THE ADORER
III. Fumes of Incense
"Il y a un secret, Valérien, que je veux
le dire; j' ai pour amant un ange de Dieu,
qui, avec une extrême jalousie, veille sur
mon corps."
Bréviare romain,
_Office de sainte Cécile._
"The incense! The incense!
"What incense there is in the censers!
"What fumes there are in the incense!
"That cloud is pagan, Virgin! Fie! to hide yourself in a cloud in order
to love. But why? I see the wings of the angel whose whiteness shines
under the fragrant cloud. It is with this, with so little, Virgin I
fie! that he has intoxicated you to possess you. And you smile at him,
I see your eyes whose splendor shines under the fragrant cloud, in the
shadow of the white wings.
"Thou, the immaculate! And for whom is so much purity sullied? For an
angel?"
"You fancied it was the Holy Spirit?"--"Yes, the dove pecked my lips
and I opened my lips and I gave him the end of my tongue. I speak
of the past. It was very pleasant and I have always wanted to begin
again."
"Ah! Virgin, fie, you lie like a woman. Doves have no such large
wings."--"They are the wings of my mantle."
"Ah? Virgin! Fie! doves have not light feathers."--"But they have, they
have! And besides they are not light, _figliuolo_, they are shot-color."
Such aplomb confused Delia Preda. What! a Virgin in whom he had placed
his whole confidence, _sub tuum praesidium_!
The colloquy was resumed in this fashion:
"Ah! Virgin! Fie! think of your family, think of your chaste spouse!
think of your son! think of God the father! Do you wish to dishonor the
creator of heaven and earth? What will become of us, if you awaken his
wrath? It is always on us, poor mortals, that his wrath falls, and we
will have the plague again."--"_Ecce ancilla Domini!_ my friend. I am
under the orders of the Most High, and what if it pleases him to send
me an angel?"
Della Preda did not know what reply to make, for he was too religious
to question the eternal decrees. He contented himself with remarking
to the madonna that if the Most High had sent her an angel, it was not
apparently to have love with him.
"Ah! Good Lord!" the Novella cried.
"Moreover," continued Delia Preda, "I am at peace, for the angels have
no sex. It is merely play. Ah, well! the question is controverted."
"Ah! Good Lord! Ah! Good Lord!" the Novella cried.
"Thus, Saint Ambrose, who has discussed angels at some length, does
not pronounce himself in a peremptory way. He notes that some, having
transgressed, were thrust 'into the world' and replaced in the
celestial concert by the most meritorious virginities. How did they
transgress, and must not this expression mean the flesh?..."
"Ah! my angel!" the Novella cried.
"Or perhaps they are epicene, like their name. This opinion was
sustained but I believe it heretical, for these vases of purity,
finding themselves endowed with two sexes, would have too many
temptations. Tertullian, as well as Origen, grants them a body: I know
that to be so, and I see what profane use they make of it.
"Ah! I am about to lose all my illusions concerning angels: I must
submit the case to the padre who taught me theology....
"If I call to mind my prayer-book, is it not written in the service
of Saint-Cecilia: 'Valerian found Cecilia supplicating with an angel
in her bed. Cecilia, moreover, had informed him beforehand: 'There is
a secret, Valerian, I wish to tell thee: I have an angel of God for
a lover; he watches over my body with an extreme jealousy.' Yes, I
have read this in my prayer-book, in those holy pages where disrespect
should not even appear. I read about holy loves, and of saints also,
without a doubt, and these things oppress my heart. Pardon, madonna!
Nevertheless you make me suffer and you make me weep; I no longer dare,
ashamed of the spectacle which has disturbed my soul, lift my rude
eyes towards your beatified eyes. You do what you wish, being a queen,
and my only duty is to love, to suffer and to die if you so order it.
"I do not understand at all, but what matter? Do I understand the
mystery of the Holy Trinity?
"If you have chosen, like the charming and blest maiden, an angel for
lover, it is because it is the function of angels to be the lovers of
virgins: it was so ordained by the Lord for all eternity.
"And I, I am unworthy; my body is soiled, twice soiled: since the
baptism of your love, madonna, the carnal seductions have prevailed
over the grace which your intercession had granted me.
"To a woman, and what a woman! to an infidel, and what an infidel! I
have betrayed my body that had been regenerated by the condescension
of your gaze, lavished by your tears, purified by your smile, as a
scabious rag by the running of the stream and by the rays of sunshine.
"You have punished me, madonna, but should I moan, since I myself have
supplicated you to whip my shoulders with the rod. You have punished me
well, thanks ... I hate you now, impure and perjured Virgin!
"Dream that I love you for your immaculate candor, and that your
virginal skin is spotted with ineffable stains...."
"It can no longer be seen," the Virgin said, "I have a new robe."
"My lord," said Veltro, bowing to the prisoner, "the ceremony is ended
and we must return. I have taken it upon myself to prolong the minutes,
but orders, my lord, orders ... all the same, the crowning of a madonna
is a fine holiday. The Novella is crowned every year at Assumption, and
her red robe is changed at the same time; it is the custom. The little
poor girls are given the old gown and dresses are made of it. And how
proud the little rascals are; after all, it is the custom, you see!"
"Another moment, Veltro, please, my friend?"
After Della Preda had raised his eyes and saw the Novella face to
face, radiant in her new purple and without the veil of any cloud,
his anguish and bewilderment subsided. All he felt was the agitation
that follows an evil dream, like a persistent odor, but suddenly the
sensation of blasphemy struck him; it was dim and violent: he swooned
and Veltro took him in his arms.