THE ECLIPSE
In the stillness and the darkness, realization soon
began to supplement knowledge. The mere knowledge
of a fact is pale; but when you come to realize
your fact, it takes on color. It is all the difference
between hearing of a man being stabbed to the heart,
and seeing it done. In the stillness and the
darkness, the knowledge that I was in deadly danger
took to itself deeper and deeper meaning all the time;
a something which was realization crept inch by inch
through my veins and turned me cold.
But it is a blessed provision of nature that at times
like these, as soon as a man’s mercury has got
down to a certain point there comes a revulsion, and
he rallies. Hope springs up, and cheerfulness
along with it, and then he is in good shape to do something
for himself, if anything can be done. When my
rally came, it came with a bound. I said to
myself that my eclipse would be sure to save me, and
make me the greatest man in the kingdom besides; and
straightway my mercury went up to the top of the tube,
and my solicitudes all vanished. I was as happy
a man as there was in the world. I was even impatient
for to-morrow to come, I so wanted to gather in that
great triumph and be the center of all the nation’s
wonder and reverence. Besides, in a business
way it would be the making of me; I knew that.
Meantime there was one thing which had got pushed
into the background of my mind. That was the
half-conviction that when the nature of my proposed
calamity should be reported to those superstitious
people, it would have such an effect that they would
want to compromise. So, by and by when I heard
footsteps coming, that thought was recalled to me,
and I said to myself, “As sure as anything,
it’s the compromise. Well, if it is good,
all right, I will accept; but if it isn’t, I
mean to stand my ground and play my hand for all it
is worth.”
The door opened, and some men-at-arms appeared.
The leader said:
“The stake is ready. Come!”
The stake! The strength went out of me, and
I almost fell down. It is hard to get one’s
breath at such a time, such lumps come into one’s
throat, and such gaspings; but as soon as I could speak,
I said:
“But this is a mistake—the execution
is to-morrow.”
“Order changed; been set forward a day.
Haste thee!”
I was lost. There was no help for me.
I was dazed, stupefied; I had no command over myself,
I only wandered purposely about, like one out of his
mind; so the soldiers took hold of me, and pulled
me along with them, out of the cell and along the maze
of underground corridors, and finally into the fierce
glare of daylight and the upper world. As we
stepped into the vast enclosed court of the castle
I got a shock; for the first thing I saw was the stake,
standing in the center, and near it the piled fagots
and a monk. On all four sides of the court the
seated multitudes rose rank above rank, forming sloping
terraces that were rich with color. The king
and the queen sat in their thrones, the most conspicuous
figures there, of course.
