bronze serpents move, marble statues laugh, and dogs speak. I will show you an immense quantity of gold, I will set up kings, youshall see nations adoring me. I can walk on the clouds and on thewaves; pass through mountains; assume the appearance of a young man, orof an old man; of a tiger, or of an ant; take your face, give you mine;and drive the thunderbolt. Do you hear?"

The thunder rolls, followed by flashes of lightning. 

"It is the voice of the Most High, 'for the Eternal, thy God, is afire, ' and all creations operate by the emanations of this central fire. You are about to receive the baptism of it--that second baptism, announced by Jesus, which fell on the Apostles one stormy day when thewindow was open!"

And all the while stirring the flame with his hand, slowly, as if tosprinkle Antony with it:

"Mother of Mercies, thou who discoverest secrets in order that we mayhave rest in the eighth house . . . "

Antony exclaims:

"Ah! if I had holy water!"

The flame goes out, producing much smoke. 

Eunoia and Simon have disappeared. 

 * * * * *

An extremely cold fog, opaque and f[oe]tid, fills the atmosphere. 

_Antony_, extending his arms like a blind man--

"Where am I? . . . I am afraid of falling into the abyss. And the cross, nodoubt, is too far away from me. Ah! what a night! what a night!"

A sudden gust of wind cleaves the fog asunder; and he perceives two mencovered with long white tunics. The first is of tall stature, with asweet expression of countenance and grave deportment. His white hair, parted like that of Christ, descends regularly over his shoulders. Hehas thrown down a wand which he was carrying in his hand, and which hiscompanion has taken up, making a respectful bow after the fashion ofOrientals. The other is small, coarse-looking, flat-nosed, with a thickneck, curly hair, and an air of simplicity. Both of them arebare-footed, bare-headed, and covered with dust, like people who havecome on a long journey. 

_Antony_, with a start--"What do ye seek? Speak! Go on!"

_Damis_--He is the little man--

"La, la! . . . Worthy hermit! what do you say? I know nothing about it. Here is the Master!"

He sits down; the other remains standing. Silence. 

_Antony_, resumes--"Ye come in this fashion? . . . "

_Damis_--"Oh! a great distance--a very great distance!"

_Antony_--"And ye are going? . . . "

_Damis_, pointing at his companion--"Wherever he wishes. "

_Antony_--"Who, then, is he?"

_Damis_--"Look at him. "

_Antony_--"He has the appearance of a saint. If I dared . . . "

The fog by this time is quite gone. The atmosphere has become perfectlyclear. The moon shines out. 

_Damis_--"What are you thinking of now that you say nothing more?"

_Antony_--"I am thinking of----Oh! nothing. "

Damis draws close to Apollonius, makes many turns round him, with hisfigure bent, and without moving his head. 

"Master, this is a Galilean hermit who wishes to know the sources ofyour wisdom. "

_Apollonius_--"Let him approach. "

Antony hesitates. 

_Damis_--"Approach!"

_Apollonius_, in a voice of thunder--

"Approach! You would like to know who I am, what I have done, what I amthinking of? Is that not so, child?"

_Antony_--" . . . If at the same time those things contribute to mysalvation. "

_Apollonius_--"Rejoice! I am about to tell them to you!"

_Damis_, in a low tone to Antony--

"Is it possible? He must have, at the first glance, recognised yourextraordinary inclinations for philosophy! I shall profit by it alsomyself. "

_Apollonius_--"I will first describe to you the long road I travelled togain doctrine; and, if you find in all my life one bad action, you willstop me--for he must scandalise by his words who has offended by hisactions. "

_Damis_ to Antony:

"What a just man! eh?"

_Antony_--"Decidedly, I believe he is sincere. "

_Apollonius_--"The night of my birth, my mother thought she saw herselfgathering flowers on the border of a lake. A flash of lightningappeared; and she brought me into the world amid the cries of swans whowere singing in her dream. Up to my fifteenth year, they plunged methree times a day into the fountain Asbadeus, whose waters renderperjurers dropsical; and they rubbed my body with leaves of cnyza, tomake me chaste. A princess from Palmyra sought me out, one evening, andoffered me treasures, which she knew were hidden in tombs. A priest ofthe temple of Diana cut his throat in despair with the sacrificialknife; and the Governor of Cilicia, after repeated promises, declaredbefore my family that he would put me to death; but it was he who diedthree days after, assassinated by the Romans. "

_Damis_, to Antony, striking him on the elbow--"Eh? Just as I told you!What a man!"

_Apollonius_--"I have for four years in succession observed the completesilence of the Pythagoreans. The most unforeseen calamity did not drawone sigh from me; and, at the theatre, when I entered, they turned asidefrom me as from a phantom. "

_Damis_--"Would you have done that--you?"

_Apollonius_--"The time of my ordeal ended, I undertook to instruct thepriests who had lost the tradition. "

_Antony_--"What tradition?"

_Damis_--"Let him continue. Be silent!"

_Apollonius_--"I have conversed with the Samaneans of the Ganges, withthe astrologers of Chaldea, with the magi of Babylon, with the Gaulishdruids, with the priests of the negroes. I have climbed the fourteenOlympi; I have sounded the Lakes of Sythia; I have measured the vastnessof the desert!"

_Damis_--"All this is undoubtedly true. I was there myself!"

_Apollonius_--"At first, I went as far as the Hyrcanian Sea. I have goneall round it, and through the country of the Baraomatæ, where Bucephalusis buried. I have gone down to Nineveh. At the gates of the city a mancame up to me. "

_Damis_--"I! I! my good Master! I loved you from the very beginning. Youwere sweeter than a girl, and more beautiful than a god!"

_Appollonius_, without listening to him--"He wished to accompany me, inorder to act as an interpreter for me. "

_Damis_--"But you replied that you understood every language, and thatyou divined all thoughts. Then I kissed the end of your mantle, and Iwalked behind you. "

_Apollonius_--"After Ctesiphon, we entered into the land of Babylon. "

_Damis_--"And the satrap uttered an exclamation on seeing a man sopale. "

_Antony_, to himself--"Which signifies----?"

_Apollonius_--"The King received me standing near a throne of silver, ina circular hall studded with stars, and from a cupola hung, from unseenthreads, four great golden birds, with both wings extended. "

_Antony_, musing--"Are there such things on the earth?"

_Damis_--"That is, indeed, a city--Babylon! Everyone is rich there! Thehouses, painted blue, have gates of bronze, with staircases that leaddown to the river. "

Making a sketch with his stick on the ground:

"Like that, do you see? And then there are temples, squares, baths, aqueducts! The palaces are covered with copper! and then the interior, if you only saw it!"

_Apollonius_--"On the northern wall rises a tower, which supports asecond, a third, a fourth, a fifth; and there are three others besides!The eighth is a chapel with a bed in it. Nobody enters there but thewoman chosen by the priests for the God Belus. The King of Babylon mademe take up my quarters in it. "

_Damis_--"They scarcely paid any heed to me. I was left, too, to walkabout the streets by myself. I enquired into the customs of the people;I visited the workshops; I examined the huge machines which bring waterinto the gardens. But it annoyed me to be separated from the Master. "

_Apollonius_--"At last, we left Babylon; and, by the light of the moon, we suddenly saw a wild mare. "

_Damis_--"Yes, indeed! she sprang forth on her iron hoofs; she neighedlike an ass; she galloped amongst the rocks. He burst into angry abuseof her; and she disappeared. "

_Antony_, aside--"Where can they have come from?"

_Apollonius_--"At Taxilla, capital of five thousand fortresses, Phraortes, King of the Ganges, showed us his guard of tall black men, five cubits high, and in the gardens of his palace, under a pavilion ofgreen brocade, an enormous elephant, whom the queens used to amusethemselves in perfuming. This was the elephant of Porus, who fled afterthe death of Alexander. "

_Damis_--"And which was found again in a forest. "

_Antony_--"They talk a great deal, like drunken people. "

_Apollonius_--"Phraortes made us sit down at his table. "

_Damis_--"What an odd country! The noblemen, while drinking, amusethemselves by flinging arrows under the feet of a child who is dancing. But I do not approve . . . "

_Apollonius_--"When I was ready to depart, the King gave me a parasol, and said to me: 'I have, on the Indus, a stud of white camels. When youdo not want them any longer, blow into their ears, and they willreturn. ' We proceeded along the river, walking in the night by thegleaming of the glow-worms, who emitted their radiance through thebamboos. The slave whistled an air to keep off the serpents; and ourcamels bent the reins while passing under the trees, as if under doorsthat were too low. One day, a black child, who held in his hand acaduceus of gold, conducted us to the College of Sages. Iarchas, theirchief, spoke to me of my ancestors, of all my thoughts, of all myactions, and all my existences. He had been the river Indus, and herecalled to my mind that I had conducted the boats on the Nile in thetime of King Sesostris. "

_Damis_--"As for me, they told me nothing, so that I do not know what Iwas. "

_Antony_--"They have the unsubstantial air of shadows. "

_Apollonius_--"We met on the seashore the cynocephali, glutted withmilk, who were returning from their expedition in the Island ofTaprobane. The tepid waves pushed white pearls before us. The ambercracked under our footsteps. Whales' skeletons were bleaching in thecrevices of the cliffs. In short, the earth grew more contracted than asandal;--and, after casting towards the sun drops from the ocean, weturned to the right to go back. We returned through the region of theAromatæ, through the country of the Gangaridæ, the promontory ofComaria, the land of the Sachalitæ, of the Aramitæ, and the Homeritæ;then across the Cassanian mountains, the Red Sea, and the Island ofTopazes, we penetrated into Ethiopia, through the kingdom of thePygmæi. "

_Antony_, aside--"How large the earth is!"

_Damis_--"And when we got home again, all those whom we had known informer days were dead. "

Antony hangs his head. Silence. 

_Apollonius_ goes on:

"Then they began talking about me in the world. The plague ravagedEphesus; I made them stone an old mendicant. "

_Damis_--"And the plague was gone!"

_Antony_--"What! He banishes diseases?"

_Apollonius_--"At Cnidus, I cured the lover of Venus. "

_Damis_--"Yes, a madman, who had even promised to marry her. To love awoman is bad enough; but a statue--what idiocy! The Master placed hishand on this man's heart, and immediately the love was extinguished. "

_Antony_--"What! He drives out demons?"

_Apollonius_--"At Tarentum, they brought to the stake a young girl whowas dead. "

_Damis_--"The Master touched her lips; and she arose, calling on hermother. "

_Antony_--"Can it be? He brings the dead back to life?"

_Apollonius_--"I foretold that Vespasian would be Emperor. "

_Antony_--"What! He divines the future?"

_Damis_--"There was at Corinth----"

_Apollonius_--"While I was supping with him at the waters of Baia----"

_Antony_--"Excuse me, strangers; it is late!"

_Damis_--"----A young man named Menippus. "

_Antony_--"No! no! go away!"

_Apollonius_--"----A dog entered, carrying in its mouth a hand that hadbeen cut off. "

_Damis_--"----One evening, in one of the suburbs, he met a woman. "

_Antony_--"You do not hear me. Take yourselves off!"

_Damis_--"----He prowled vacantly around the couches. "

_Antony_--"Enough!"

_Apollonius_--"----They wanted to drive him away. "

_Damis_--"----Menippus, then, surrendered himself to her; and theybecame lovers. "

_Apollonius_--"----And, beating the mosaic floor with his tail, hedeposited this hand on the knees of Flavius. "

_Damis_--"----But, in the morning, at the school-lectures, Menippus waspale. "

_Antony_, with a bound--"Still at it! Well, let them go on, since thereis not . . . "

_Damis_--"The Master said to him: 'O beautiful young man, you arecaressing a serpent; and a serpent is caressing you. For how long arethese nuptials?' Every one of us went to the wedding. "

_Antony_--"I am doing wrong, surely, in listening to this!"

_Damis_--"Servants were busily engaged at the vestibule; the doors flewopen; nevertheless, one could hear neither the noise of footsteps, northe sound of opening doors. The Master seated himself beside Menippus. Immediately, the bride was seized with anger against the philosophers. But the vessels of gold, the cup-bearers, the cooks, the attendants, disappeared; the roof flew away; the walls fell in; and Apolloniusremained alone, standing with this woman all in tears at his feet. Itwas a vampire, who satisfied the handsome young men in order to devourtheir flesh--because nothing is better for phantoms of this kind thanthe blood of lovers. "

_Apollonius_--"If you wish to know the art----"

_Antony_--"I wish to know nothing. "

_Apollonius_--"On the evening of our arrival at the gates of Rome----"

_Antony_--"Oh! yes, tell me about the City of the Popes. "

_Apollonius_--"----A drunken man accosted us who sang with a sweetvoice. It was an epithalamium of Nero; and he had the power of causingthe death of anyone who heard him with indifference. He carried on hisback in a box a string taken from the cithara of the Emperor. I shruggedmy shoulders. He threw mud in our faces. Then I unfastened my girdle andplaced it in his hands. "

_Damis_--"In this instance you were quite wrong!"

_Apollonius_--"The Emperor, during the night, made me call at hisresidence. He played at ossicles with Sporus, leaning with his left armon a table of agate. He turned round, and, knitting his fair brows: 'Whyare you not afraid of me?' he asked. 'Because the God who made youterrible has made me intrepid, ' I replied. "

_Antony_, to himself--"Something unaccountable fills me with fear. "

Silence. 

_Damis_ resumes, in a shrill voice--"All Asia, moreover, could tellyou . . . "

_Antony_, starting up--"I am sick. Leave me!"

_Damis_--"Listen now. At Ephesus, he witnessed the death of Domitian, who was at Rome. "

_Antony_ making an effort to laugh--"Is this possible?"

_Damis_--"Yes, at the theatre, in broad daylight, on the fourteenth ofthe Kalends of October, he suddenly exclaimed: 'They are murderingCæsar!' and he added, every now and then, 'He rolls on the ground! Oh!how he struggles! He gets up again; he attempts to fly; the gates areshut. Ah! it is finished. He is dead!' And that very day, in fact, TitusFlavius Domitianus was assassinated, as you are aware. "

_Antony_--"Without the aid of the Devil . . . No doubt . . . "

_Apollonius_--"He wished to put me to death, this Domitian. Damis fledby my direction, and I remained alone in my prison. "

_Damis_--"It was a terrible bit of daring, I must confess!"

