Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 19, 2025
It was customary for the "Angelus" to be said at noon, and the priests, before leaving the altar, waited for the clock to strike the hour of twelve. In a few moments this prayer would ascend to the feet of the Virgin. But suddenly a harsh noise was heard. Master Zacharius uttered a piercing cry.
Master Zacharius looked sublime in this hallucination, which carried him to the ultimate mysteries of the Infinite. But his daughter Gerande, standing on the threshold of the door, had heard all. She rushed into her father's arms, and he pressed her convulsively to his breast. "What is the matter with thee, my daughter?" he asked.
They accomplished five leagues during the night, stopping neither at Bessinge nor at Ermance, where rises the famous château of the Mayors. They with difficulty forded the torrent of the Dranse, and everywhere they went they inquired for Master Zacharius, and were soon convinced that they were on his track.
The spring bounded before him, first on one side, then on the other, and he could not reach it. At last Pittonaccio seized it, and, uttering a horrible blasphemy, ingulfed himself in the earth. Master Zacharius fell backwards. He was dead. The old watchmaker was buried in the midst of the peaks of Andernatt.
The severity of the Geneva merchant in business matters has become proverbial. He is rigidly honourable, and excessively just. What must, then, have been the shame of Master Zacharius, when he saw these watches, which he had so carefully constructed, returning to him from every direction? It was certain that these watches had suddenly stopped, and without any apparent reason.
You have come to give me your daughter! You have remembered my words, 'Gerande will not wed Aubert." The young apprentice rushed upon Pittonaccio, who escaped from him like a shadow. "Stop, Aubert!" cried Master Zacharius. "Good-night," said Pittonaccio, and he disappeared. "My father, let us fly from this hateful place!" cried Gerande. "My father!" Master Zacharius was no longer there.
"They bear a celebrated name, and an illustrious signature is graven on their cases, it is true, and theirs is the exclusive privilege of being introduced among the noblest families; but for some time they have got out of order, and you can do nothing in the matter, Master Zacharius; and the stupidest apprentice in Geneva could prove it to you!"
Master Zacharius, having doubtless forgotten the promise made to his daughter, had returned to his shop. After being convinced of his powerlessness to give life to his watches, he resolved to try if he could not make some new ones.
After he had worked hard for a long time, Zacharius would slowly put his tools away, cover up the delicate pieces that he had been adjusting with glasses, and stop the active wheel of his lathe; then he would raise a trap-door constructed in the floor of his workshop, and, stooping down, used to inhale for hours together the thick vapours of the Rhone, as it dashed along under his eyes.
"Do you know, Master Zacharius, that your name is inscribed in full on their faces? By the Virgin, you do little honour to your signature!" It happened at last that the old man, abashed by these reproaches, took some pieces of gold from his old trunk, and began to buy back the damaged watches.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking