The Fiery Angel (12 page)

By this time shouts were heard in the crowd: “A roundelay! A roundelay!” and everyone, as if performing a well-known rite, began to gather into three large circles, locked one within the other. Those in the medium one stood as is usual in village roundels, but those in the least and the largest stood reversed, with their faces turned outwards and their backs turned inwards. Now were heard the sounds of music: flute, violin and drum—and then began the devilish dance, that started to grow more rapid with every movement, at first reminding me of one of the Spanish
danses de espadas
or of the
sarabande
, and then like nothing upon earth. As I and my companion had got into the very outer circle of the roundelay, I could only barely see what was taking place in the other circles: it seemed as if the least was furiously wheeling from left to right, and those in the second furiously jumping up and down, while in ours the main figure of the dance appeared to consist in us, turning half-way and not unlocking our hands, knocking our buttocks against each other.

I was quite out of breath when at last the music stopped and the dance ended, but hardly had the dancers broken the circles than the sound of singing was heard, coming from the direction of the throne. The Seated One, accompanying his singing with the sound of a harp, sang in a hoarse and heavy voice a psalm, to which we all listened in respectful silence. And, when he ceased, we all began to sing in chorus the black litany, in form like a church litany, while to its prayers, all the words of which I could not quite understand, the usual responses were heard: “Miserere nobis!” and “Ora pro nobis!”

Meantime came bustling among us some small but active creatures in red velvet tunics sewn with small bells, and they laid tables very smartly, covering them with white cloths, though, as one could see, these attendants performed their duties without the help of hands.

Sarraska, who had recovered her breath during the singing, again began to urge and hurry me:

“Behan, Behan, come quicker, let us take our seats or none will be left, and I am terribly hungry.”

Having decided to conform to the customs of the place, as I have done always and everywhither fate has carried me, I followed the young witch, and we were among the first to seat ourselves at the table, around which were placed wooden benches of the commonest kind. Very soon the litany was over, and with the greatest noise and yelling the whole concourse followed our example, filling the benches, pushing and quarrelling for seats. The attendants in velvet tunics began to place various dishes on the table, all simple in the extreme: cups with cabbage soup or oatmeal, butter, cheese, plates with bread made of black millet, bottles of milk, and quarts of wine, which, when I tried it, proved sour and of low quality.

Above all sounded the buzz of unceasing talk, roars of laughter, whistling and giggling, but I made use of the fact that our seats were at the side to endeavour to question Sarraska about various details of the festival I did not properly understand; and she, greedily stuffing her stomach with the proffered dishes, very willingly satisfied my curiosity.

I asked her who were these attendants who served the dishes, and she said that they were demons, and armless, who performed their work with the aid of their teeth, and wings that they concealed beneath their capes. And then and there she called one of these attendants to her, to show him to me closer, and it was strange to me to see how the naked woman turned here and there in front of us the smallish mannikin with an idiot face, and wings like those of a bat in place of hands.

I asked next how it was that they were none of them afraid to dance amid the columns of fire. But Sarraska laughed out loud and told me that the fire does not burn, that it is only the priests who try to instil fear by pretending that the fires of Hell cause suffering, but that in reality they are like soapy froth, and she wanted to drag me forward to convince me of the fact, but I was careful to do nothing to attract the attention of the whole company to myself.

Again I asked, whether the serpents and tritons that crawled about our feet might not harm us, but Sarraska, laughing again, assured me that these creatures were pets and harmless, and at once she dragged a snake from under the table and wound it round her breasts, and the snake tenderly licked her neck with its forked tongue and playfully nibbled at her scarlet nipple.

At last I asked whether there were Sabbaths more lively than to-day’s, and at this question Sarraska’s eyes sparkled and she said to me:

“Of course! To-day is the most ordinary of gatherings, such as is held every Wednesday and Friday, but what took place here on the Feast of the Assumption, or, wait, what will there not be on the Holiday of All Saints! At such times more than a thousand people are gathered together, stolen babies are baptised, weddings celebrated, obits held in memory of the dead! Then there is rejoicing, oh what a joy it is to dance, to sing, and to caress! Sometimes there are wolves that give pleasure with which no man can compare! And, for a treat, sometimes, we cook ourselves children’s meat in milk!”

And with these words Sarraska’s teeth somehow glittered peculiarly in her mouth—white and sharp teeth; and when I asked again, not without revulsion: whether it were really true that human flesh was so tasty and wolves’ caresses so agreeable, she only laughed slyly in reply. Then I asked her whether it had occurred to her to experience the caresses of demons and whether they gave joy. She, not ashamed, declared to me that they do, and a great joy, only their seed is as cold as ice. But then she drew quite close to me and, shamelessly touching parts of my body, she began to speak to me thus:

“What is the use of recollecting the past, my precious Behan? To-day I love you, and you are more desirable to me than any incubus. Look, already they are putting out the fires and soon the cock will crow—come with me, then.”

When, however, I shook my head in negation and tried to free myself from her embrace, Sarraska asked me why I was so sad. I told her that Master Leonard had promised to give me an answer to a question of great importance to me, but till now he had made no reply.

Sarraska then told me:

“Don’t you be sad, precious Behan! I was his betrothed last Friday and he is very kindly-disposed towards me. I will go and ask him; he will not deny me.

Having said this Sarraska slipped from the bench and ran off, and, left by myself, I began to take a look round. In truth the fires were already going out and only a few of them still weakly smouldered near the ground, and before my eyes the benches began to empty quickly, for the moment had come for the participants in the Sabbath to give themselves to the last and most ignoble stage of the feast. The tender music of flutes rose above the lawn, through the thickening darkness hands reached out for hands, and the mingled bodies began to sink to the earth with soft sighs, here and yonder, between the tables, and on the shores of the lake, and far away under the trees. Here I saw the ugly coupling of a youth with an old woman, there the hideous toying of an old man with a child, here the shamelessness of a maid giving herself to a wolf, or the fury of a man caressing a wolf-bitch, or a monstrous bundle of many bodies plaited in one caress—wild outcries and gasping breath sounded upon all sides, increasing and drowning the sound of the instruments. Soon the whole lawn was become one Sodom come to life, a new feast of Codrus, a horrid madhouse in which all were seized with the fury of heat and threw themselves upon one another, hardly seeing who was before them: man, woman, child or demon—and the invincible odour of lust rose from these dark, heaving masses, drugging me also, so that I felt rise in me that same fury of the male, that same insatiable thirst for embraces.

And, at this very moment, Sarraska appeared in front of me rejoicing, and said:

“It is accomplished, accomplished! He said to me: ‘Has not my true servant already given him the answer: whither you are riding, ride thither!’ If he confirms it—it must be true!”

After these words, assuming that my sadness must have been blown away, the witch silently embraced me with her arms and drew me after her towards the beginnings of the wood, close to me like a lizard, and whispering to me disconnected words of caress. The temptation of lust penetrated into me, through the nostrils, and through the ears, and through the eyes. And Sarraska with her warm body as it were scorched all my body, so that I allowed myself to be led without hindrance. Beneath the thick branches of a walnut tree we fell to the ground, on a little island of moss, and in that moment I remembered neither my oaths nor my love, but only gave myself up to joy, that darkened my reason and deprived me of will. But suddenly, while I was still weak after these transports, right in front of me I saw the face of Renata amidst the green leaves, and awareness flared up in me like lightning, and remorse and jealousy seared me painfully. Renata was quite naked, like most of those participating in the Sabbath, and on her face was the same expression of sensual heat as on those of the others—and, apparently not seeing me, she made her way as though seeking someone, through the beginnings of the wood. I leaped up like a wild boar breaking from a trap, thrust away Sarraska who sought to hold me back, and, as she passed, flew after her with the sad and angry cry:

“Renata! Why are you here?”