_Apollonius_--"About the fifth hour, the soldiers led me to thetribunal. I had my speech quite ready, which I kept under my cloak. "

_Damis_--"The rest of us were on the bank of Puzzoli! We saw you die; wewept; when, towards the sixth hour, all at once, you appeared, and saidto us, 'It is I. '"

_Antony_, aside--"Just like Him!"

_Damis_, very loudly--"Absolutely!"

_Antony_--"Oh, no! you are lying, are you not? You are lying!"

_Apollonius_--"He came down from Heaven--I ascend there, thanks to myvirtue, which has raised me even to the height of the Most High!"

_Damis_--"Tyana, his native city, has erected a temple with priests inhis honour!"

_Apollonius_ draws close to Antony, and, bending towards his ear, says:

"The truth is, I know all the gods, all the rites, all the prayers, allthe oracles. I have penetrated into the cavern of Trophonius, the son ofApollo. I have moulded for the Syracusans the cakes which they use onthe mountains. I have undergone the eighty tests of Mithra. I havepressed against my heart the serpent of Sabacius. I have received thescarf of the Cabiri. I have bathed Cybele in the waves of the CampanianGulf; and I have passed three moons in the caverns of Samothrace!"

_Damis_, laughing stupidly--"Ah! ah! ah! at the mysteries of the BonaDea!"

_Apollonius_--"And now we are renewing our pilgrimage. We are going tothe North, the side of the swans and the snows. On the white plain theblind hippopodes break with the ends of their feet the ultramarineplant. "

_Damis_--"Come! it is morning! The cock has crowed; the horse hasneighed; the ship is ready. "

_Antony_--"The cock has not crowed. I hear the cricket in the sands, andI see the moon, which remains in its place. "

_Apollonius_--"We are going to the South, behind the mountains and thehuge waves, to seek in the perfumes for the cause of love. You shallinhale the odour of myrrhodion, which makes the weak die. You shallbathe your body in the lake of pink oil of the Island of Juno. Youshall see sleeping under the primroses the lizard who awakens all thecenturies when at his maturity the carbuncle falls from his forehead. The stars glitter like eyes, the cascades sing like lyres, anintoxicating fragrance arises from the opening flowers. Your spiritshall expand in this atmosphere, and it will show itself in your heartas well as in your face. "

_Damis_--"Master, it is time! The wind is about to rise; the swallowsare awakening; the myrtle-leaf is shed. "

_Apollonius_--"Yes, let us go!"

_Antony_--"No--not I! I remain!"

_Apollonius_--"Do you wish me to show you the plant Balis, whichresuscitates the dead?"

_Damis_--"Ask him rather for the bloodstone, which attracts silver, ironand bronze!"

_Antony_--"Oh! how sick I feel! how sick I feel!"

_Damis_--"You shall understand the voices of all creatures, theroarings, the cooings!"

_Apollonius_--"I will make you mount the unicorns, the dragons, and thedolphins!"

_Antony_, weeps--"Oh! oh! oh!"

_Apollonius_--"You shall know the demons who dwell in the caverns, thosewho speak in the woods, those who move about in the waves, those whodrive the clouds. "

_Damis_--"Fasten your girdle! tie your sandals!"

_Apollonius_--"I will explain to you the reasons for the shapes ofdivinities; why it is that Apollo is upright, Jupiter sitting down, Venus black at Corinth, square at Athens, conical at Paphos. "

_Antony_, clasping his hands--"I wish they would go away! I wish theywould go away!"

_Apollonius_--"I will snatch off before your eyes the armour of theGods; we shall force the sanctuaries; I will make you violate thepythoness!"

_Antony_--"Help, Lord!"

He flings himself against the cross. 

_Apollonius_--"What is your desire? your dream? There's barely time tothink of it . . . "

_Antony_--"Jesus, Jesus, come to my aid!"

_Apollonius_--"Do you wish me to make Jesus appear?"

_Antony_--"What? How?"

_Apollonius_--"It shall be He--and no other! He shall cast off Hiscrown, and we shall speak together face to face!"

_Damis_, in a low tone--"Say what you wish for most! Say what you wishfor most!"

Antony, at the foot of the cross, murmurs prayers. Damis continues torun around him with wheedling gestures. 

"See, worthy hermit, dear Saint Antony! pure man, illustrious man! manwho cannot be sufficiently praised! Do not be alarmed; this is anexaggerated style of speaking, borrowed from the Orientals. It in no wayprevents--"

_Apollonius_--"Let him alone, Damis! He believes, like a brute, in thereality of things. The fear which he has of the gods prevents him fromcomprehending them; and he eats his own words, just like a jealous king!But you, my son, quit me not!"

He steps back to the verge of the cliffs, passes over it and remainsthere, hanging in mid-air:

"Above all forms, farther than the earth, beyond the skies, dwells theWorld of Ideas, entirely filled with the Word. With one bound we leapacross Space, and you shall grasp in its infinity the Eternal, theAbsolute Being! Come! give me your hand. Let us go!"

The pair, side by side, rise softly into the air. 

Antony, embracing the cross, watches them ascending. 

They disappear. 

CHAPTER V. 

ALL GODS, ALL RELIGIONS. 

Antony, walking slowly--"That was really Hell!

"Nebuchadnezzar did not dazzle me so much. The Queen of Sheba did notbewitch me so thoroughly. The way in which he spoke about the godsfilled me with a longing to know them. 

"I recollect having seen hundreds of them at a time, in the Island ofElephantinum, in the reign of Dioclesian. The Emperor had given up tothe nomads a large territory, on condition that they should protect thefrontiers; and the treaty was concluded in the name of the invisiblePowers. For the gods of every people were ignorant about other people. The Barbarians had brought forward theirs. They occupied the hillocks ofsand which line the river. One could see them holding their idolsbetween their arms, like great paralytic children, or else, sailing amidcataracts on trunks of palm-trees, they pointed out from a distance theamulets on their necks and the tattooings on their breasts; and that isnot more criminal than the religion of the Greeks, the Asiatics, and theRomans. 

"When I dwelt in the Temple of Heliopolis, I used often to contemplateall the objects on the walls: vultures carrying sceptres, crocodilesplaying on lyres, men's faces joined to serpents' bodies, women withcows' heads prostrated before the ithyphallic deities; and theirsupernatural forms carried me away into other worlds. I wished to knowwhat those calm eyes were gazing at. In order that matter should have somuch power, it should contain a spirit. The souls of the gods areattached to their images. Those who possess external beauty mayfascinate us; but the others, who are abject or terrible . . . How tobelieve in them? . . . "

And he sees moving past, close to the ground, leaves, stones, shells, branches of trees, vague representations of animals, then a species ofdropsical dwarfs. These are gods. He bursts out laughing. 

Behind him, he hears another outburst of laughter; and Hilarion presentshimself, dressed like a hermit, much bigger than before--in fact, colossal. 

Antony is not surprised at seeing him again. 

"What a brute one must be to adore a thing like that!"

_Hilarion_--"Oh! yes; very much of a brute!"

Then advance before them, one by one, idols of all nations and all ages, in wood, in metal, in granite, in feathers, and in skins sewn together. The oldest of them, anterior to the Deluge, are lost to view beneath theseaweed which hangs from them like hair. Some, too long for their lowerportions, crack in their joints and break their loins while walking. Others allow sand to flow out through holes in their bellies. 

Antony and Hilarion are prodigiously amused. They hold their sides fromsheer laughter. 

After this, idols pass with faces like sheep. They stagger on theirbandy legs, open wide their eyelids, and bleat out, like dumb animals:"Ba! ba! ba!"

In proportion as they approach the human type, they irritate Antony themore. He strikes them with his fist, kicks them, rushes madly upon them. They begin to present a horrible aspect, with high tufts, eyes likebulls, arms terminated with claws, and the jaws of a shark. And, beforethese gods, men are slaughtered on altars of stone, while others arepounded in vats, crushed under chariot-wheels, or nailed to trees. Thereis one of them, all in red-hot iron, with the horns of a bull, whodevours children. 

_Antony_--"Horror!"

_Hilarion_--"But the gods always demand sufferings. Your own, even, haswished--"

_Antony_, weeping--"Say no more--hold your tongue!"

The enclosure of rocks changes into a valley. A herd of oxen pasturesthere on the shorn grass. The shepherd who has charge of them perceivesa cloud; and in a sharp voice pierces the air with words of urgententreaty. 

_Hilarion_--"As he wants rain, he tries, by his strains, to coerce theKing of Heaven to open the fruitful cloud. "

_Antony_, laughing--"This is too silly a form of presumption!"

_Hilarion_--"Why, then, do you perform exorcisms?"

The valley becomes a sea of milk, motionless and illimitable. 

In the midst of it floats a long cradle, formed by the coils of aserpent, all whose heads, bending forward at the same time, overshadowa god who lies there asleep. He is young, beardless, more beautiful thana girl, and covered with diaphanous veils. The pearls of his tiara shinesoftly, like moons; a chaplet of stars winds itself many times above hisbreast, and, with one hand under his head and the other arm extended, hereposes with a dreamy and intoxicated air. A woman squatted before hisfeet awaits his awakening. 

_Hilarion_--"This is the primordial duality of the Brahmans--theabsolute not expressing itself by any form. "

Upon the navel of the god a stalk of lotus has grown; and in its calyxappears another god with three faces. 

_Antony_--"Hold! what an invention!"

_Hilarion_--"Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in the same way make only oneperson!"

The three heads are turned aside, and three immense gods appear. Thefirst, who is of a rosy hue, bites the end of his toe. The second, whois blue, tosses four arms about. The third, who is green, weaves anecklace of human skulls. Immediately in front of them rise threegoddesses, one wrapped in a net, another offering a cup, and the thirdbrandishing a bow. 

And these gods, these goddesses multiply, become tenfold. On theirshoulders rise arms, and at the ends of their arms are hands holdingbanners, axes, bucklers, swords, parasols and drums. Fountains springfrom their heads, grass hangs from their nostrils. 

Riding on birds, cradled on palanquins, throned on seats of gold, standing in niches of ivory, they dream, travel, command, drink wineand inhale flowers. Dancing-girls whirl around; giants pursue monsters;at the entrances to the grottoes, solitaries meditate. Myriads of starsand clouds of streamers mingle in an indistinguishable throng. Peacocksdrink from the streams of golden dust. The embroidery of the pavilionsblends with the spots of the leopards. Coloured rays cross one anotherin the blue air, amid the flying of arrows and the swinging of censers. And all this unfolds itself, like a lofty frieze, leaning with its baseon the rocks and mounting to the very sky. 

_Antony_, dazzled--"What a number of them there are! What do they wish?"

_Hilarion_--"The one who is scratching his abdomen with his elephant'strunk is the solar god, the inspirer of wisdom. That other, whose sixheads carry towers and fourteen handles of javelins, is the prince ofarmies, the fire-devourer. The old man riding on a crocodile is going tobathe the souls of the dead on the seashore. They will be tormented bythis black woman with rotten teeth, the governess of hell. The chariotdrawn by red mares, which a legless coachman is driving, is carryingabout in broad daylight the master of the sun. The moon-god accompanieshim in a litter drawn by three gazelles. On her knees, on the back of aparrot, the goddess of beauty is presenting her round breast to Love, her son. Here she is farther on; she leaps with joy in the prairies. Look! look! With a radiant mitre on her head, she runs over thecornfields, over the waves, mounts into the air, and exhibits herselfeverywhere. Between these gods sit the genii of the winds, of theplanets, of the months, of the days, and a hundred thousand others! Andtheir aspects are multiplied, their transformations rapid. Here is onewho from a fish has become a tortoise, he assumes the head of a wildboar, the stature of a dwarf!"

_Antony_--"For what purpose?"

_Hilarion_--"To establish equilibrium, to combat evil. Life isexhausted, its forms are used up; and it is necessary to progress bymetamorphoses of them. "

Suddenly a naked man appears, seated in the middle of the sand with hislegs crossed. A large circle vibrates, suspended behind him. The littlecurls of his black hair, deepening into an azure tint, twistsymmetrically around a protuberance at the top of his head. His arms, ofgreat length, fall straight down his sides. His two hands, with openpalms, rest evenly on his thighs. The lower portions of his feet presentthe figures of two suns; and he remains completely motionless in frontof Antony and Hilarion, with all the gods around him placed at intervalsupon the rocks, as if on the seats of a circus. His lips open, and in adeep voice he says:

"I am the master of the great charity, the help of creatures, and Iexpound the law to believers and to the profane alike. To save the worldI wished to be born amongst men; the gods wept when I went away. Atfirst, I sought a woman suitable for the purpose--of warlike race, thespouse of a king, exceedingly virtuous and beautiful, with a deep navel, a body firm as a diamond; and at the time of the full moon, without theintervention of any male, I entered her womb. I came out through herright side. Then the stars stopped in their motions. "

Hilarion murmurs between his teeth:

"'And when they saw the stars stop, they conceived a great joy!'"

Antony looks more attentively at the Buddha, who resumes:

"From the bottom of the Himalaya, a religious centenarian set forth tosee me. "

_Hilarion_--"'A man called Simeon, who was not to die before he had seenthe Christ!'"

_The Buddha_--"They brought me to the schools. I knew more than thedoctors. "

_Hilarion_--" . . . 'In the midst of the doctors; and all those who heardhim were ravished by his wisdom. '"

Antony makes a sign to Hilarion to keep silent. 

_The Buddha_--"I went continually to meditate in the gardens. Theshadows of the trees used to move; but the shadow of the one thatsheltered me did not move. No one could equal me in the knowledge of theSacred Writings, the enumeration of atoms, the management of elephants, waxworks, astronomy, poetry, boxing, all exercises and all arts. Incompliance with custom, I took a wife; and I passed the days in my royalpalace, arrayed in pearls, under a shower of perfumes, fanned by thefly-flappers of thirty-three thousand women, and gazing at my peoplefrom the tops of my terraces adorned with resounding bells. But thesight of the world's miseries made me turn aside from pleasures. I fled. I went a-begging on high-ways, covered with rags collected in thesepulchres; and, as there was a very learned hermit, I offered myself ashis servant. I guarded his door; I washed his feet. All sensation, alljoy, all languor, were annihilated. Then, concentrating my thoughts ona larger field of meditation, I came to know the essence of things, theillusion of forms. I speedily abandoned the science of the Brakhmans. They are eaten up with lusts beneath their austere exterior; they anointthemselves with filth, and sleep upon thorns, believing that they arriveat happiness through the path of death!"

