In the town of Garchester, close to St. Peter's Church, and near the
river, stood a dark old house called the Slype House, from a narrow
passage of that name that ran close to it, down to a bridge over the
stream. The house showed a front of mouldering and discoloured stone to
the street, pierced by small windows, like a monastery; and indeed, it
was formerly inhabited by a college of priests who had served the
Church. It abutted at one angle upon the aisle of the church, and there
was a casement window that looked out from a room in the house,
formerly the infirmary, into the aisle; it had been so built that any
priest that was sick might hear the Mass from his bed, without
descending into the church. Behind the house lay a little garden,
closely grown up with trees and tall weeds, that ran down to the stream.
In the wall that gave on the water, was a small door that admitted to an
old timbered bridge that crossed the stream, and had a barred gate on
the further side, which was rarely seen open; though if a man had
watched attentively he might sometimes have seen a small lean person,
much bowed and with a halting gait, slip out very quietly about dusk,
and walk, with his eyes cast down, among the shadowy byways.
The name of the man who thus dwelt in the Slype House, as it appeared in
the roll of burgesses, was Anthony Purvis. He was of an ancient family,
and had inherited wealth. A word must be said of his childhood and
youth. He was a sickly child, an only son, his father a man of
substance, who lived very easily in the country; his mother had died
when he was quite a child, and this sorrow had been borne very heavily
by his father, who had loved her tenderly, and after her death had
become morose and sullen, withdrawing himself from all company and
exercise, and brooding angrily over his loss, as though God had
determined to vex him. He had never cared much for the child, who had
been peevish and fretful; and the boy's presence had done little but
remind him of the wife he had lost; so that the child had lived alone,
nourishing his own fancies, and reading much in a library of curious
books that was in the house. The boy's health had been too tender for
him to go to school; but when he was eighteen, he seemed stronger, and
his father sent him to a university, more for the sake of being relieved
of the boy's presence than for his good. And there, being unused to the
society of his equals, he had been much flouted and despised for his
feeble frame; till a certain bitter ambition sprang up in his mind, like
a poisonous flower, to gain power and make himself a name; and he had
determined that as he could not be loved he might still be feared; so he
bided his time in bitterness, making great progress in his studies;
then, when those days were over, he departed eagerly, and sought and
obtained his father's leave to betake himself to a university of Italy,
where he fell into somewhat evil hands; for he made a friendship with an
old doctor of the college, who feared not God and thought ill of man,
and spent all his time in dark researches into the evil secrets of
nature, the study of poisons that have enmity to the life of man, and
many other hidden works of darkness, such as intercourse with spirits of
evil, and the black influences that lie in wait for the soul; and he
found Anthony an apt pupil. There he lived for some years till he was
nearly thirty, seldom visiting his home, and writing but formal letters
to his father, who supplied him gladly with a small revenue, so long as
he kept apart and troubled him not.
Then his father had died, and Anthony came home to take up his
inheritance, which was a plentiful one; he sold his land, and visiting
the town of Garchester, by chance, for it lay near his home, he had
lighted upon the Slype House, which lay very desolate and gloomy; and as
he needed a large place for his instruments and devices, he had bought
the house, and had now lived there for twenty years in great loneliness,
but not ill-content.
To serve him he had none but a man and his wife, who were quiet and
simple people and asked no questions; the wife cooked his meals, and
kept the rooms, where he slept and read, clean and neat; the man moved
his machines for him, and arranged his phials and instruments, having a
light touch and a serviceable memory.
The door of the house that gave on the street opened into a hall; to
the right was a kitchen, and a pair of rooms where the man and his wife
lived. On the left was a large room running through the house; the
windows on to the street were walled up, and the windows at the back
looked--on the garden, the trees of which grew close to the casements,
making the room dark, and in a breeze rustling their leaves or leafless
branches against the panes. In this room Anthony had a furnace with
bellows, the smoke of which discharged itself into the chimney; and here
he did much of his work, making mechanical toys, as a clock to measure
the speed of wind or water, a little chariot that ran a few yards by
itself, a puppet that moved its arms and laughed--and other things that
had wiled away his idle hours; the room was filled up with dark lumber,
in a sort of order that would have looked to a stranger like disorder,
but so that Anthony could lay his hand on all that he needed. From the
hall, which was paved with stone, went up the stairs, very strong and
broad, of massive oak; under which was a postern that gave on the
garden; on the floor above was a room where Anthony slept, which again
had its windows to the street boarded up, for he was a light sleeper,
and the morning sounds of the awakening city disturbed him.
