Phantastes, A Faerie Romance

More convinced than before, that there was evil here, I could not endure

that my master should be deceived; that one like him, so pure and noble,

should respect what, if my suspicions were true, was worse than the

ordinary deceptions of priestcraft. I could not tell how far he might be

led to countenance, and otherwise support their doings, before he should

find cause to repent bitterly of his error. I watched the new procession

yet more keenly, if possible, than the former. This time, the central

figure was a girl; and, at the close, I observed, yet more indubitably,

the shrinking back, and the crowding push. What happened to the victims,

I never learned; but I had learned enough, and I could bear it no

longer. I stooped, and whispered to the young girl who stood by me, to

lend me her white garment. I wanted it, that I might not be entirely

out of keeping with the solemnity, but might have at least this help to

passing unquestioned. She looked up, half-amused and half-bewildered, as

if doubting whether I was in earnest or not. But in her perplexity, she

permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it down from her shoulders.

I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in the

crowd, I rose apparently in the habit of one of the worshippers.

Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the return of

her stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed, and, if it was a man

that sat upon the throne, to attack him with hands bare, as I supposed

his must be, I made my way through the crowd to the front, while the

singing yet continued, desirous of reaching the platform while it was

unoccupied by any of the priests. I was permitted to walk up the long

avenue of white robes unmolested, though I saw questioning looks in many

of the faces as I passed. I presume my coolness aided my passage; for

I felt quite indifferent as to my own fate; not feeling, after the

late events of my history, that I was at all worth taking care of; and

enjoying, perhaps, something of an evil satisfaction, in the revenge I was thus taking upon the self which had fooled me so long. When I

arrived on the platform, the song had just ceased, and I felt as if all

were looking towards me. But instead of kneeling at its foot, I walked

right up the stairs to the throne, laid hold of a great wooden image

that seemed to sit upon it, and tried to hurl it from its seat. In this

I failed at first, for I found it firmly fixed. But in dread lest, the

first shock of amazement passing away, the guards would rush upon me

before I had effected my purpose, I strained with all my might; and,

with a noise as of the cracking, and breaking, and tearing of rotten

wood, something gave way, and I hurled the image down the steps. Its

displacement revealed a great hole in the throne, like the hollow of a

decayed tree, going down apparently a great way. But I had no time to

examine it, for, as I looked into it, up out of it rushed a great brute,

like a wolf, but twice the size, and tumbled me headlong with itself,

down the steps of the throne. As we fell, however, I caught it by the

throat, and the moment we reached the platform, a struggle commenced, in

which I soon got uppermost, with my hand upon its throat, and knee upon

its heart.