_Hilarion_--"Pharisees, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, race of vipers!"

_The Buddha_--"I, too, have done astonishing things--eating for a dayonly a single grain of rice--and at that time grains of rice were notbigger than they are now--my hair fell off; my body became black; myeyes, sunken in their sockets, seemed like stars seen at the bottom of awell. For six years I never moved, remaining exposed to flies, to lions, and to serpents; and I subjected myself to burning suns, heavy showers, snow, lightning, hail, and tempest, without even shielding myself withmy hand. The travellers who passed, assuming that I was dead, flungclods of earth at me from a distance. 

"There only remained for me to be tempted by the Devil. 

"I invoked him. 

"His sons came--hideous, covered with scales, nauseous as charcoal, howling, hissing, bellowing, flinging at each other armour and deadmen's bones. Some of them spirted out flames through their nostrils;others spread around darkness with their wings; others carried chapletsof fingers that had been cut off; others drank the venom of serpents outof the hollows of their hands. They have the heads of pigs, rhinoceroses, or toads--all kinds of figures calculated to inspirerespect or terror. "

_Antony_, aside--"I endured that myself in former times. "

_The Buddha_--"Then he sent me his daughters--beautiful, well-attiredwith golden girdles, teeth white as the jasmine, and limbs round as anelephant's trunk. Some of them stretched up their arms when they yawnedto display the dimples in their elbows; others blinked their eyes;others began to laugh and others unfastened one another's garments. Amongst them were blushing virgins, matrons full of pride, and queenswith great trains of baggage and attendants. "

_Antony, aside_--"Ah! that also!"

_The Buddha_--"Having vanquished the demon. I passed twelve years innourishing myself exclusively on perfumes, --and, as I had acquired thefive virtues, the five faculties, the ten forces, the eighteensubstances and penetrated into the four spheres of the invisible world, the Intelligence was mine, and I became the Buddha!"

All the gods bow down, those who have many heads lower them all at thesame time. He raises his hand on high in the air, and resumes:

"In view of the deliverance of beings, I have made hundreds of thousandsof sacrifices; I have given to the poor robes of silk, beds, chariots, houses, heaps of gold and diamonds. I have given my hands to theone-handed, my legs to the lame, my eyes to the blind; I have cut off myhead for the decapitated. At the time when I was king, I distributed theprovinces; at the time when I was Brakhman, I despised nobody. When Iwas a solitary I spoke words of tenderness to the thief who tried to cutmy throat. When I was a tiger, I let myself die of hunger. And in thisfinal stage of existence, having preached the law, I have nothing moreto do. The great period is accomplished. The men, the animals, the gods, the bamboos, the oceans, the mountains, the grains of sand of theGanges, with the myriads of myriads of stars, everything, must perish;and, until the new births, a flame will dance on the ruins of a world'soverthrow. "

Then a vertigo seizes the gods. They stagger, fall into convulsions, andvomit forth their existences. Their crowns break to pieces; theirstandards fly away. They get rid of their attributes and their sexes, fling over their shoulders the cups from which they drink immortality, strangle themselves with their serpents, and vanish in smoke; and, whenthey have all disappeared:

_Hilarion_, slowly--"You have just seen the creed of many hundreds ofmillions of men!"

Antony is on the earth, his face in his hands. Standing close to him, and turning his back to the cross, Hilarion watches him. 

A rather lengthened period elapses. 

Then a singular being appears, with the head of a man and the body of afish. He advances straight through the air, tossing the sand with histail; and his patriarchal face and his little arms make Antony laugh. 

_Oannes_, in a plaintive voice--"Treat me with respect! I am thecontemporary of the beginning of things. 

"I have dwelt in the shapeless world, where slumbered hermaphroditeanimals, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the depths ofgloomy waves--when the fingers, the fins, and the wings were confounded, and eyes without heads floated like molluscs amongst human-faced bullsand dog-footed serpents. 

"Over the whole of those beings Omoroca, bent like a hoop, stretched herwoman's body. But Belus cut her clean in two halves, made the earth withone, and the heavens with another; and the two worlds alike mutuallycontemplate each other. I, the first consciousness of chaos, I havearisen from the abyss to harden matter, to regulate forms; and I havetaught men fishing, the sowing of seed, the scripture, and the historyof the gods. Since then, I live in the ponds that remained after theDeluge. But the desert grows larger around them; the wind flings sandinto them; the sun consumes them; and I expire on my bed of lemon whilegazing across the water at the stars. Thither am I returning. "

He makes a plunge and disappears in the Nile. 

_Hilarion_--"This is an ancient god of the Chaldeans!"

_Antony_, ironically--"Who, then, were the gods of Babylon?"

_Hilarion_--"You can see them!"

And they find themselves upon the platform of a quadrangular towerrising above other towers, which, growing narrower in proportion as theyrise, form a monstrous pyramid. You may distinguish below a great, blackmass--the city, without doubt--stretching along the plain. The air iscold; the sky is of a sombre blue; the multitudinous stars palpitate. 

In the middle of the platform stands a column of white stone. Priests inlinen robes pass and return all round, so as to describe in theirevolutions a moving circle, and, with heads raised, they contemplate thestars. 

Hilarion points out several of them to Saint Antony:

"There are thirty chief priests. Fifteen gaze upon the region above theearth, and fifteen on the region below it. At regular intervals one ofthem rushes from the upper regions to the lower, whilst another abandonsthe lower to mount towards the empyrean. 

"Of the seven planets, two are benevolent, two malevolent, and threeambiguous; everything in the world depends on these eternal fires. According to their position and their movements, one may drawprognostications, and you are now treading on the most sacred spot onearth. There Pythagoras and Zoroaster may be met. Two thousand yearshave these men been observing the sky, the better to comprehend thegods. "

_Antony_--"The stars are not gods!"

_Hilarion_--"Yes! say they; for, while things are continually passingaround us, the sky, like eternity, remains unchangeable!"

_Antony_--"Nevertheless, it has a master. "

_Hilarion_, pointing at the column--"That is Belus, the first ray, thesun, the male!--the other, which is fruitful, is under him!"

Antony observes a garden lighted up with lamps. He is in the midst ofthe crowd in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and left little pathslead towards huts erected in a wood of pomegranate-trees, which protectlattices of reeds. The men, for the most part, have pointed caps withlaced robes, like the plumage of peacocks. There are people from theNorth clad in bearskins; nomads in brown woollen cloaks; pale Gangarideswith long ear-rings; and the classes, like the nationalities, appear tobe confused, for sailors and stone-cutters jostle against princeswearing tiaras of carbuncles and carrying large walking-sticks withcarved heads. All hurry forward with dilated nostrils, filled with thesame desire. 

From time to time they got out of the way, in order to allow a long, covered chariot, drawn by oxen, to pass, or perhaps it is an ass joltingon his back a woman closely veiled, who also disappears in the directionof the huts. 

Antony is frightened. He desires to turn back. However, an inexpressiblecuriosity leads him on. 

Beneath the cypress-trees women are squatted in rows upon deerskins, each of them having for a diadem a plait of cords. Some of them, magnificently attired, address the passers-by in loud tones. The moretimid keep their features hidden between their hands, whilst, frombehind, a matron--no doubt, their mother--encourages them. Others, withheads enveloped in black shawls, and the rest of their bodies quitenude, seem, at a distance, like statues of flesh. As soon as a manflings money on their knees, they rise. And one can hear kisses amid thefoliage, and sometimes a great, bitter cry. 

_Hilarion_--"Those are the virgins of Babylon who prostitute themselvesto the goddess. "

_Antony_--"What goddess?"

_Hilarion_--"There she is!"

And he shows Antony, at the very end of the avenue, on the threshold ofan illuminated grotto, a block of stone representing a woman. 

_Antony_--"Infamy! What an abomination to give a sex to God!"

_Hilarion_--"You conceive Him, surely, as a living person!"

Once more Antony finds himself in darkness. 

He perceives in the air a luminous circle placed on horizontal wings. This species of ring surrounds, like a girdle that is too loose, thefigure of a small man with a mitre on his head and a crown in his hand, the lower part of whose body is shut out from view by the huge feathersexhibited in his kilt. 

This is Ormuz, the God of the Persians. He flutters while he exclaims:

"I am terrified! I catch a glimpse of his mouth. I have vanquished thee, Ahriman! But thou art beginning again!

"At first, revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest ofcreatures, Kaiomortz, the man-bull. Then, thou didst seduce the firsthuman pair, Meschia and Meschiana, and didst fill their hearts withdarkness, and press forward thy battalions towards Heaven. 

"I had my own, the inhabitants of the stars, and I gazed down from mythrone on all the planets in their different spheres. 

"Mithra, my son, dwelt in an inaccessible spot. There he received souls, and sent them forth, and, each morning he arose to pour out his riches. 

"The splendour of the firmament was reflected by the earth. The fireshone on the mountains--image of the other fire with which I havecreated all beings. To secure it from defilement, they did not burn thedead, who were transported to Heaven on the beaks of birds. 

"I have regulated pasturages, labours, the wood of sacrifice, the formsof cups, the words that must be uttered in insomnia; and my priestsprayed continually in order that their worship should correspond to theeternity of God. They purified themselves with water; they offered uploaves on the altars; they confessed their sins in loud tones. 

"Homa gave himself to men to drink in order to communicate his strengthto them. 

"While the genii of Heaven were fighting the demons, the children ofIran chased the serpents. The King, whom a countless train of courtiersserved on bended knees, was attired so as to resemble me in person, andwore my head-dress. His gardens had the magnificence of a celestialearth; and his tomb represented him slaying a monster--emblem of thegood which exterminates evil. For, one day, it came to pass--thanks tothe endless course of time--that I triumphed over Ahriman. But theinterval that separates us is disappearing; the night is rising! Help, Amschaspands, Irzeds, Ferouers! Come to my assistance, Mithra! take thysword! Caosyac, who must come back to save the world, defend me! How isthis? . . . No one!

"Ah! I am dying! Ahriman, thou art the master!"

Hilarion, behind Antony, restrains an exclamation of joy, and Ormuzplunges into the darkness. 

Then appears the great Diana of Ephesus, black, with enamelled eyes, elbows at her sides, forearms turned out, and hands open. 

Lions crouch upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers and stars cross oneanother upon her chest; further down three rows of breasts exhibitthemselves, and from the belly to the feet she is caught in a closesheath, from which sprout forth, in the centre of her body, bulls, stags, griffins and bees. She is seen in the white gleaming caused by adisc of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind her head. 

"Where is my temple? Where are my amazons? How is it with me--me, theincorruptible--that I find myself so impotent?"

Her flowers wither; her fruits, over-ripe, hang loose; the lions and thebulls bow down their necks; the stags, exhausted, begin to pant; thebees, with a faint buzzing, fall dying upon the ground. She presses herbreasts one after the other. They are empty! But, yielding to adesperate pressure, her sheath bursts open. She clutches the end of it, like the skirt of a dress, flings into it her animals and herflower-wreaths, then goes back into the darkness; and in the distancevoices murmur, grumble, roar, cry, or bellow. The density of the nightis increased by the winds. A warm shower begins to fall in heavy drops. 

_Antony_--"How pleasant is this odour of palm-trees, this rustling ofgreen leaves, this transparency of fountains! I would like to lie downflat upon the ground, in order to feel it close to my heart, and my lifewould be renewed in eternal youth!"

He hears the sound of castanets and cymbals, and, in the midst of arustic crowd, men clad in white tunics, with red bands, lead out an ass, richly harnessed, his tail adorned with ribands and his hoofs painted. Abox, covered with a saddle-cloth of yellow linen, sways to and fro uponhis back, between two baskets, one of which receives the offeringsdeposited there--eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, poultry, and smallcoins--while the second is full of roses, which the drivers of the assscatter before him as they move along. The latter wear pendants in theirears, large cloaks, plaited tresses, and have their cheeks painted. Eachof them has an olive crown fastened around his forehead by a figuredmedallion. They carry daggers in their girdles, and flourish whips withebony handles, each having three thongs mounted with ossicles. The lastin the procession fix in the ground erect, as a chandelier, a hugepine-tree, whose summit is on fire, and the lowest branches of whichovershadow a little sheep. 

The ass stops. The saddle-cloth is removed; and underneath appears asecond covering of black felt. Then one of the men in a white tunicbegins to dance, while playing upon castanets; while another, on hisknees before the box, beats a tambourine; and the oldest of the bandcommences:

"Here is the Bona Dea, the divinity of the mountains, the great motherof Syria! Draw hither, honest people! She procures joy, heals the sick, bestows fortunes, and satisfies lovers. It is we who bring her out towalk in the country in fine weather and bad weather. We often sleep inthe open air, and we have not a well-served table every day. The thievesdwell in the woods. The beasts rush forth from their dens. Slipperypaths line the precipices. Look here! look here!"

They raise the coverlet and disclose a box incrusted with littlepebbles. 

"Higher than the cedar-trees she hovers in the blue ether. Morecircumambient than the winds, she surrounds the world. Her respirationis exhaled through the nostrils of tigers; her voice growls beneath thevolcanoes; her anger is the storm; and the pallor of her face has madethe moon white. She ripens the harvests; she swells out the rinds; shemakes the beard grow. Give her something, for she hates theavaricious!"

The box flies open; and beneath an awning of blue silk is seen a littleimage of Cybele, glittering with spangles, crowned with towers, andseated on a chariot of red stone, drawn by two lions with raised paws. 

The crowd presses forward to see. 

The archi-gallus continues:

"She loves the sounds of dulcimers, the stamping of feet, the howling ofwolves, the echoing mountains and the deep gorges, the flower of thealmond-tree, the pomegranate and the green figs, the whirling dance, thehigh-sounding flute, the sweet sap, the salt tear, --blood! Help! help!Mother of mountains!"