The room was hung with a dark arras, sprinkled with red flowers; he
slept in a great bed with black curtains to shut out all light; the
windows looked into the garden; but on the left of the bed, which stood
with its head to the street, was an alcove, behind the hangings,
containing the window that gave on the church. On the same floor were
three other rooms; in one of these, looking on the garden, Anthony had
his meals. It was a plain panelled room. Next was a room where he read,
filled with books, also looking on the garden; and next to that was a
little room of which he alone had the key. This room he kept locked,
and no one set foot in it but himself. There was one more room on this
floor, set apart for a guest who never came, with a great bed and a
press of oak. And that looked on the street. Above, there was a row of
plain plastered rooms, in which stood furniture for which Anthony had no
use, and many crates in which his machines and phials came to him; this
floor was seldom visited, except by the man, who sometimes came to put a
box there; and the spiders had it to themselves; except for a little
room where stood an optic glass through which on clear nights Anthony
sometimes looked at the moon and stars, if there was any odd
misadventure among them, such as an eclipse; or when a fiery-tailed
comet went his way silently in the heavens, coming from none might say
whence and going none knew whither, on some strange errand of God.
Anthony had but two friends who ever came to see him. One was an old
physician who had ceased to practise his trade, which indeed was never
abundant, and who would sometimes drink a glass of wine with Anthony,
and engage in curious talk of men's bodies and diseases, or look at one
of Anthony's toys. Anthony had come to know him by having called him in
to cure some ailment, which needed a surgical knife; and that had made a
kind of friendship between them; but Anthony had little need thereafter
to consult him about his health, which indeed was now settled enough,
though he had but little vigour; and he knew enough of drugs to cure
himself when he was ill. The other friend was a foolish priest of the
college, that made belief to be a student but was none, who thought
Anthony a very wise and mighty person, and listened with open mouth and
eyes to all that he said or showed him. This priest, who was fond of
wonders, had introduced himself to Anthony by making believe to borrow a
volume of him; and then had grown proud of the acquaintance, and
bragged greatly of it to his friends, mixing up much that was fanciful
with a little that was true. But the result was that gossip spread wide
about Anthony, and he was held in the town to be a very fearful person,
who could do strange mischief if he had a mind to; Anthony never cared
to walk abroad, for he was of a shy habit, and disliked to meet the eyes
of his fellows; but if he did go about, men began to look curiously
after him as he went by, shook their heads and talked together with a
dark pleasure, while children fled before his face and women feared him;
all of which pleased Anthony mightily, if the truth were told; for at
the bottom of his restless and eager spirit lay a deep vanity unseen,
like a lake in woods; he hungered not indeed for fame, but for
repute--_monstrari digito_, as the poet has it; and he cared little in
what repute he was held, so long as men thought him great and
marvellous; and as he could not win renown by brave deeds and words, he
was rejoiced to win it by keeping up a certain darkness and mystery
about his ways and doings; and this was very dear to him, so that when
the silly priest called him Seer and Wizard, he frowned and looked
sideways; but he laughed in his heart and was glad.
Now, when Anthony was near his fiftieth year, there fell on him a
heaviness of spirit which daily increased upon him. He began to question
of his end and what lay beyond. He had always made pretence to mock at
religion, and had grown to believe that in death the soul was
extinguished like a burnt-out flame. He began, too, to question of his
life and what he had done. He had made a few toys, he had filled vacant
hours, and he had gained an ugly kind of fame--and this was all. Was he
so certain, he began to think, after all, that death was the end? Were
there not, perhaps, in the vast house of God, rooms and chambers beyond
that in which he was set for awhile to pace to and fro? About this time
he began to read in a Bible that had lain dusty and unopened on a shelf.
