United States or Fiji ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
On his first examination, he said he would relate all he COULD. He was told that was not enough, he must relate all he knew. "Why did you testify such horror at the funeral of Father Olavida?" "Everyone testified horror and grief at the death of that venerable ecclesiastic, who died in the odor of sanctity. Had I done otherwise, it might have been reckoned a proof of my guilt."
"But I know him," said Olavida, "by these cold drops!" and he wiped them off; "by these convulsed joints!" and he attempted to sign the cross, but could not.
He stood still stood, and the Englishman stood calmly opposite to him. There was an agitated irregularity in the attitudes of those around them, which contrasted strongly the fixed and stern postures of those two, who remained gazing silently at each other. "Who knows him?" exclaimed Olavida, starting apparently from a trance; "who knows him? who brought him here?"
Father Olavida alone remained standing; but at that moment the Englishman rose, and appeared determined to fix Olavida's regards by a gaze like that of fascination. Who? I cannot utter a blessing while he is here. I cannot feel one. Where he treads, the earth is parched! Where he breathes, the air is fire! Where he feeds, the food is poison! Where he turns his glance is lightning!
"What sin, then, have I committed?" "The greatest of all possible sins; you refuse answering the questions put to you at the tribunal of the most holy and merciful Inquisition; you will not tell us what you know concerning the death of Father Olavida." "I have told you that I believe he perished in consequence of his ignorance and presumption." "What proof can you produce of that?"
The guests severally disclaimed all knowledge of the Englishman, and each asked the other in whispers, "who HAD brought him there?" Father Olavida then pointed his arm to each of the company, and asked each individually, "Do you know him?" No! no! no!" was uttered with vehement emphasis by every individual.
He is for the most part silent during the day, but at midnight he always exclaims, in a voice frightfully piercing, and hardly human, "They are coming! they are coming!" and relapses into profound silence. The funeral of Father Olavida was attended by an extraordinary circumstance.
"If your master were Jesus Christ, he would not forbid you to obey the commands, or answer the questions of the Inquisition." "I am not sure of that." There was a general outcry of horror at these words. The examination then went on. "If you believed Olavida to be guilty of any pursuits or studies condemned by our mother the church, why did you not denounce him to the Inquisition?"
All the guests rose at these words, the whole company now presented two singular groups, that of the amazed guests all collected together, and repeating, "Who, what is he?" and that of the Englishman, who stood unmoved, and Olavida, who dropped dead in the attitude of pointing to him.
The silence was interrupted, though the cause of wonder had not ceased, by the entrance of Father Olavida, the Confessor of Donna Isabella, who had been called away previous to the feast, to administer extreme unction to a dying man in the neighborhood.
Word Of The Day