They flagellate themselves with their whips, and the strokes resound ontheir breasts. The skins of the tambourines vibrate till they almostburst. They seize their knives and inflict gashes on their arms:

"She is sad: let us be sad! He who is doomed to suffer must weep! Inthat way your sins will be remitted. Blood washes out everything: sheddrops of it around, then, like flowers. She demands that of another--ofone who is pure!"

The archi-gallus raises his knife above the sheep, _Antony_, seized with horror--"Don't slaughter the lamb!"

A purple flood gushes forth. The priests sprinkle the crowd with it; andall--including Antony and Hilarion--ranged around the burning tree, silently watch the last palpitations of the victim. From the midst ofthe priests comes a woman, exactly like the image enclosed in the littlebox. She stops on seeing a young man in a Phrygian cap. 

His thighs are covered with tight-fitting breeches opened here and thereby lozenges which are fastened with coloured bows. He rests his elbowsagainst one of the branches of the tree, holding a flute in his hand, ina languishing attitude. 

_Cybele_, encircling his figure with her arms--

"To rejoin thee I have travelled through every region--and famineravaged the fields. Thou hast deceived me! No matter, --I love thee! Warmmy body! Let us unite!"

_Atys_--"The spring-time will return no more, O eternal Mother! Despitemy love, it is not possible to penetrate thy essence. I should like tocover myself with a coloured robe like thine. I envy thy breasts, swollen with milk, the length of thy tresses, thy mighty sides fromwhich spring living creatures. Would that I were like thee! Would that Iwere woman! But no! that can never be! My virility fills me withhorror!"

With a sharp stone he mutilates himself; then he begins to run madlyaround. 

The priests imitate the god; the faithful, the priests. Men and womenexchange their garments and embrace one another; and this whirlwind ofblood-stained flesh hurries away, whilst the voices, ever continuing, become more clamorous and shrill, like those one hears at funerals. 

A great catafalque hung with purple carries on its summit a bed ofebony, surrounded by torches and baskets of silver filigree, in whichare contained green lettuces, mallows, and fennel. Upon the seats, aboveand below, are seated women, all attired in black, with girdles undoneand naked feet, and holding with a melancholy air huge bouquets offlowers. 

On the ground, at the corners of the platform, alabaster urns filledwith myrrh are sending up light wreaths of smoke. On the bed may beseen the corpse of a man. Blood trickles from his thigh. His arm ishanging down, and a dog, who is howling, licks his nails. The line oftorches placed too close to one another prevents his figure from beingcompletely visible. Antony is seized with anguish. He is afraid ofseeing the face of some one he knew. 

The women cease their sobbing; and, after an interval of silence, all, at the same time, burst into a psalm:

"Beautiful! beautiful! he is beautiful! Enough of sleep--raise his head!Up! Inhale our bouquets! These are narcissi and anemones gathered in thygardens to please thee. Return to life! thou fillest us with fear!

"Speak! What dost thou require? Dost thou wish to drink wine? Dost thouwish to sleep in our beds? Dost thou wish to eat the honey-cakes whichhave the form of little birds?

"Let us press close to his hips! let us kiss his breast! Hold! hold!feel thou our fingers covered with rings which are stealing over thybody, and our lips which are seeking thy mouth, and our hair which issweeping thy legs, insensible god, deaf to our prayers!"

They burst into shrieks, tearing their faces with their nails, thenbecome silent; and only the howling of the dog is heard. 

"Alas! alas! The dark blood rushes over his snowy flesh. See how hisknees writhe, how his sides give way! The flowers upon his face havesoaked the gore. He is dead! Let us weep! let us lament!"

They come all in a row to fling down between the torches their flowinglocks, resembling at a distance black or yellow serpents; and thecatafalque is softly lowered to the level of a cave--a gloomy sepulchre, which is yawning in the background. 

Then a woman bends over the corpse. Her hair, which never has been cut, covers her from head to foot. She sheds so many tears that her griefdoes not seem to be like that of others, but superhuman, infinite. 

Antony thinks of the mother of Jesus. 

She says:

"Thou didst escape from the East, and thou didst press me in thy armsall quivering with dew, O sun! Doves fluttered above the azure of thymantle, our kisses caused breezes amid the foliage, and I abandonedmyself to thy love, delighting in the exquisite sensation of my ownweakness. 

"Alas! alas! Why art thou about to rush away over the mountains? At theautumnal equinox a wild boar wounded thee! Thou art dead, and thefountains weep and the trees droop, and the winter wind is whistlingthrough the leafless branches. 

"My eyes are about to close, seeing that darkness is covering thee. Bythis time thou art dwelling on the other side of the world, near my morepowerful rival. 

"O Persephone, all that is beautiful goes down to thee and returns nomore!"

While she has been speaking, her companions have taken the dead body tolower it into the sepulchre. It remains in their hands. It was only acorpse of wax!

Antony experiences a kind of relief. The whole scene vanishes, and thecell, the rocks, and the cross reappear! And now he distinguishes on theother side of the Nile a woman standing in the middle of the desert. She holds with her hand the end of a long black veil, which conceals herfigure; while she carries on her left arm a little child, which she issuckling. At her side a huge ape is squatted on the sand. She lifts herhead towards the sky, and, in spite of the distance, her voice can beheard. 

_Isis_--"O Neith, beginning of things! Ammon, lord of eternity! Ptha, demiurgus! Thoth, his intelligence! Gods of Amenthi! Special Triads ofthe Nomes! Sparrow-hawks in the azure! Sphinxes on the outsides oftemples! Ibises standing between the horns of oxen! Planets!Constellations! River-banks! Murmurs of wind! Reflections of light! Tellme where to find Osiris!

"I have sought for him through all the water-courses and all the lakes, and, farther still, in the Ph[oe]nician Byblos. Anubis, with ears erect, jumped round me, barking, and with his nose scenting out the clumps oftamarind. Thanks, good Cynocephalus, thanks!"

She gives the ape two or three friendly little slaps on the head. 

"The hideous red-haired Typhon killed him and tore him to pieces. Wehave found all his members. But I have not got that which made mefruitful!"

She utters bitter lamentations. 

_Antony_ is seized with rage. He casts pebbles at her insultingly:

"Impure one! begone, begone!"

_Hilarion_--"Respect her! This is the religion of your ancestors! Youhave worn her amulets in your cradle!"

_Isis_--"In former times, when the summer returned, the inundation droveto the desert the impure beasts. The dykes flew open; the boats dashedagainst one another; the panting earth drank the stream till it wasglutted. O god! with horns of bull, thou didst stretch thyself upon mybreast, and the lowing of the eternal cow was heard!

"The new-sown crops, the harvests, the thrashing of corn, and thevintages succeeded each other regularly in unison with the changes ofthe seasons. In the nights, ever clear, the great stars shed forth theirbeams. The days were steeped in an unchanging splendour. The sun and themoon were seen like a royal pair on either side of the horizon. 

"We were enthroned in a world more sublime--twin monarchs, spouses fromthe bosom of eternity; he holding a sceptre with the head of aconchoupha, and I a sceptre with a lotus-flower, we stood with handsjoined;--and the crash of empires did not change our attitude. 

"Egypt lay stretched beneath us, monumental and solemn, long, like thecorridor of a temple, with obelisks at the right, pyramids at the left, its labyrinth in the middle; and everywhere avenues of monsters, forestsof columns, massive archways flanking gates which have for their summitthe earth's sphere between two wings. 

"The animals of her zodiac found their counterparts in her plains, andwith their forms and colours filled her mysterious writings. Dividedinto twelve regions, as the year is into twelve months--each month, eachday, having its god--she reproduced the immutable order of the heavens;and man, though he died, did not lose his lineaments, but, saturatedwith perfumes and becoming imperishable, he went to sleep for threethousand years in a silent Egypt. 

"The latter, greater than the other, spread out beneath the earth. Thither one descended by means of staircases leading to halls where werereproduced the joys of the good, the tortures of the wicked, everythingthat takes place in the third invisible world. Ranged along the walls, the dead, in painted coffins, awaited each their turn; and the soul, free from migrations, continued its sleep till it awakened in anotherlife. 

"Meanwhile, Osiris sometimes came back to see me. His shade made me themother of Harpocrates. "

She gazes on the child:

"It is he! Those are his eyes; those are his tresses, curling like aram's horns. Thou shalt begin his works over again. We shall bloomafresh, like the lotus. I am always the great Isis! Nobody has ever yetlifted my veil! My offspring is the sun!

"Sun of spring, let the clouds obscure thy face! The breath of Typhondevours the pyramids. Just now I have seen the Sphinx fly away. Hegalloped off like a jackal. 

"I am seeking for my priests--my priests in their linen robes, withgreat harps, carrying along a mystic skiff ornamented with pateræ ofsilver. No more feasts on the lakes! no more illuminations in my Delta!no more cups of milk at Philæ! For a long time Apis has not reappeared. 

"Egypt! Egypt! Thy great immovable gods have their shoulders whitened bythe dung of birds, and the wind, as it passes along the desert, carrieswith it the ashes of the dead!--Anubis, protector of shadows, do notleave me!"

The Cynocephalus vanishes. 

She gives her child a shaking. 

"But what aileth thee? . . . Thy hands are cold, thy head fallen back!"

Harpocrates has just died. Then she utters a cry so bitter, mournful, and heartrending, that Antony replies to it by another cry, while heopens his arms to support her. 

She is no longer there. He hangs his head, overwhelmed with shame. 

All that he has just seen becomes confused in his mind. It is like thestunning effect of a voyage, the uncomfortable sensation of drunkenness. Fain would he hate; and yet a vague pity softens his heart. He begins toweep abundantly. 

_Hilarion_--"What is it now that makes you sad?"

_Antony_, after questioning himself for a long time--"I am thinking ofall the souls lost through these false gods!"

_Hilarion_--"Do you not find that they have--in somerespects--resemblances to the true?"

_Antony_--"This is a trick of the Devil the better to seduce thefaithful. He attacks the strong through the spirit, and the othersthrough the flesh. "

_Hilarion_--"But lust, in its furies, possesses the disinterestedness ofpenitence. The frantic love of the body accelerates its destruction--andby its weakness proclaims the extent of the impossible. "

_Antony_--"How is it that this affects me? My heart revolts with disgustagainst those brutish gods, always occupied with carnage and incest. "

_Hilarion_--"Recall to yourself in the Scriptures all the things thatscandalise you because you cannot understand them. In the same way, these gods, under the outward form of criminals, may contain the truth. There are some of them left to see. Turn aside!"

_Antony_--"No! no! it is a peril!"

_Hilarion_--"A moment ago you wished to make their acquaintance. Dofalsehoods make your faith totter? What do you fear?"

The rocks in front of Antony have become a mountain. 

A range of clouds intersects it half-way from the top; and overheadappears another mountain, enormous, quite green, which hollows out thevalley unevenly, having on its summit, in a wood of laurels, a palace ofbronze, with tiles of gold and ivory capitals. 

In the midst of the peristyle, upon a throne, Jupiter, colossal, andwith a naked torso, holds victory in one hand, and the thunderbolt inthe other; and his eagle, between his legs, erects its head. 

Juno, close to him, rolls her great eyes, surmounted by a diadem, fromwhich escapes, like a vapour, a veil floating in the wind. 

Behind, Minerva, standing on a pedestal, leans upon her spear. TheGorgon's skin covers her breast, and a linen peplum descends in regularfolds even to her toe-nails. Her grey eyes, which shine beneath hervizor, gaze intently into the distance. 

At the right of the palace the aged Neptune is riding on a dolphinbeating with its fins a vast expanse of azure, which is the sky or thesea, for the perspective of the ocean prolongs the blue ether; the twoelements become mingled in one. 

On the other side, Pluto, fierce, in a mantle black as night, with atiara of diamonds and a sceptre of ebony, is in the midst of an isleenclosed by the windings of the Styx;--and this ghostly stream rushesinto the darkness, which forms under the cliff a great black gap, ashapeless abyss. 

Mars, clad in bronze, brandishes, with an air of fury, his huge swordand shield. 

Hercules, standing lower, gazes up at him, leaning on his club. 

Apollo, with radiant face, is driving, with his right arm extended, fourwhite horses at a gallop; and Ceres, in a chariot drawn by oxen, isadvancing towards him with a sickle in her hand. 

Bacchus goes before her on a very low car slowly drawn along by lynxes. Erect, beardless, with vine-branches over his forehead, he passes, holding a goblet from which wine is flowing. Silenus, at his side, isdangling upon an ass. Pan, with pointed ears, is blowing his pipe; theMimallones beat drums; Mænads scatter flowers; the Bacchantes throw backtheir heads with hair dishevelled. 

Diana, with her tunic tucked up, sets out from the wood with her nymphs. 

At the bottom of a cavern, Vulcan is hammering the iron between theCabiri; here and there, the old river-gods, resting upon green stones, water their urns; and the Muses, standing up, are singing in the dales. 

The Hours, of equal height, hold each other by the hand; and Mercury isplaced in a slanting posture, upon a rainbow, with his magic wand, hiswinged sandals and his broad-brimmed hat. 

But at the top of the staircase of the gods, amid clouds soft asfeathers, whose folds as they wind around let fall roses, VenusAnadyomene is gazing at her image in a mirror; her pupils castlanguishing glances underneath her rather heavy eyelashes. She has long, fair tresses, which spread out over her shoulders, her dainty breasts, her slender figure, her hips widening like the curves of a lyre, hertwo rounded thighs, the dimples around her knees, and her delicatefeet. Not far from her mouth a butterfly is fluttering. The splendour ofher body sheds around her a halo of brilliant mother-of-pearl; and allthe rest of Olympus is bathed in a rosy dawn, which, by insensibledegrees, reaches the heights of the azure sky. 

_Antony_--"Ah! my bosom dilates. A joy, which I cannot analyse, descendsinto the depths of my soul. How beautiful it is! how beautiful it is!"

_Hilarion_--"They stooped down from the height of the clouds to directthe swords. You might meet them on the roadsides. You kept them in yourhome; and this familiarity made life divine. 