It was his mother's book, and he found therein many little tokens of her
presence. Here was a verse underlined; at some gracious passages the
page was much fingered and worn; in one place there were stains that
looked like the mark of tears; then again, in one page, there was a
small tress of hair, golden hair, tied in a paper with a name across it,
that seemed to be the name of a little sister of his mother's that died
a child; and again there were a few withered flowers, like little sad
ghosts, stuck through a paper on which was written his father's
name--the name of the sad, harsh, silent man whom Anthony had feared
with all his heart. Had those two, indeed, on some day of summer, walked
to and fro, or sate in some woodland corner, whispering sweet words of
love together? Anthony felt a sudden hunger of the heart for a woman's
love, for tender words to soothe his sadness, for the laughter and
kisses of children--and he began to ransack his mind for memories of his
mother; he could remember being pressed to her heart one morning when
she lay abed, with her fragrant hair falling about him. The worst was
that he must bear his sorrow alone, for there were none to whom he could
talk of such things. The doctor was as dry as an old bunch of herbs, and
as for the priest, Anthony was ashamed to show anything but contempt and
pride in his presence.
For relief he began to turn to a branch of his studies that he had long
disused; this was a fearful commerce with the unseen spirits. Anthony
could remember having practised some experiments of this kind with the
old Italian doctor; but he remembered them with a kind of disgust, for
they seemed to him but a sort of deadly juggling; and such dark things
as he had seen seemed like a dangerous sport with unclean and coltish
beings, more brute-like than human. Yet now he read in his curious books
with care, and studied the tales of necromancers, who had indeed seemed
to have some power over the souls of men departed. But the old books
gave him but little faith, and a kind of angry disgust at the things
attempted. And he began to think that the horror in which such men as
made these books abode, was not more than the dark shadow cast on the
mirror of the soul by their own desperate imaginings and timorous
excursions.
One day, a Sunday, he was strangely sad and heavy; he could settle to
nothing, but threw book after book aside, and when he turned to some
work of construction, his hand seemed to have lost its cunning. It was a
grey and sullen day in October; a warm wet wind came buffeting up from
the West, and roared in the chimneys and eaves of the old house. The
shrubs in the garden plucked themselves hither and thither as though in
pain. Anthony walked to and fro after his midday meal, which he had
eaten hastily and without savour; at last, as though with a sudden
resolution, he went to a secret cabinet and got out a key; and with it
he went to the door of the little room that was ever locked.
He stopped at the threshold for a while, looking hither and thither; and
then he suddenly unlocked it and went in, closing and locking it behind
him. The room was as dark as night, but Anthony going softly, his hands
before him, went to a corner and got a tinder-box which lay there, and
made a flame.
A small dark room appeared, hung with a black tapestry; the window was
heavily shuttered and curtained; in the centre of the room stood what
looked like a small altar, painted black; the floor was all bare, but
with white marks upon it, half effaced. Anthony looked about the room,
glancing sidelong, as though in some kind of doubt; his breath went and
came quickly, and he looked paler than was his wont.
Presently, as though reassured by the silence and calm of the place, he
went to a tall press that stood in a corner, which he opened, and took
from it certain things--a dish of metal, some small leathern bags, a
large lump of chalk, and a book. He laid all but the chalk down on the
altar, and then opening the book, read in it a little; and then he went
with the chalk and drew certain marks upon the floor, first making a
circle, which he went over again and again with anxious care; at times
he went back and peeped into the book as though uncertain. Then he
opened the bags, which seemed to hold certain kinds of powder, this
dusty, that in grains; he ran them through his hands, and then poured a
little of each into his dish, and mixed them with his hands. Then he
stopped and looked about him. Then he walked to a place in the wall on
the further side of the altar from the door, and drew the arras
carefully aside, disclosing a little alcove in the wall; into this he
looked fearfully, as though he was afraid of what he might see.
In the alcove, which was all in black, appeared a small shelf, that
stood but a little way out from the wall. Upon it, gleaming very white
against the black, stood the skull of a man, and on either side of the
skull were the bones of a man's hand. It looked to him, as he gazed on
it with a sort of curious disgust, as though a dead man had come up to
the surface of a black tide, and was preparing presently to leap out. On
either side stood two long silver candlesticks, very dark with disuse;
but instead of holding candles, they were fitted at the top with flat
metal dishes; and in these he poured some of his powders, mixing them as
before with his fingers. Between the candlesticks and behind the skull
was an old and dark picture, at which he gazed for a time, holding his
taper on high. The picture represented a man fleeing in a kind of
furious haste from a wood, his hands spread wide, and his eyes staring
out of the picture; behind him everywhere was the wood, above which was
a star in the sky--and out of the wood leaned a strange pale horned
thing, very dim. The horror in the man's face was skilfully painted, and
Anthony felt a shudder pass through his veins. He knew not what the
picture meant; it had been given to him by the old Italian, who had
smiled a wicked smile when he gave it, and told him that it had a very
great virtue. When Anthony had asked him of the subject of the picture,
the old Italian had said, "Oh, it is as appears; he hath been where he
ought not, and he hath seen somewhat he doth not like." When Anthony
would fain have known more, and especially what the thing was that
leaned out of the wood, the old Italian had smiled cruelly and said,
"Know you not? Well, you will know some day when you have seen him;" and
never a word more would he say.