Renata, as if recognising me, flung herself away in fright, disappearing in the darkness, but I flew after her amidst the black bushes, stretching out my hands, furious and ripe to kill if I caught her. But she, appearing only for moments, disappeared again, the trunks of trees barred my way, branches whipped my face, while behind me sounded screams, whistlings and cries of the chase as though I were being pursued, and everything whirled in my head, and at last I could see nothing around me and fell to the ground, as if into a deep well, head foremost.

Later, when I came to, and, with a great effort, opened my eyes and looked around, I saw that I was lying alone on the floor of that small room in which I had smeared myself with the magic composition. In the air still hovered the strangling odour of the ointment, all my body ached as though I had been jarred by falling from a height, and the pain in my head was such that I could scarcely think. However, summoning all my strength, I managed to sit up, and at once tried to take stock of the meaning of all that which filled my memory. And for quite a long time I sat motionless, thinking and drawing conclusions.

M
Y conclusions assailed me from two sides, like the warriors of two enemy hosts, and it was not easy for me to weight the scales of my understanding on to one side, for in both cups could I place new and ever new considerations.

On the one hand there was much to sustain the view that my dread aerial journey to the Sabbath had been merely an apparition of sleep, called forth by the poisonous vapours of the ointment I had rubbed into my body. The cape on which I had recovered my senses was crumpled and rucked into folds exactly as it would have been after a human body had lain on it for a prolonged period. Nowhere on my body were there any signs of my journey of the night, particularly, I noted, there were no scratches or sores on my legs from the barefoot dance upon the meadow or the hunt through the woods. And lastly—and this was the most important—on my breast could be perceived no trace of the prick of his horn, with which Master Leonard had seemed to brand upon me the eternal mark of the Devil,
sigillam diabolicum
.

On the other hand the connectedness and consequence of my memories far exceeded that usually associated with dreams. My memory informed me of details of the devilish games heretofore entirely unknown to me, and which I had not the slightest cause to invent. Moreover, I had quite clearly been conscious of taking part in the witches’ roundelay in body and not in spirit, if one admit, that is to say, the possibility of the separation of spirit from body during life, which the divine Plato is ready to recognise but which is much doubted by the majority of philosophers.

Finally it occurred to me that there was to hand a trusty method of resolving my doubts. If all that I had seen had been real, then Renata, giving me the slip, must have followed me in my flight through the air, and now must either yet tarry away from home or else lie in her bed as tired as I. With a new access of rage and jealousy, I hastily began to dress and put myself in order, which was not easy for me to accomplish for my hands yet shook and darkness kept coming into my eyes. In a few minutes I was already in the corridor, where the fresh morning air pouring into my chest somewhat reinvigorated me, and, with heart beating, I opened the door of Renata’s room. Renata was sleeping quietly in her high bed, and there were no signs of her having spent the night as I had spent it, for there was no trace of the smell of the ointment, which would have shown that she had resorted to the magic rubbing.

At that time, this seemed to me an invincible argument in favour of my not having quitted the realm of dreams, and yet I was seized not by a feeling of joy, in that the deeds and words of the night, by which I had destroyed the eternal salvation of my soul, were but dreams—but by a staggering sense of shame. It appeared to me extremely ignoble that I had been unable to perform that which I had promised Renata, or to penetrate to the throne of the Devil, though this is easily achieved, it seems, even by quite insignificant persons. I fancied at the same time, that my dream had maybe been sent by the Devil himself, desiring once more to laugh and mock at my helplessness, and the thought struck me like a humiliating slap in the face. And in this moment, while I gazed on the sleeping Renata, there was born in me, and immediately hardened, that resolve that governed my subsequent actions during the many weeks that followed: the resolve to try my strength in open contest with the spirits of darkness whom I had encountered in my path through life, and who so far had tossed me about like a ball.

Meanwhile, Renata, roused by the creaking of the door, slightly opened her eyes. Another feeling—remorse that I could have suspected Renata of deceit—forced me to rush impetuously towards her, to sink to my knees with a kiss upon her hand, and to utter words she could not have understood.