"Her only aim was to be free and beautiful. Her ample robes rendered hermovements more graceful. The orator's voice, exercised beside the sea, struck the marble porticoes in unison with the sonorous waves. Thestripling, rubbed with oil, wrestled, quite naked, in the full light ofday. The most religious action was to expose pure forms. 

"Those men, too, respected spouses, the aged and suppliants. Behind theTemple of Hercules, an altar was raised to Pity. 

"They used to immolate victims with flowers around their fingers. Memorywas not even troubled by the decay of the dead, for there remained ofthem only a handful of ashes. The soul, mingled with the boundlessether, ascended to the gods!"

Bending towards Antony's ear:

"And they live for ever! The Emperor Constantine adores Apollo. You willfind the Trinity in the mysteries of Samothrace, baptism in the case ofIsis, the redemption in that of Mithra, the martyrdom of a god in thefeasts of Bacchus. Proserpine is the Virgin; Aristæus, Jesus!"

Antony keeps his eyes cast down; then all at once he repeats the creedof Jerusalem--as he recollects it--emitting, after each phrase, a longsigh:

"'I believe in one only God, the Father;--and in one only Lord, JesusChrist, first-born son of God, who became incarnate and was made man;who was crucified and buried; who ascended into Heaven; who will come tojudge the living and the dead; whose kingdom will have no end;--and inone only Holy Ghost;--and in one only baptism of repentance;--and in oneholy Catholic Church;--and in the resurrection of the flesh;--and in thelife everlasting!'"

Immediately the cross becomes larger, and, piercing the clouds, it castsa shadow over the heaven of the gods. 

They all grow dim. Olympus vanishes. 

Antony distinguishes near its base, half lost in the caverns, orsupporting the stones on their shoulders, huge bodies chained. These arethe Titans, the Giants, the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclops. 

A voice rises, indistinct and formidable, --like the murmur of the waves, like the sound heard in woods during a storm, like the roaring of thewind down a precipice:

"We knew it, we of all others! The gods were doomed to die. Uranus wasmutilated by Saturn, and Saturn by Jupiter. He will be himselfannihilated. Each in its turn. It is destiny!"

And, by degrees, they plunge into the mountain, and disappear. 

Meanwhile, the roof of the palace of gold flies away. 

Jupiter descends from his throne. The thunder at his feet smokes like abrand that is almost extinguished; and the eagle, stretching its neck, gathers with its beak its falling plumes. 

"So, then, I am no longer the master of things, all-good, all-powerful, god of the phratriæ and of the Greek peoples, ancestor of all the kings, the Agamemnon of Heaven!

"Eagle of the apotheoses, what breath of Erebus has driven thee to me?or, flying from the Campus Martius, dost thou bring to me the soul ofthe last of the Emperors?

"I no longer desire those of men! Let the earth guard them, and let thembe moved on a level with its baseness. They now have hearts of slaves;they forget injuries, ancestors, oaths; and everywhere the folly ofmobs, the mediocrity of the individual, and the hideousness of racesreign supreme!"

His respiration makes his sides swell even to bursting, and he writheswith his hands. Hebe in tears presents a cup to him. He seizes it:

"No! no! As long as there will be, no matter where, a head enclosingthought which hates disorder and realises the idea of Law, the spirit ofJupiter will live!"

But the cup is empty. He turns it around slowly on his finger-nail. 

"Not a drop! When ambrosia fails, there is an end of the Immortals!"

It slips out of his hand, and he leans against a pillar, feeling that heis dying. 

_Juno_--"There was no need of so many loves! Eagle, bull, swan, goldenshower, cloud and flame, thou hast assumed every form, scattered thylight in every element, hidden thy head on every couch! This time thedivorce is irrevocable--and our sway, our very existence, is dissolved!"

She rushes away into the air!

Minerva no longer has her spear; and the ravens, which nestled in thesculptures of the frieze, whirl round her, and bite at her helmet. 

"Let me see whether my vessels, cleaving the shining sea, have returnedinto my three ports, wherefore the fields are deserted, and what thedaughters of Athens are now doing. 

"In the month of Hecatombæon, all my people came to me led by theirmagistrates and priests. Then, in white robes, with chitons of gold, thelong files of virgins advanced, holding cups, baskets, and parasols;then, the three hundred oxen for the sacrifice, old men shaking greenboughs, soldiers clashing their armour against each other, youthssinging hymns, players on the flute and on the lyre, rhapsodists anddancing-girls--and finally, on the mast of a trireme, supported by coilsof rope, my great veil embroidered by virgins, who, for the space of ayear, had been nourished in a particular fashion; and, when it had beenshown in every street, in every square, and before every temple, in themidst of a procession continually chanting, it ascended to theAcropolis, brushed passed the Propylæum, and entered the Parthenon. 

"But a difficulty faces me--me, the ingenious one! What! what! not asingle idea! Here am I more terrified than a woman. "

She perceives behind her a ruin, utters a cry, and, struck on theforehead, falls backward to the ground. 

Hercules has cast off his lion's skin, and, resting on his feet, bendinghis back, and biting his lips, he makes desperate efforts to sustainOlympus, which is toppling down. 

"I have vanquished the Cercopes, the Amazons, and the Centaurs. I haveslain many kings, I have broken the horn of Achelous, a great river. Ihave cut through mountains; I have brought oceans together. I haveliberated enslaved nations; I have peopled uninhabited countries. I havetravelled over Gaul. I have traversed the desert where one feels thirst. I have defended the gods, and I have freed myself from Omphale. ButOlympus is too heavy. My arms are growing feeble. I am dying!"

He is crushed beneath the ruins. 

_Pluto_--"It is thine own fault, Amphitrionades! Why didst thou descendinto my realms? The vulture who devours the entrails of Tityus hasraised its head; Tantalus has had his lips moistened; and Ixion's wheelis stopped. 

"Meanwhile, the Keres stretch forth their nails to detain the souls; theFuries in despair twist the serpents in their locks; and Cerberus, fastened by thee with a chain, has a rattling in the throat, while heslavers from his three mouths. 

"Thou didst leave the gate ajar. Others have come. The light of humanday has penetrated Tartarus!"

He sinks into the darkness. 

_Neptune_--"My trident no longer raises tempests. The monsters whocaused terror have rotted at the bottom of the sea. 

"Amphitrite, whose white feet rushed over the foam; the green nereids, who could be seen on the horizon; the scaly sirens, who used to stop theships to tell stories; and the old tritons, who used to blow intoshells, all are dead! The gaiety of the sea has vanished!

"I will not survive it! Let the vast ocean cover me. "

He disappears into the azure. 

_Diana_, attired in black, among her dogs, who have become wolves--

"The freedom of great woods intoxicated me with its odour of deer andexhalations of swamps. The women, over whose pregnancy I watched, bringdead children into the world. The moon trembles under the incantationsof sorcerers. I am filled with violent and boundless desires. I long todrink poisons, to lose myself in vapours or in dreams! . . . "

And a passing cloud bears her away. 

_Mars_, bare-headed and blood-stained--

"At first, I fought single-handed, provoking by insults an entire army, indifferent to countries, and for the pleasure of carnage. Then, I hadcompanions. They marched to the sound of flutes, in good order, witheven step, breathing upon their bucklers, with lofty plume and slantingspear. We flung ourselves into the battle with loud cries like those ofeagles. War was as joyous as a feast. Three hundred men withstood allAsia. 

"But they returned, those barbarians! and in tens of thousands, nay, inmillions! Since numbers, war-engines, and strategy are more powerful, itis better to make an end of it, like a brave man!"

He kills himself. 

_Vulcan_, wiping the sweat from his limbs with a sponge--

"The world is getting cold. It is necessary to heat the springs, thevolcanoes, and the rivers, which run from metals under theearth!--Strike harder! with vigorous arm! with all your strength!"

The Cabiri hurt themselves with their hammers, blind themselves with thesparks, and, groping their way along, are lost in the shadow. 

_Ceres_, standing in her chariot which is drawn by wheels having wingsin their naves--"Stop! Stop!

"They had good reason to exclude the strangers, the atheists, theepicureans, and the Christians! The mystery of the basket is unveiled, the sanctuary profaned--all is lost!"

She descends with a rapid fall--bursting into exclamation of despair, and dragging back the horses. 

"Ah! falsehood! Daira is not given up to me. The brazen bell calls me tothe dead. It is another kind of Tartarus. There is no returning from it. Horror!"

The abyss swallows her up. 

_Bacchus_, laughing frantically:

"What does it matter! The wife of Archontes is my spouse! Even the lawgoes down before drunkenness. For me the new song and the multipliedforms!

"The fire which consumed my mother runs in my veins. Let it burn thestronger, even though I perish!

"Male and female, good for both, I deliver myself to ye, Bacchantes! Ideliver myself to ye, Bacchantes! and the vine will twist around thetrunks of trees! Howl! dance! writhe! Unbind the tiger and the slave!bite the flesh with ferocious teeth!"

And Pan, Silenus, the Satyrs, the Bacchantes, the Mimallones, and theMænades, with their serpents, their torches, and their black masks, scatter flowers, then shake their dulcimers, strike their thyrsi, pelteach other with shells, crunch grapes, strangle a he-goat, and rendBacchus. 

_Apollo_, lashing his coursers, whose glistening hairs fly off--

"I have left behind me Delos the stony, so empty that everything therenow seems dead; and I am striving to reach the Delphian oracle beforeits inspiring vapour should be completely lost. The mules browse on itslaurel. The pythoness, gone astray, is found there no longer. 

"By a stronger concentration, I will have sublime poems, eternalmonuments; and all matter will be penetrated with the vibrations of mycithara. "

He fingers its chords. They break and snap against his face. He flingsdown the instrument, and driving his four-horse chariot furiously:

"No! enough of forms! Farther still--to the very summit--to the world ofpure thought!"

But the horses, falling back, begin to prance so that the chariot issmashed; and, entangled in the fragments of the pole and the knottingsof the horses, he falls head-foremost into the abyss. 

The sky is darkened. Venus, blue as a violet from the cold, shivers. 

"I covered with my girdle the entire horizon of Hellas. Its fields shonewith the roses of my cheeks; its shores were cut according to the formof my lips; and its mountains, whiter than my doves, palpitated underthe hands of the sculptors. My spirit showed itself in the order offestivities, the arrangements of head-dresses, the dialogues ofphilosophers, and the constitution of republics. But I have loved mentoo much. It is Love that has dishonoured me!"

She falls back in tears. 

"The world is abominable. My bosom feels the lack of air. 

"O Mercury, inventor of the lyre, and conductor of souls, bear me away!"

She places a finger upon her mouth, and, describing an immense parabola, topples over into the abyss. 

And now nothing can be seen. The darkness is complete. 

In the meantime two red arrows seem to escape from the pupils ofHilarion. 

Antony at length notices his high stature:

"Many times already, while you were speaking, you appeared to me to begrowing tall; and it was not an illusion. How is this? Explain it to me. Your appearance appals me!"

Steps draw nigh. 

"What is this now?"

Hilarion stretches forth his arms:

"Look!"

Then, under a pale ray of the moon, Antony distinguishes an interminablecaravan which defiles over the crest of the rocks; and each passenger, one after another, falls from the cliff into the gulf. 

First, there are the three great gods of Samothrace--Axieros, Axiokeros, and Axiokersa--joined in a cluster, with purple masks, and their handsraised. 

Æsculapius advances with a melancholy air, without even seeing Samos andTelesphorus, who question him with anguish. Sosipolis, the Elean, withthe form of a python, rolls out his rings towards the abyss. Doesp[oe]na, through vertigo, flings herself in there of her own accord. Britomartis, shrieking with fear, clasps the folds of her fillet. TheCentaurs arrive with a great galloping, and dash, pell-mell, into theblack hole. 

Limping behind them come the sad group of nymphs. Those of the meadowsare covered with dust; those of the woods groan and bleed, wounded bythe woodcutters' axes. 

The Gelludæ, the Stryges, the Empusæ, all the infernal goddessesintermingling their hooks, their torches, and their snakes, form apyramid; and at the summit, upon a vulture's skin, Eurynomus, bluishlike flesh-flies, devours his own arms. 

Then in a whirlwind disappears at the same time, Orthia the sanguinary, Hymnia of Orchomena, the Saphria of the Patræans, Aphia of Ægina, Bendisof Thrace, and Stymphalia with the leg of a bird. Triopas, in place ofthree eyeballs, has nothing more than three orbits. Erichthonius, withspindle-shanks, crawls like a cripple on his wrists. 

_Hilarion_--"What happiness, is it not, to see all of them in a state ofabjectness and agony? Mount with me on this stone, and you will be likeXerxes reviewing his army. 

"Yonder, at a great distance, in the midst of fogs, do you perceive thatgiant with yellow beard who lets fall a sword red with blood? He is theScythian Zalmoxis between two planets--Artimpasa, Venus; and Orsiloche, the Moon. 

"Farther off, emerging out of the pale clouds, are the gods who areadored by the Cimmerians, beyond even Thule!

"Their great halls were warm, and by the light of the naked swords thatcovered the vault they drank hydromel in horns of ivory. They ate theliver of the whale in copper plates forged by the demons, or else theylistened to the captive sorcerers sweeping their hands across the harpsof stone. They are weary! they are cold! The snow wears down theirbearskins, and their feet are exposed through the rents in theirsandals. 

"They mourn for the meadows where, upon hillocks of grass, they used torecover breath in the battle, the long ships whose prows cut through themountains of ice, and the skates they used in order to follow the orbitof the poles while carrying on the extremities of their arms thefirmament, which turned around with them. "

A shower of hoar-frost pours down upon them. Antony lowers his glance tothe opposite side, and he perceives--outlining themselves in black upona red background--strange personages with chin-pieces and gauntlets, whothrow balls at one another, leap one on top of the other, make grimaces, and dance frantically. 

_Hilarion_--"These are the gods of Etruria, the innumerable Æsars. Hereis Tages, the inventor of auguries. He attempts with one hand toincrease the divisions of the heavens, while with the other he leansupon the earth. Let him come back to it!

"Nortia is contemplating the wall into which she drove nails to mark thenumber of the years. Its surface is covered and its last periodaccomplished. Like two travellers driven about by a tempest, Kastur andPolutuk take shelter under the same mantle. "

_Antony_, closes his eyes--"Enough! Enough!"

But now through the air with a great noise of wings pass all theVictories of the Capitol, hiding their foreheads in their hands, andlosing the trophies suspended from their arms. 

Janus, master of the twilight, flies away upon a black ram, and of histwo faces one is already putrefied, while the other is benumbed withfatigue. 

Summanus--god of the gloomy sky, who no longer has a head--pressesagainst his heart an old cake in the form of a wheel. 

Vesta, under a ruined cupola, tries to rekindle her extinguished lamp. 

Bellona gashes her cheeks without causing the blood, which used topurify her devotees, to flow out. 

_Antony_--"Pardon! They weary me!"

_Hilarion_--"Formerly they used to be entertaining!"

And he points out to Antony, in a grove of beech-trees a woman perfectlynaked--with four paws like a beast--bestridden by a black man holding ineach hand a torch. 

"This is the goddess Aricia with the demon Virbius. Her priest, themonarch of the woods, happened to be an assassin; and the fugitiveslaves, the despoilers of corpses, the brigands of the Salarian road, the cripples of the Sublician bridge, all the vermin of the garrets ofthe Suburra, had not dearer devotion!

"The patrician ladies of Mark Antony's time preferred Libitina. "

And he shows him under the cypresses and rose-trees another womanclothed in gauze. She smiles, though she is surrounded by pickaxes, litters, black hangings, and all the utensils of funerals. Her diamondsglitter from afar among cobwebs. The Larvæ, like skeletons, displaytheir bones amid the branches, and the Lemures, who are phantoms, spreadout their bats' wings. 

On the side of a field the god Terma is bent down, torn asunder, andcovered with filth. 

In the midst of a ridge the huge corpse of Vertumnus is being devouredby red dogs. The rustic gods depart weeping, Sartor, Sarrator, Vervactor, Eollina, Vallona, and Hostilenus--all covered with littlehooded cloaks, and each bearing a mattock, a fork, a hurdle, and aboar-spear. 

_Hilarion_--"It was their spirits that made the villa prosper with itsdove-cotes, its park for dormice, its poultry-yards protected by snares, and its hot stables embalmed with cedar. 

"They protected all the wretched people who dragged the fetters withtheir legs over the pebbles of the Sabina, those who called the hogswith the sound of the trumpet, those who gathered the grapes on the topsof the elm-trees, those who drove through the by-roads the asses ladenwith dung. The husbandman, while he panted over the handle of hisplough, prayed to them to strengthen his arms; and the cow-herds, in theshadow of the lime-trees, beside gourds of milk, chanted their eulogiesby turns upon flutes of reeds. "

Antony sighs. 

And in the middle of a chamber, upon a platform, a bed of ivory isrevealed, surrounded by persons lifting up pine-torches. 

"Those are the gods of marriage. They are awaiting the bride. 

"Domiduca has to lead her in, Virgo to undo her girdle, Subigo tostretch her upon the bed, and Præma to keep back her arms, whisperingsweet words in her ear. 

"But she will not come! and they dismiss the others--Nona and Decima, the nurses; the three Nixii, who are to deliver her; the twowet-nurses, Educa and Potina; and Carna, the cradle-rocker, whose bunchof hawthorns drives away bad dreams from the infant. Later, Ossipagowill have strengthened its knees, Barbatus will have given the beard, Stimula the first desires, and Volupia the first enjoyment; Fabulinuswill have taught it how to speak, Numera how to count, Cam[oe]na how tosing, and Consus how to think. "

The chamber is empty, and there remains no longer at the side of the bedanyone but Nænia--a hundred years old--muttering to herself the lamentwhich she poured forth on the death of old men. 

But soon her voice is lost amid bitter cries, which come from thedomestic lares, squatted at the end of the atrium, clad in dogs' skins, with flowers around their bodies, holding their closed hands up to theircheeks, and weeping as much as they can. 

"Where is the portion of food which is given to us at each meal, thegood attentions of maid-servant, the smile of the matron, and the gaietyof the little boys playing with huckle-bones on the mosaic of thecourtyard? Then, when they have grown big, they hang over our breaststheir gold or leather bullæ. 

"What happiness, when, on the evening of a triumph, the master, returning home, turned towards us his humid eyes! He told the story ofhis contests, and the narrow house was more stately than a palace, andmore sacred than a temple. 

"How pleasant were the repasts of the family, especially the day afterthe Feralia! The feeling of tenderness towards the dead dispelled alldiscords; and people embraced one another, drinking to the glories ofthe past, and to the hopes of the future. 

"But the ancestors in painted wax, shut up behind us, became graduallycovered with mouldiness. The new races, to punish us for their owndeceptions, have broken our jaws; and under the rats' teeth our bodiesof wood have crumbled away. "

And the innumerable gods, watching at the doors, in the kitchen, in thecellar, and in the stoves, disperse on all sides, under the appearanceof enormous ants running away, or huge butterflies on the wing. 

Then a thunderclap. 

_A voice_--"I was the God of armies, the Lord, the Lord God!

"I have unfolded on the hills the tents of Jacob, and nourished in thesands my fugitive people. It was I who burned Sodom! It was I whoengulfed the earth beneath the Deluge! It was I who drowned Pharaoh, with the royal princes, the war-chariots, and the charioteers. A jealousGod, I execrated the other gods. I crushed the impure; I overthrew theproud; and my desolation rushed to right and left, like a dromedary letloose in a field of maize. 

"To set Israel free, I chose the simple. Angels, with wings of flame, spoke to them in the bushes. 

"Perfumed with spikenard, cinnamon, and myrrh, with transparent robesand high-heeled shoes, women of intrepid heart went forth to slay thecaptains. The passing wind bore away the prophets. 

"I engraved my law on tablets of stone. It shut in my people as in acitadel. They were my people. I was their God! The earth was mine, andmen were mine, with their thoughts, their works, the implements withwhich they tilled the soil, and their posterity. 

"My ark rested in a triple sanctuary, behind purple curtains and flaminglamps. For my ministry I had an entire tribe, who swung the censers, and the high-priest in a robe of hyacinth, and wearing precious stonesupon his breast arranged in regular order. 

"Woe! woe! The Holy of Holies is flung open; the veil is rent; theodours of the holocaust are scattered to all the winds. The jackalswhine in the sepulchres; my temple is destroyed; my people aredispersed!

"They have strangled the priests with the cords of their vestments. Thewomen are captives; the sacred vessels are all melted down!"

The voice, dying away:

"I was the God of armies, the Lord, the Lord God!" Then comes anappalling silence, a profound darkness. 

_Antony_--"They are all gone!"

"I remain!" says some one. 

And, face to face with him stands Hilarion, but transfigured--beautifulas an archangel, luminous as a sun, and so tall that, in order to seehim, Antony lifts up his head--"Who, then, are you?"

_Hilarion_--"My kingdom is as wide as the universe, and my desire has nolimits. I am always going about enfranchising the mind and weighing theworlds, without hate, without fear, without love, and without God. I amcalled Science. "

_Antony_, recoiling backwards--"You must be, rather, the Devil!"

_Hilarion_, fixing his eyes upon him--"Do you wish to see him?"

Antony no longer avoids his glance. He is seized with curiosityconcerning the Devil. His terror increases; his longing becomesmeasureless. 

"If I saw him, however--if I saw him?" . . . Then, in a spasm of rage:

"The horror that I have of him will rid me of him forever. Yes!"

A cloven foot reveals itself. Antony is filled with regret. But theDevil overshadows him with his horns, and carries him off. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE MYSTERY OF SPACE. 

He flies under Antony's body, extended like a swimmer; his two greatwings, outspread, entirely concealing him, resemble a cloud. 

_Antony_--"Where am I going? Just now I caught a glimpse of the form ofthe Accursèd One. No! a cloud is carrying me away. Perhaps I am dead, and am mounting up to God? . . . 

"Ah! how well I breathe! The untainted air inflates my soul. No moreheaviness! no more suffering!

"Beneath me, the thunderbolt darts forth, the horizon widens, riverscross one another. That light spot is the desert; that pool of water theocean. And other oceans appear--immense regions of which I had noknowledge. There are black lands that smoke like live embers, a belt ofsnow ever obscured by the mists. I am trying to discover the mountainswhere each evening the sun goes to sleep. "

_The Devil_--"The sun never goes to sleep!"

Antony is not startled by this voice. It appears to him an echo of histhought--a response of his memory. 

Meanwhile, the earth takes the form of a ball, and he perceives it inthe midst of the azure turning on its poles while it winds around thesun. 

_The Devil_--"So, then, it is not the centre of the world? Pride of man, humble thyself!"

_Antony_--"I can scarcely distinguish it now. It is intermingled withthe other fires. The firmament is but a tissue of stars. "

They continue to ascend. 

"No noise! not even the crying of the eagles! Nothing! . . . And I benddown to listen to the music of the spheres. "

_The Devil_--"You cannot hear them! No longer will you see theantichthon of Plato, the focus of Philolaüs, the spheres of Aristotle, or the seven heavens of the Jews with the great waters above the vaultof crystal!"

_Antony_--"From below it appeared as solid as a wall. But now, on thecontrary, I am penetrating it; I am plunging into it!"

And he arrives in front of the moon--which is like a piece of ice, quiteround, filled with a motionless light. 

_The Devil_--"This was formerly the abode of souls. The good Pythagorashad even supplied it with birds and magnificent flowers. "

_Antony_--"I see nothing there save desolate plains, with extinctcraters, under a black sky. 

"Come towards those stars with a softer radiance, so that we may gazeupon the angels who hold them with the ends of their arms, liketorches!"

The Devil carries him into the midst of the stars. 

"They attract one another at the same time that they repel one another. The action of each has an effect on the others, and helps to producetheir movements--and all this without the medium of an auxiliary, by theforce of a law, by the virtue simply of order. "

_Antony_--"Yes . . . Yes! my intelligence grasps it! It is a joy greaterthan the sweetness of affection! I pant with stupefaction before theimmensity of God!"

_The Devil_--"Like the firmament, which rises in proportion as youascend, He will become greater according as your imagination mountshigher; and you will feel your joy increase in proportion to theunfolding of the universe, in this enlargement of the Infinite. "

_Antony_--"Ah! higher! ever higher!"

The stars multiply and shed around their scintillations. The Milky Wayat the zenith spreads out like an immense belt, with gaps here andthere; in these clefts, amid its brightness, dark tracts revealthemselves. There are showers of stars, trains of golden dust, luminousvapours which float and then dissolve. 

Sometimes a comet sweeps by suddenly; then the tranquillity of thecountless lights is renewed. 

Antony, with open arms, leans on the Devil's two horns, thus occupyingthe entire space covered by his wings. He recalls with disdain theignorance of former days, the limitation of his ideas. Here, then, closebeside him, were those luminous globes which he used to gaze at frombelow. He traces the crossing of their paths, the complexity of theirdirections. He sees them coming from afar, and, suspended like stones ina sling, describing their orbits and pushing forward their parabolas. 

He perceives, with a single glance, the Southern Cross and the GreatBear, the Lynx and the Centaur, the nebulæ of the Gold-fish, the sixsuns in the constellation of Orion, Jupiter with his four satellites, and the triple ring of the monstrous Saturn! all the planets, all thestars which men should, in future days, discover! He fills his eyes withtheir light; he overloads his mind with a calculation of theirdistances;--then he lets his head fall once more. 

"What is the object of all this?"

_The Devil_--"There is no object!

"How could God have had an object? What experience could haveenlightened Him, what reflection enabled Him to judge? Before thebeginning of things, it would not have operated, and now it would beuseless. "

_Antony_--"Nevertheless, He created the world, at one period of time, byHis mere word!"

_The Devil_--"But the beings who inhabit the earth came theresuccessively. In the same way, in the sky, new stars arise--differenteffects from various causes. "

_Antony_--"The variety of causes is the will of God!"

_The Devil_--"But to admit in God several acts of will is to admitseveral causes, and thus to destroy His unity!

"His will is not separable from His essence. He cannot have a secondwill, inasmuch as He cannot have a second essence--and, since He existseternally, He acts eternally. 

"Look at the sun! From its borders escape great flames emitting sparkswhich scatter themselves to become new worlds; and, further than thelast, beyond those depths where only night is visible, other suns whirlround, and behind these others again, and others still, to infinity . . . "

_Antony_--"Enough! enough! I am terrified! I am about to fall into theabyss. "

_The Devil_ stops, and gently balancing himself--

"There is no such thing as nothingness! There is no vacuum! Everywherethere are bodies moving over the unchangeable realms of space--and, asif it had any bounds it would not be space but a body, it consequentlyhas no limits!"

_Antony_, open-mouthed--"No limits!"

_The Devil_--"Ascend into the sky forever and ever, and you will neverreach the top! Descend beneath the earth for millions upon millions ofcenturies, and you will never get to the bottom--inasmuch as there is nobottom, no top, no end, above or below; and space is, in fact, comprisedin God, who is not a part of space, of a magnitude that can be measured, but immensity!"

_Antony_, slowly--"Matter, in that case, would be part of God?"

_The Devil_--"Why not? Can you tell where He comes to an end?"

_Antony_--"On the contrary, I prostrate myself, I efface myself beforeHis power!"

_The Devil_--"And you pretend to move Him! You speak to Him, you evenadorn Him with virtues--goodness, justice, clemency, --in place ofrecognising the fact that He possesses all perfections!

"To conceive anything beyond is to conceive God outside of God. Beingoutside of Being. But then He is the only Being, the only Substance. 

"If substance could be divided, it would lose its nature--it would notbe itself; God would no longer exist. He is, therefore, indivisible aswell as infinite, and if He had a body, He would be made up of parts. Hewould no longer be one; He would no longer be infinite. Therefore, He isnot a person!"

_Antony_--"What? My prayers, my sobs, the sufferings of my flesh, thetransports of my zeal, all these things would be no better than a lie. . . In space . . . Uselessly--like a bird's cry, like a whirlwind of deadleaves!"

He weeps. 

"Oh! no! There is above everything some One, a Great Spirit, a Lord, aFather, whom my heart adores, and who must love me!"