When Anthony had put all things in order, he opened the book at a
certain place, and laid it upon the altar; and then it seemed as though
his courage failed him, for he drew the curtain again over the alcove,
unlocked the door, set the tinder-box and the candle back in their
place, and softly left the room.
He was very restless all the evening. He took down books from the
shelves, turned them over, and put them back again. He addressed himself
to some unfinished work, but soon threw it aside; he paced up and down,
and spent a long time, with his hands clasped behind him, looking out
into the desolate garden, where a still, red sunset burnt behind the
leafless trees. He was like a man who has made up his mind to a grave
decision, and shrinks back upon the brink. When his food was served he
could hardly touch it, and he drank no wine as his custom was to do, but
only water, saying to himself that his head must be clear. But in the
evening he went to his bedroom, and searched for something in a press
there; he found at last what he was searching for, and unfolded a long
black robe, looking gloomily upon it, as though it aroused unwelcome
thoughts; while he was pondering, he heard a hum of music behind the
arras; he put the robe down, and stepped through the hangings, and stood
awhile in the little oriel that looked down into the church. Vespers
were proceeding; he saw the holy lights dimly through the dusty panes,
and heard the low preluding of the organ; then, solemn and slow, rose
the sound of a chanted psalm on the air; he carefully unfastened the
casement which opened inward and unclosed it, standing for a while to
listen, while the air, fragrant with incense smoke, drew into the room
along the vaulted roof. There were but a few worshippers in the church,
who stood below him; two lights burnt stilly upon the altar, and he saw
distinctly the thin hands of a priest who held a book close to his face.
He had not set foot within a church for many years, and the sight and
sound drew his mind back to his childhood's days. At last with a sigh he
put the window to very softly, and went to his study, where he made
pretence to read, till the hour came when he was wont to retire to his
bed. He sent his servant away, but instead of lying down, he sate,
looking upon a parchment, which he held in his hand, while the bells of
the city slowly told out the creeping hours.
At last, a few minutes before midnight, he rose from his place; the
house was now all silent, and without the night was very still, as
though all things slept tranquilly. He opened the press and took from it
the black robe, and put it round him, so that it covered him from head
to foot, and then gathered up the parchment, and the key of the locked
room, and went softly out, and so came to the door. This he undid with a
kind of secret and awestruck haste, locking it behind him. Once inside
the room, he wrestled awhile with a strong aversion to what was in his
mind to do, and stood for a moment, listening intently, as though he
expected to hear some sound. But the room was still, except for the
faint biting of some small creature in the wainscot.
Then with a swift motion he took up the tinder-box and made a light; he
drew aside the curtain that hid the alcove; he put fire to the powder in
the candlesticks, which at first spluttered, and then swiftly kindling
sent up a thick smoky flame, fragrant with drugs, burning hotly and red.
Then he came back to the altar; cast a swift glance round him to see
that all was ready; put fire to the powder on the altar, and in a low
and inward voice began to recite words from the book, and from the
parchment which he held in his hand; once or twice he glanced fearfully
at the skull, and the hands which gleamed luridly through the smoke; the
figures in the picture wavered in the heat; and now the powders began to
burn clear, and throw up a steady light; and still he read, sometimes
turning a page, until at last he made an end; and drawing something from
a silver box which lay beside the book, he dropped it in the flame, and
looked straight before him to see what might befall. The thing that fell
in the flame burned up brightly, with a little leaping of sparks, but
soon it died down; and there was a long silence, in the room, a
breathless silence, which, to Anthony's disordered mind, was not like
the silence of emptiness, but such silence as may be heard when unseen
things are crowding quietly to a closed door, expecting it to be opened,
and as it were holding each other back.
Suddenly, between him and the picture, appeared for a moment a pale
light, as of moonlight, and then with a horror which words cannot attain
to describe, Anthony saw a face hang in the air a few feet from him,
that looked in his own eyes with a sort of intent fury, as though to
spring upon him if he turned either to the right hand or to the left.
His knees tottered beneath him, and a sweat of icy coldness sprang on
his brow; there followed a sound like no sound that Anthony had ever
dreamed of hearing; a sound that was near and yet remote, a sound that
was low and yet charged with power, like the groaning of a voice in
grievous pain and anger, that strives to be free and yet is helpless.
And then Anthony knew that he had indeed opened the door that looks into
the other world, and that a deadly thing that held him in enmity had
looked out. His reeling brain still told him that he was safe where he
was, but that he must not step or fall outside the circle; but how he
should resist the power of the wicked face he knew not. He tried to
frame a prayer in his heart; but there swept such a fury of hatred
across the face that he dared not. So he closed his eyes and stood
dizzily waiting to fall, and knowing that if he fell it was the end.
Suddenly, as he stood with closed eyes, he felt the horror of the spell
relax; he opened his eyes again, and saw that the face died out upon the
air, becoming first white and then thin, like the husk that stands on a
rush when a fly draws itself from its skin, and floats away into the
sunshine.
Then there fell a low and sweet music upon the air, like a concert of
flutes and harps, very far away. And then suddenly, in a sweet clear
radiance, the face of his mother, as she lived in his mind, appeared in
the space, and looked at him with a kind of heavenly love; then beside
the face appeared two thin hands which seemed to wave a blessing towards
him, which flowed like healing into his soul.
The relief from the horror, and the flood of tenderness that came into
his heart, made him reckless. The tears came into his eyes, not in a
rising film, but a flood hot and large. He took a step forwards round
the altar; but as he did so, the vision disappeared, the lights shot up
into a flare and went out; the house seemed to be suddenly shaken; in
the darkness he heard the rattle of bones, and the clash of metal, and
Anthony fell all his length upon the ground and lay as one dead.
But while he thus lay, there came to him in some secret cell of the mind
a dreadful vision, which he could only dimly remember afterwards with a
fitful horror. He thought that he was walking in the cloister of some
great house or college, a cool place, with a pleasant garden in the
court. He paced up and down, and each time that he did so, he paused a
little before a great door at the end, a huge blind portal, with much
carving about it, which he somehow knew he was forbidden to enter.
Nevertheless, each time that he came to it, he felt a strong wish, that
constantly increased, to set foot therein. Now in the dream there fell
on him a certain heaviness, and the shadow of a cloud fell over the
court, and struck the sunshine out of it. And at last he made up his
mind that he would enter. He pushed the door open with much difficulty,
and found himself in a long blank passage, very damp and chilly, but
with a glimmering light; he walked a few paces down it. The flags
underfoot were slimy, and the walls streamed with damp. He then thought
that he would return; but the great door was closed behind him, and he
could not open it. This made him very fearful; and while he considered
what he should do, he saw a tall and angry-looking man approaching very
swiftly down the passage. As he turned to face him, the other came
straight to him, and asked him very sternly what he did there; to which
Anthony replied that he had found the door open. To which the other
replied that it was fast now, and that he must go forward. He seized
Anthony as he spoke by the arm, and urged him down the passage. Anthony
would fain have resisted, but he felt like a child in the grip of a
giant, and went forward in great terror and perplexity. Presently they
came to a door in the side of the wall, and as they passed it, there
stepped out an ugly shadowy thing, the nature of which he could not
clearly discern, and marched softly behind them. Soon they came to a
turn in the passage, and in a moment the way stopped on the brink of a
dark well, that seemed to go down a long way into the earth, and out of
which came a cold fetid air, with a hollow sound like a complaining
voice. Anthony drew back as far as he could from the pit, and set his
back to the wall, his companion letting go of him. But he could not go
backward, for the thing behind him was in the passage, and barred the
way, creeping slowly nearer. Then Anthony was in a great agony of mind,
and waited for the end.
