The Iron Pincers or Mylio and Karvel Part 17

Alyx of Montmorency follows Karvel's instructions. The effect of the potion is not long in manifesting itself. Montfort's gaze, that until then seemed vague and wandering, falls upon the physician. He contemplates Karvel in silence for a moment, and turning his head toward the countess while he painfully raises his arm to point at the Perfect, he asks in a feeble and hollow voice: "Who is that man?"

ALYX OF MONTMORENCY--"It is the heretic Lavaur physician whom we sent for."

At these words Simon shudders with surprise and horror. He closes his eyes and seems to be steeped in thought. After depositing a little flask on the table, Karvel closes his casket, takes it in his hands and says to the countess:

"Madam, you will give your husband a mouthful of the potion in this flask every hour during the night. I think that will suffice to restore the count to health. He shall have to keep his bed two or three days.

And now, adieu; the wounded of Lavaur are waiting for me."

MONTFORT (seeing his savior moving towards the door, rises on his elbow and says to Karvel in an imperative tone)--"Stop! (The Perfect hesitates to obey the count; the latter rings a bell that lies near him and says to one of the equerries who answer the call). That physician shall not leave the place without my orders."

The equerry bows and leaves the chamber.

MONTFORT--"Listen, physician, I am expert on courage. You have given a proof of courage in coming hither--alone--in the lion's den--"

KARVEL--"Your wife summoned me to your camp in the name of humanity. You are a human being--you suffered--I hastened to you. Moreover, I thought it well to prove once more how these 'heretics,' these 'monsters'--against whom so many horrors have been unchained--practice the evangelical morality of Jesus. You are our implacable enemy, Montfort, and yet I am glad to have saved your life."

MONTFORT--"Blaspheme not! You have only been the vile instrument of the will of G.o.d, Who has willed to spare my life, the life of His unworthy servant, the life of the humble sword of His triumphant Church.--But I repeat it. You are a brave fellow. As such you interest me. I would like to save your soul."

KARVEL--"Do not trouble yourself about that. Only let me return without delay to Lavaur, where our wounded await my services."

MONTFORT--"No! You shall not depart so soon!"

KARVEL--"You have the power. I submit (After a moment's reflection) Seeing that you oppose my departure, seeing that you believe you owe me some grat.i.tude, pay the debt by sincerely answering me a few questions."

MONTFORT--"I allow you to speak."

KARVEL--"Your valor is well known.--Your morals are austere.--You are humane towards your soldiers. At the crossing of the Durance you were seen to throw yourself into the water to save a foot-soldier who was being carried off by the current."

MONTFORT (brusquely)--"Enough! Enough! You shall not awaken in my soul the demon of pride! I am only an earthly worm!"

KARVEL--"I am not flattering you.--You are accessible to humane promptings. Now, then, tell me, did you not moan at the fate of the sixty thousand creatures of G.o.d--men, women and children--who were ma.s.sacred in Beziers by orders issued by yourself and the papal legate?"

MONTFORT--"Never did I feel greater exaltation. To obey the Pope is to obey G.o.d!"

KARVEL (struck by the sincerity of Montfort's tone, remains pensive for a moment)--"The delirium of war is blind, I know. But after the battle is over, after the sanguinary fever is cooled down, still to order in cold blood the ma.s.sacre of thousands of unarmed and inoffensive beings, women and children--it is shocking! Think of it, Montfort, to order the ma.s.sacre of children!"

MONTFORT (afflicted)--"Oh! How does the sacrilegious astonishment of the miscreant prove the depth of his heresy! He does not know that children die in a state of grace!"

KARVEL--"Explain yourself more clearly. Be indulgent with my ignorance.

Let us be definite. In a city that is taken by storm, a mother flees with her child. You slay the mother. Is that a worthy act before G.o.d?"

MONTFORT--"The viper that is crushed, breeds no more little ones. The supply of the miscreants is thus reduced."

KARVEL--"That is logical. But why slay the child? That is an abominable act?"

MONTFORT--"Of what age are you supposing the child to be?"

KARVEL--"I suppose it to be at its mother's breast."

MONTFORT--"Has it been baptized by a Catholic priest?"

KARVEL--"That child at its mother's breast whom you slay--has been baptized."

MONTFORT--"Then it is in a state of grace and ascends straight into Paradise. As to children who are older than seven years, they go to purgatory there to await their admission in the blessed resting place.

But if they have not been baptized--then the case is grave--"

KARVEL--"What happens to those children?"