_The Devil_--"You desire that God should not be God; for, if Heexperienced love, anger, or pity, He would pass from His perfection to agreater or less perfection. He cannot descend to a sentiment, or becontained under a form. "

_Antony_--"One day, however, I shall see Him!"

_The Devil_--"With the Blessèd, is it not? When the finite shall enjoythe Infinite, enclosing the Absolute in a limited space!"

_Antony_--"No matter! There must be a Paradise for the good, as well asa Hell for the wicked!"

_The Devil_--"Does the exigency of your reason constitute the law ofthings? Without doubt, evil is a matter of indifference to God, seeingthat the earth is covered with it!

"Is it from impotence that He endures it, or from cruelty that Hepreserves it?

"Do you think that He can be continually putting the world in order likean imperfect work, and that He watches over all the movements of allbeings, from the flight of the butterfly to the thought of man?

"If He created the universe His providence is superfluous. If Providenceexists, creation is defective. 

"But good and evil only concern you--like day and night, pleasure andpain, death and birth, which have relationship merely to a corner ofspace, to a special medium, to a particular interest. Inasmuch as whatis infinite alone is permanent, the Infinite exists; and that is all!"

The Devil has gradually extended his huge wings, and now they coverspace. 

Antony can no longer see. He is on the point of fainting:

"A horrible chill freezes me to the bottom of my soul. This exceeds theutmost pitch of pain. It is, as it were, a death more profound thandeath. I wheel through the immensity of darkness. It enters into me. Myconsciousness is shivered to atoms under this expansion of nothingness. "

_The Devil_--"But things happen only through the medium of your mind. Like a concave mirror, it distorts objects, and you need every resourcein order to verify facts. 

"Never shall you understand the universe in its full extent;consequently you cannot form an idea as to its cause, so as to have ajust notion of God, or even say that the universe is infinite, for youshould first comprehend the Infinite!

"Form is perhaps an error of your senses, substance an illusion of yourintellect. Unless it be that the world, being a perpetual flux ofthings, appearances, by a sort of contradiction, would not be a test oftruth, and illusion would be the only reality. 

"But are you sure that you see? Are you sure that you live? Perhapsnothing at all exists!"

The Devil has seized Antony, and, holding him by the extremities of hisarms, stares at him with open jaws ready to swallow him up. 

"Come, adore me! and curse the phantom that you call God!"

Antony raises his eyes with a last movement of lingering hope. 

The Devil quits him. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHIMERA AND THE SPHINX. 

Antony finds himself stretched on his back at the edge of the cliff. Thesky is beginning to grow white. 

"Is this the brightness of dawn? or is it the reflection of the moon?"He tries to rise, then sinks back, and with chattering teeth:

"I feel fatigued . . . As if all my bones were broken!

"Why?

"Ah! it is the Devil! I remember; and he even repeated to me all I hadlearned from old Didymus concerning the opinions of Xenophanes, ofHeraclitus, of Melissus, and of Anaxagoras, as well as concerning theInfinite, the creation, and the impossibility of knowing anything!

"And I imagined that I could unite myself to God!"

Laughing bitterly:

"Ah! madness! madness! Is it my fault? Prayer is intolerable to me! Myheart is drier than a rock! Formerly it overflowed with love! . . . 

"The sand, in the morning, used to send forth exhalations on thehorizon, like the fumes of a censer. At the setting of the sun blossomsof fire burst forth from the cross, and, in the middle of the night, itoften seemed to me that all creatures and all things, gathered in thesame silence, were with me adoring the Lord. Oh! charm of prayer, blissof ecstasy, gifts of Heaven, what has become of you?

"I remember a journey I made with Ammon in search of a solitude in whichwe might establish monasteries. It was the last evening, and wequickened our steps, murmuring hymns, side by side, without uttering aword. In proportion as the sun went down, the shadows of our bodieslengthened, like two obelisks, always enlarging and marching on in frontof us. With the pieces of our staffs we planted the cross here and thereto mark the site of a cell. The night came on slowly, and black wavesspread over the earth, while an immense sheet of red still occupied thesky. 

"When I was a child, I used to amuse myself in constructing hermitageswith pebbles. My mother, close beside me, used to watch what I wasdoing. 

"She was going to curse me for abandoning her, tearing her white locks. And her corpse remained stretched in the middle of the cell, beneath theroof of reeds, between the tottering walls. Through a hole, a hyena, sniffing, thrusts forward his jaws! . . . Horror! horror!"

He sobs. 

"No: Ammonaria would not have left her!

"Where is Ammonaria now?

"Perhaps, in a hot bath she is drawing off her garments one by one, first her cloak, then her girdle, then her outer tunic, then her innerone, then the wrappings round her neck; and the vapour of cinnamonenvelops her naked limbs. At last she sinks to sleep on the tepid floor. Her hair, falling around her hips, looks like a black fleece--and, almost suffocating in the overheated atmosphere, she draws breath, withher body bent forward and her breasts projecting. Hold! here is my fleshbreaking into revolt. In the midst of anguish, I am tortured byvoluptuousness. Two punishments at the same time--it is too much! I canno longer endure my own body!"

He stoops down and gazes over the precipice. 

"The man who falls over that will be killed. Nothing easier, by simplyrolling over on the left side: it is necessary to take only one step!only one!"

Then appears an old woman. 

Antony rises with a start of error. He imagines that he sees his motherrisen from the dead. 

But this one is much older and excessively emaciated. A winding-sheet, fastened round her head, hangs with her white hair down to the veryextremities of her legs, thin as sticks. The brilliancy of her teeth, which are like ivory, makes her clayey skin look darker. The sockets ofher eyes are full of gloom, and in their depths flicker two flames, likelamps in a sepulchre. 

"Come forward, " she says; "what keeps you back?"

_Antony_, stammering--"I am afraid of committing a sin!"

She resumes:

"But King Saul was slain! Razias, a just man, was slain! Saint Pelagiusof Antioch was slain! Dominius of Aleppo and his two daughters, threemore saints, were slain;--and recall to your mind all the confessorswho, in their eagerness to die, rushed to meet their executioners. Inorder to taste death the more speedily, the virgins of Miletus strangledthemselves with their cords. The philosopher, Hegesias, at Syracusepreached so well on the subject, that people deserted the brothels tohang themselves in the fields. The Roman patricians sought for death asif it were a debauch. "

_Antony_--"Yes, it is a powerful passion! Many an anchorite has yieldedto it. "

_The old woman_--"To do a thing which makes you equal to God--think ofthat! He created you; you are about to destroy His work, you, by yourcourage, freely. The enjoyment of Erostrates was not greater. And then, your body is thus mocked by your soul in order that you may avengeyourself in the end. You will have no pain. It will soon be over. Whatare you afraid of? A large black hole! It is empty, perhaps!"

Antony listens without saying anything in reply;--and, on the otherside, appears another woman, marvellously young and beautiful. At first, he takes her for Ammonaria. But she is taller, fair as honey, ratherplump, with paint on her cheeks, and roses on her head. Her long robe, covered with spangles, is studded with metallic mirrors. Her fleshlylips have a look of blood, and her somewhat heavy eyelashes are so muchbathed in languor that one would imagine she was blind. She murmurs:

"Come, then, and enjoy yourself. Solomon recommends pleasure. Go whereyour heart leads you, and according to the desire of your eyes. "

_Antony_--"To find what pleasure? My heart is sick; my eyes are dim!"

She replies:

"Hasten to the suburb of Racotis; push open a door painted blue; and, when you are in the atrium, where a jet of water is gurgling, a womanwill present herself--in a peplum of white silk edged with gold, herhair dishevelled, and her laugh like sounds made by rattlesnakes. She isclever. In her caress you will taste the pride of an initiation, and thesatisfaction of a want. Have you pressed against your bosom a maiden wholoved you? Recall to your mind her remorse, which vanished under a floodof sweet tears. You can imagine yourself--can you not?--walking throughthe woods beneath the light of the moon. At the pressure of your handsjoined with hers a shudder runs through both of you; your eyes, broughtclose together, overflow from one to the other like immaterial waves, and your heart is full; it is bursting; it is a delicious whirlwind, anoverpowering intoxication. "

_The old woman_--"You need not experience joys to feel their bitterness!You need only see them from afar, and disgust takes possession of you. You must needs be wearied with the monotony of the same actions, theduration of the days, the ugliness of the world, and the stupidity ofthe sun!"

_Antony_--"Oh! yes; all that it shines upon is displeasing to me. "

_The young woman_--"Hermit! hermit! you shall find diamonds among thepebbles, fountains beneath the sand, a delight in the dangers which youdespise; and there are even places on the earth so beautiful that youare filled with a longing to embrace them. "

_The old woman_--"Every evening when you lie down to sleep on the earth, you hope that it may soon cover you. "

_The young woman_--"Nevertheless, you believe in the resurrection of theflesh, which is the transport of life into eternity. "

The old woman, while speaking, has been growing more emaciated, and, above her skull, which has no hair upon it, a bat has been makingcircles in the air. 

The young woman has become plumper. Her robe changes colour; hernostrils swell; her eyes roll softly. 

The first says, opening her arms:

"Come! I am consolation, rest, oblivion, eternal peace!"

And the second offering her breast:

"I am the soother, the joy, the life, the happiness inexhaustible!"

Antony turns on his heel to fly. Each of them places a hand upon hisshoulder. 

The winding-sheet flies open, and reveals the skeleton of Death. Therobe bursts open, and presents to view the entire body of Lust, whichhas a slender figure, with an enormous development behind, and great, undulating masses of hair, disappearing towards the end. 

Antony remains motionless between the pair, contemplating them. 

_Death_ says to him--

"This moment, or a little later--what does it matter? You belong to me, like the suns, the nations, the cities, the kings, the snow on themountains, and the grass in the fields. I fly higher than thesparrow-hawk, I run more quickly than the gazelle; I keep pace even withhope; I have conquered God!"

_Lust_--"Do not resist; I am omnipotent. The forests echo with my sighs;the waves are stirred by my agitations. Virtue, courage, piety, aredissolved in the perfume of my breath. I accompany man at every step hetakes; and on the threshold of the tomb he comes back to me. "

_Death_--"I will reveal to you what you tried to grasp by the light oftorches on the features of the dead--or when you rambled beyond thePyramids in those vast sand-heaps composed of human remains. From timeto time, a piece of skull rolled under your sandal. You took it out ofthe dust; you made it slip between your fingers; and your mind, becomingabsorbed in it, was plunged into nothingness. "

_Lust_--"Mine is a deeper gulf! Marble slabs have inspired impure loves. People rush towards meetings that terrify them, and rivet the verychains which they curse. Whence comes the witchery of courtesans, theextravagance of dreams, the immensity of my sadness?"

_Death_--"My irony surpasses that of all other things. There areconvulsions of joy at the funerals of kings and at the extermination ofpeoples; and they make war with music, plumes, flags, golden harnesses, and a display of ceremony to pay me the greater homage. "

_Lust_--"My anger is as strong as yours. I howl, I bite, I have sweatsof agony, and corpse-like appearances. "

_Death_--"It is I who make you serious; let us embrace each other!"

Death chuckles; Lust roars. They seize each other's figures, and singtogether:

"I hasten the dissolution of matter. "

"I facilitate the scattering of germs!"

"Thou destroyest that I may renew!"

"Thou engenderest that I may destroy!"

"Active my power!"

"Fruitful my decay!"

And their voices, whose echoes, rolling forth, fill the horizon, becomeso powerful that Antony falls backward. 

A shock, from time to time, causes him to half open his eyes; and heperceives, in the midst of the darkness, a kind of monster before him. 

It is a death's-head with a crown of roses. It rises above the torso ofa woman white as mother-of-pearl. Beneath, a winding-sheet, starred withpoints of gold, makes a kind of train;--and the entire body undulates, like a gigantic worm holding itself erect. 

The vision grows fainter, and then fades away. 

_Antony_, rises again--"This time, once more, it was the Devil, andunder his two-fold aspect--the spirit of voluptuousness and the spiritof destruction. Neither terrifies me. I thrust happiness aside, and feelthat I am eternal. 

"Thus, death is only an illusion, a veil, masking at certain points thecontinuity of life. But substance, being one, why is there a variety offorms? There must be somewhere primordial figures, whose bodies are onlyimages. If one could see, one would know the bond between mind andmatter, wherein Being consists!

"There are those figures which were painted at Babylon on the wall ofthe temple of Belus, and they covered a mosaic in the port of Carthage. I, myself, have sometimes seen in the sky what seemed like forms ofspirits. Those who traverse the desert meet animals passing allconception . . . "

And, opposite him, on the other side of the Nile, lo! the Sphinxappears. 

It stretches out its feet, shakes the fillets on its forehead, and liesdown upon its belly. 

Jumping, flying, spirting fire through its nostrils, and striking itswings with its dragon's tail, the Chimera with its green eyes, windsround, and barks. The curls of its head, thrown back on one side, intermingle with the hair on its haunches; and on the other side theyhang over the sand, and move to and fro with the swaying of its entirebody. 

The Sphinx is motionless, and gazes at the Chimera:

"Here, Chimera; stop!"

_The Chimera_--"No, never!"

_The Sphinx_--"Do not run so quickly; do not fly so high; do not bark soloud!"

_The Chimera_--"Do not address me, do not address me any more, since youremain forever silent!"

_The Sphinx_--"Cease casting your flames in my face and flinging youryells in my ears; you shall not melt my granite!"

_The Chimera_--"You will not get hold of me, terrible Sphinx!"

_The Sphinx_--"You are too foolish to live with me!"

_The Chimera_--"You are too clumsy to follow me!"

_The Sphinx_--"And where are you going that you run so quickly?"