But while he waited, there came some one very softly down the passage
and drew near; and the other, who had led him to the place, waited, as
though ill-pleased to be interrupted; it was too murky for Anthony to
see the new-comer, but he knew in some way that he was a friend. The
stranger came up to them, and spoke in a low voice to the man who had
drawn Anthony thither, as though pleading for something; and the man
answered angrily, but yet with a certain dark respect, and seemed to
argue that he was acting in his right, and might not be interfered with.
Anthony could not hear what they said, they spoke so low, but he guessed
the sense, and knew that it was himself of whom they discoursed, and
listened with a fearful wonder to see which would prevail. The end soon
came, for the tall man, who had brought him there, broke out into a
great storm of passion; and Anthony heard him say, "He hath yielded
himself to his own will; and he is mine here; so let us make an end."
Then the stranger seemed to consider; and then with a quiet courage, and
in a soft and silvery voice like that of a child, said, "I would that
you would have yielded to my prayer; but as you will not, I have no
choice." And he took his hand from under the cloak that wrapped him, and
held something out; then there came a great roaring out of the pit, and
a zigzag flame flickered in the dark. Then in a moment the tall man and
the shadow were gone; Anthony could not see whither they went, and he
would have thanked the stranger; but the other put his finger to his lip
as though to order silence, and pointed to the way he had come, saying,
"Make haste and go back; for they will return anon with others; you know
not how dear it hath cost me." Anthony could see the stranger's face in
the gloom, and he was surprised to see it so youthful; but he saw also
that tears stood in the eyes of the stranger, and that something dark
like blood trickled down his brow; yet he looked very lovingly at him.
So Anthony made haste to go back, and found the door ajar; but as he
reached it, he heard a horrible din behind him, of cries and screams;
and it was with a sense of gratitude, that he could not put into words,
but which filled all his heart, that he found himself back in the
cloister again. And then the vision all fled away, and with a shock
coming to himself, he found that he was lying in his own room; and then
he knew that a battle had been fought out over his soul, and that the
evil had not prevailed.
He was cold and aching in every limb; the room was silent and dark, with
the heavy smell of the burnt drugs all about it. Anthony crept to the
door, and opened it; locked it again, and made his way in the dark very
feebly to his bed-chamber; he had just the strength to get into his bed,
and then all his life seemed to ebb from him, and he lay, and thought
that he was dying. Presently from without there came the crying of
cocks, and a bell beat the hour of four; and after that, in his vigil of
weakness, it was strange to see the light glimmer in the crevices, and
to hear the awakening birds that in the garden bushes took up, one after
another, their slender piping song, till all the choir cried together.
But Anthony felt a strange peace in his heart; and he had a sense,
though he could not say why, that it was as once in his childhood, when
he was ill, and his mother had sate softly by him while he slept.
So he waited, and in spite of his mortal weakness that was a blessed
hour.
When his man came to rouse him in the morning, Anthony said that he
believed that he was very ill, that he had had a fall, and that the old
doctor must be fetched to him. The man looked so strangely upon him,
that Anthony knew that he had some fear upon his mind. Presently the
doctor was brought, and Anthony answered such questions as were put to
him, in a faint voice, saying, "I was late at my work, and I slipped and
fell." The doctor, who looked troubled, gave directions; and when he
went away he heard his man behind the door asking the doctor about the
strange storm in the night, that had seemed like an earthquake, or as if
a thunderbolt had struck the house. But the doctor said very gruffly,
"It is no time to talk thus, when your master is sick to death." But
Anthony knew in himself that he would not die yet.
It was long ere he was restored to a measure of health; and indeed he
never rightly recovered the use of his limbs; the doctor held that he
had suffered some stroke of palsy; at which Anthony smiled a little, and
made no answer.
When he was well enough to creep to and fro, he went sadly to the dark
room, and with much pain and weakness carried the furniture out of it.
The picture he cut in pieces and burnt; and the candles and dishes, with
the book, he cast into a deep pool in the stream; the bones he buried in
the earth; the hangings he stored away for his own funeral.
Anthony never entered his workroom again; but day after day he sate in
his chair, and read a little, but mostly in the Bible; he made a friend
of a very wise old priest, to whom he opened all his heart, and to whom
he conveyed much money to be bestowed on the poor; there was a great
calm in his spirit, which was soon written in his face, in spite of his
pain, for he often suffered sorely; but he told the priest that
something, he knew not certainly what, seemed to dwell by him, waiting
patiently for his coming; and so Anthony awaited his end.
* * * * *