MONTFORT--"The poor little creatures, still dripping with the soilure of original sin, go straight to h.e.l.l where they are forever deprived of the countenance of G.o.d. Nevertheless, in consideration of their tender years, the hope is left to them of being exempted from the everlasting flames by the prayers of the faithful--a grace that never would have fallen to their share had they been allowed to remain wallowing in the pestilence of heresy! Their death will have resulted in a mitigation of their punishment."

KARVEL--"Accordingly, in these days of a 'holy war', the accidental killing of a Catholic child sends him straight to Paradise, and the slaying of a heretic child affords it a good opportunity to escape the everlasting flames, but does not s.n.a.t.c.h it out of h.e.l.l!"

MONTFORT--"You have put it correctly. The child that is not baptized can never emerge out of h.e.l.l."

KARVEL--"I am now clear upon the fate of children. Let us now take up the case of women--"

MONTFORT--"I am anxious to save your soul. Perchance this conversation will open your eyes to the light."

KARVEL--"In the Castle of Lavaur that you are now besieging there is a woman--an angel of goodness and virtue. Her name is Giraude. (The count seems to be seized with fury at the mentioning of the name and tosses on his couch). Let me finish what I have to say. Be not impatient; besides, a fit of anger might prove fatal to you in your present condition. Take a few drops of this potion. I see that your wife, piously absorbed in her orisons, forgets the creature for the Creator."

MONTFORT (after taking a few draughts of the potion and again heaving a sigh of relief)--"The Lord has had pity upon me, miserable sinner that I am! I feel my strength returning. May the Lord be praised! Let the heretics tremble in their burrows!"

KARVEL--"The Lady of Lavaur is locked up with her son and brother in the Castle of Lavaur which you are now besieging. Giraude is an angel of virtue and goodness. Suppose that to-morrow, more successful than in your previous attacks upon the castle, you carry it by a.s.sault, and Giraude together with her son, a lad of fourteen, having escaped the general ma.s.sacre, fall into your hands. What will you do with that woman and her son? Answer me, n.o.ble Count of Montfort!"

MONTFORT--"The papal legate will say to the heretic woman: 'Will you, yes or no, renounce Satan and re-enter into the bosom of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church? Will you, yes or no, renounce all your earthly goods and lock yourself up for the rest of your days in a cloister, there to expiate your past heretical life?'"

KARVEL--"Giraude will answer the Pope's legate: 'I have my faith, you have yours. I wish to remain true to my religion.'"

MONTFORT (enraged)--"There is but one faith in the world, the Catholic faith! All who refuse to enter the pale of the Church deserve death. If the Lady of Lavaur should persist in her detestable creed, she will perish in the flames of the pyre!"

KARVEL--"I know not whether you have any children. But you have a wife.

Your mother still lives or has died. Think of her, you pious servant of the Church! Montfort, unconquerable warrior, you certainly loved your mother?"

MONTFORT (with emotion)--"Oh, yes--I loved her dearly!"

KARVEL--"And yet you would mercilessly order a woman to be burned who was a model of a wife, and is a model of a mother?"

MONTFORT (with a sinister smile)--"And that surprises you? You take me for a ferocious man? Oh, my G.o.d! how can you do otherwise, seeing that you have no faith. If you had you would understand that, on the contrary, I act with humanity by bringing the sword and the f.a.got into your country."

KARVEL--"Humanity in burning and ma.s.sacring the heretics, and in authorizing rape and butchery?"

MONTFORT--"Listen, and now it will be my turn to say: Answer with sincerity. You have a wife, a mother, children, friends. You love them dearly. In your country there is a province that is a permanent hot-bed of a contagion that threatens to invade the neighboring districts, to attack your own family, your friends and the whole population. Will you, under such circ.u.mstances hesitate one instant to purify that corner of your country, even if you have to do it with fire and sword? In the very name of that humanity that you speak about, will you hesitate to sacrifice a thousand, twenty thousand infected beings in order to save millions of other human beings from the incurable pestilence? No! no!

You will strike, and strike hard, and strike again. Your arm would never rest until the last one of the execrable and infected beings is dead, and has carried the last germ of the frightful disease into his tomb.

And you will have performed an act of humanity."

KARVEL (listens to Montfort's words with increasing emotion and intensity. For a moment he stands petrified by the sincere savagery of the chief of the Crusade. The Perfect then cries out with painful indignation)--"Oh, Catholic priests! Your infernal astuteness is such that, in order to insure the triumph of your unbridled ambition, you know how to exploit even the generous promptings of a man's heart and turn them to your own purpose!"

MONTFORT--"What is that you say! Impious blasphemer! Retract those infamous words!"