_The Chimera_--"I gallop into the corridors of the labyrinth; I hoverover the mountains; I skim along the waves; I yelp at the bottoms ofprecipices; I hang by my jaws on the skirts of the clouds. With mytrailing tail I scratch the coasts, and the hills have taken their curbaccording to the form of my shoulders. But as for you, I find youperpetually motionless; or, rather, with the end of your claw tracingletters on the sand. "

_The Sphinx_--"That is because I keep my secret! I reflect and Icalculate. The sea returns to its bed; the blades of corn balancethemselves in the wind; the caravans pass; the dust flies off; thecities crumble;--but my glance, which nothing can turn aside, remainsconcentrated on the objects which cover an inaccessible horizon. "

_The Chimera_--"As for me, I am light and joyous! I discover in mendazzling perspectives, with Paradises in the clouds and distantfelicities. I pour into their souls the eternal insanities, projects ofhappiness, plans for the future, dreams of glory, and oaths of love, aswell as virtuous resolutions. I drive them on perilous voyages and onmighty enterprises. I have carved with my claws the marvels ofarchitecture. It is I that hung the little bells on the tomb ofPorsenna, and surrounded with a wall of Corinthian brass the quays ofthe Atlantides. 

"I seek fresh perfumes, larger flowers, pleasures hitherto unknown. Ifanywhere I find a man whose soul reposes in wisdom, I fall upon him andstrangle him. "

_The Sphinx_--"All those whom the desire of God torments, I havedevoured. 

"The strongest, in order to climb to my royal forehead, mount upon thestripes of my fillets as on the steps of a staircase. Weariness takespossession of them, and they fall back of their own accord. "

Antony begins to tremble. He is not before his cell, but in the desert, having at either side of him those two monstrous animals, whose jawsgraze his shoulders. 

_The Sphinx_--"O Fantasy, bear me on thy wings to enliven thy sadness!"

_The Chimera_--"O Unknown One, I am in love with thine eyes! I turnround thee, soliciting allayment of that which devours me!"

_The Sphinx_--"My feet cannot raise themselves. The lichen, like aringworm, has grown over my mouth. By dint of thinking, I have no longeranything to say. "

_The Chimera_--"You lie, hypocritical Sphinx! How is it that you arealways addressing me and abjuring me?"

_The Sphinx_--"It is you, unmanageable caprice, who pass and whirlabout. "

_The Chimera_--"Is that my fault? Come, now, just let me be!"

It barks. 

_The Sphinx_--"You move away; you avoid me!"

The Sphinx grumbles. 

_The Chimera_--"Let us make the attempt! You crush me!"

_The Sphinx_--"No; impossible!"

And sinking, little by little, it disappears in the sand, while theChimera, crawling, with its tongue out, departs with a winding movement. 

The breath issuing from its mouth has produced a fog. 

In this fog Antony traces masses of clouds and imperfect curves. Finally, he distinguishes what appear to be human bodies. 

And first advances the group of Astomi, like air-balls passing acrossthe sun. 

"Don't puff too strongly! The drops of rain bruise us; the false soundsexcoriate us; the darkness blinds us. Composed of breezes and ofperfumes, we roll, we float--a little more than dreams, not entirelybeings. "

The Nisnas have but one eye, one cheek, one hand, one leg, half a body, and half a heart. And they say, in a very loud tone:

"We live quite at our ease in our halves of houses with our halves ofwives and our halves of children. "

_The Blemmyes_, absolutely bereft of heads--

"Our shoulders are the largest;--and there is not an ox, a rhinoceros, or an elephant that is capable of carrying what we carry. 

"Arrows, and a sort of vague outline are imprinted on our breasts--thatis all! We reduce digestion to thought; we subtilise secretions. For usGod floats peacefully in the internal chyle. 

"We proceed straight on our way, passing through every mire, runningalong the verge of every abyss; and we are the most industrious, happy, and virtuous people. "

_The Pygmies_--"Little good-fellows, we swarm over the world, likevermin on the hump of a dromedary. 

"We are burnt, drowned, or run over; but we always reappear more full oflife and more numerous--terrible from the multitude of us that exists!"

_The Sciapodes_--"Kept on the ground by our flowing locks, long ascreeping plants, we vegetate under the shelter of our feet, which are aslarge as parasols; and the light reaches us through the spaces betweenour wide heels. No disorder and no toil! To keep the head as low aspossible--that is the secret of happiness!"

Their lifted thighs, resembling trunks of trees, increase in number. Andnow a forest appears in which huge apes rush along on four paws. Theyare men with dogs' heads. 

_The Cynocephali_--"We leap from branch to branch to suck the eggs, andwe pluck the little birds; then we put their nests upon our heads afterthe fashion of caps. 

"We do not fail to snatch away the worst of the cows, and we destroy thelynxes' eyes. Tearing the flowers, crushing the fruits, agitating thesprings, we are the masters--by the strength of our arms and thefierceness of our hearts. 

"Be bold, comrades, and snap your jaws!"

Blood and milk flow from their lips. The rain streams over their hairybacks. 

Antony inhales the freshness of green leaves which are agitated as thebranches of the trees dash against each other. All at once appears alarge black stag with a bull's head, carrying between his two ears amass of white horns. 

_The Sadhuzag_--"My seventy-four antlers are hollow like flutes. When Iturn myself towards the south wind, sounds go forth from them that drawaround me the ravished beasts. The serpents come winding to my feet; thewasps stick in my nostrils; and the parrots, the doves, and the ibisesalight upon my branches. Listen!"

He bends back his horns, from which issues an unutterably sweet music. 

Antony presses both his hands above his heart. It seems to him as ifthis melody were about to carry off his soul. 

_The Sadhuzag_--"But, when I turn towards the north wind, my horns, morebushy than a battalion of spears, emit a howling noise. The foreststhrill; the rivers swell; the husks of the fruit burst, and blades ofgrass stand erect like a coward's hair. Listen!"

He bows down his branches, from which now come forth discordant cries. Antony feels as if he were torn asunder, and his horror is increased onseeing the Mantichor, a gigantic red lion with a human figure and threerows of teeth:

"The silky texture of my scarlet hair mingles with the yellowness of thesands. I breathe through my nostrils the terror of solitudes. I spitforth the plague. I devour armies when they venture into the desert. Mynails are twisted like gimlets; my teeth are cut like a saw; and myhair, wriggled out of shape, bristles with darts which I scatter, rightand left, behind me. Hold! hold!"

The Mantichor casts thorns from his tail, which radiate, like arrows, inall directions. Drops of blood flow, spattering over the foliage. 

The Catoblepas appears, a black buffalo, with a pig's head hanging tothe earth, and connected with his shoulders by a slender neck, long andflabby as an empty gut. He is wallowing on the ground; and his feetdisappear under the enormous mane of hard hairs that descend over hisface:

"Fat, melancholy, savage, I remain continually feeling the mire under mystomach. My skull is so heavy that it is impossible for me to carry it. I roll it around slowly; and, opening my jaws, I snatch with my tonguethe poisonous herbs that are moistened with my breath. I once devouredmy paws without noticing it. 

"No one, Antony, has ever seen my eyes, or those who have seen them aredead. If I but raised my eyelids--my eyelids red and swollen--thatinstant you would die. "

_Antony_--"Oh! that thing! . . . Well! well! As if I had any such longing!Its stupidity attracts me. No! no! I will not!" He looks fixedly on theground. But the grass lights up, and, in the twistings of the flames, stands erect the Basilisk, a huge, violet serpent, with a trilobatecrest and two teeth--one above, the other below:

"Take care! You are about to fall into my jaws! I drink fire. I am firemyself; and from every quarter I suck it in--from clouds, from pebbles, from dead trees, from the hair of animals, and from the surface ofmarshes. My temperature supports the volcanoes. I cause the lustre ofprecious stones and the colour of metals. "

_The Griffin_, a lion with a vulture's beak, white wings, red paws, andblue neck--"I am the master of the profound splendours. I know thesecret of the tombs where the old kings sleep. A chain, which issuesfrom the wall, keeps their heads erect. Near them, in basins ofporphyry, women whom they have loved float upon black liquids. Theirtreasures are ranged in halls, in lozenges, in hillocks, and inpyramids; and, lower, far below the tombs, after long journeys in themidst of suffocating darkness, are rivers of gold with forests ofdiamonds, meadows of carbuncles, and lakes of quicksilver. With my backagainst the door of the vault, and my claws in the air, I watch with myflaming eyes those who may think fit to come there. The immense plain, even to the furthest point of the horizon, is quite bare and whitenedwith travellers' bones. For you the bronze doors will open, and you willinhale the vapour of the mines; you will descend into the caverns . . . Quick! quick!"

He digs the earth with his claws, crowing like a cock. 

A thousand voices reply to him. The forest trembles. 

And all sorts of horrible beasts arise: the Tragelaphus, half-stag, half-ox; the Myrmecoleo, a lion in front, an ant behind, whose genitalsare turned backwards; the python, Aksar, of sixty cubits, who frightenedMoses; the great weasel, Pastinaca, which kills trees by its odour; thePresteros, which renders idiotic those who touch it; the Mirag, a hornedhare dwelling in the islands of the sea. The Copard Phalmant bursts hisbelly by dint of howling; the Senad, a bear with three heads, tears itslittle ones with its mouth; the dog, Cepus, scatters on the rocks theblue milk of its dugs. Mosquitoes begin to buzz, toads to jump, andserpents to hiss. Lightnings flash; down comes the hail. 

Then there are squalls, which reveal anatomical marvels. There arealligators' heads with roebucks' feet, owls with serpents' tails, swinewith tigers' muzzles, goats with asses' rumps, frogs covered with hairlike bears, chameleons large as hippopotami, calves with two heads, oneof which weeps while the other bellows, four f[oe]tuses holding eachother by the navel and spinning like tops, and winged bellies whichflutter like gnats. 

They rain down from the sky; they spring out of the ground; they glidefrom the rocks. Everywhere eyes flash, mouths roar; the breasts bulgeout; the claws lengthen; the teeth gnash; the flesh quivers. Some ofthem bring forth their young; others with a single bite, devour oneanother. 

Suffocating from their very numbers, multiplying by their contact, theyclimb on top of one another; and they all keep stirring about Antonywith a regular swaying motion, as if the soil were the deck of a vessel. 

He feels close to his calves the trailing of slugs, and on his hands thecold touch of vipers; and spiders spinning their webs enclose him intheir network. 

But the circle of monsters begins to open; the sky suddenly becomesblue, and the unicorn makes its appearance:

"Off I gallop! Off I gallop!

"I have hoofs of ivory, teeth of steel, a head coloured purple, a bodylike snow, and the horn on my forehead has the varied hues of therainbow. 

"I travel from Chaldea to the Tartar desert, on the banks of the Ganges, and into Mesopotamia. I outstrip the ostriches. I run so rapidly that Idraw the wind along with me. I rub my back against the palm-trees; Iroll myself in the bamboos. With one bound I jump across the rivers. Doves fly above my head. Only a virgin can bridle me. 

"Off I gallop! Off I gallop!"

Antony watches him flying away. 

And, keeping his eyes still raised, he perceives all the birds that arenourished by the wind: the Gouith, the Ahuti, the Alphalim, the Juknethfrom the mountains of Caff, and the Homaï of the Arabs, which are thesouls of murdered men. He hears the parrots utter human speech, then thegreat web-footed Pelasgians, who sob like children or chuckle like oldwomen. 

A briny breath of air strikes his nostrils. A seashore is now beforehim. 

At a distance rise waterspouts, lashed up by the whales; and at theextremity of the horizon the beasts of the sea, round, like leatherbottles, flat, like strips of metal, or indented, like saws, advance, crawling over the sand:

"You are about to come with us into our unfathomable depths, neverpenetrated by man before. Different races dwell in the country of theocean. Some are in the abode of the tempests; others swim openly in thetransparency of the cold waves, browse like oxen over the coral plains, sniff in with their nostrils the ebbing tide, or carry on theirshoulders the weight of the ocean-springs. "

Phosphorescences flash from the hairs of the seals and from the scalesof the fishes. Sea-hedgehogs turn around like wheels; Ammon's hornsunroll themselves like cables; oysters make sounds with the fasteningsof their shells; polypi spread out their tentacles; medusæ quiver likecrystal balls; sponges float; anemones squirt out water; and mosses andseaweed shoot up. 

And all kinds of plants spread out into branches, twist themselves intotendrils, lengthen into points, and grow round like fans. Pumpkinspresent the appearance of bosoms, and creeping plants entwine themselveslike serpents. 

The Dedaims of Babylon, which are trees, have as their fruits humanheads; mandrakes sing; and the root Baaras runs into the grass. 

And now the plants can no longer be distinguished from the animals. Polyparies, which have the appearance of sycamores, carry arms on theirbranches. Antony fancies he can trace a caterpillar between two leaves;it is a butterfly which flits away. He is on the point of walking oversome shingle when up springs a grey grasshopper. Insects, like petals ofroses, garnish a bush; the remains of ephemera make a bed of snow uponthe soil. 

 * * * * *

And, next, the plants are indistinguishable from the stones. 

Pebbles bear a resemblance to brains, stalactites to udders, andiron-dust to tapestries adorned with figures. In pieces of ice he cantrace efflorescences, impressions of bushes and shells--so that onecannot tell whether they are the impressions of those objects or theobjects themselves. Diamonds glisten like eyes, and minerals palpitate. 

And he is no longer afraid! He lies down flat on his face, resting onhis two elbows, and, holding in his breath, he gazes around. 

Insects without stomachs keep eating; dried-up ferns begin to bloomafresh; and limbs which were wanting sprout forth again. 

Finally, he perceives little globular bodies as large as pins' heads, and garnished all round with eyelashes. A vibration agitates them. 

_Antony_, in ecstasy--

"O bliss! bliss! I have seen the birth of life; I have seen thebeginning of motion. The blood beats so strongly in my veins that itseems about to burst them. I feel a longing to fly, to swim, to bark, tobellow, to howl. I would like to have wings, a tortoise-shell, a rind, to blow out smoke, to wear a trunk, to twist my body, to spread myselfeverywhere, to be in everything, to emanate with odours, to grow likeplants, to flow like water, to vibrate like sound, to shine like light, to be outlined on every form, to penetrate every atom, to descend to thevery depths of matter--to be matter!"

The dawn appears at last; and, like the uplifted curtains of atabernacle, golden clouds, wreathing themselves into large volutes, reveal the sky. 

In the very middle of it, and in the disc of the sun itself, shines theface of Jesus Christ. 

Antony makes the sign of the Cross, and resumes his prayers.