The priest returned to his palace, and when he was in bed his secretary
prepared to read to him, as was his wont, but the archbishop sent him
away, desiring to be alone. He tried to think; but the wine he had drunk
was heavy upon him, and he fell asleep. But presently he awoke, feeling
thirsty; he drank some water.... Then he became strangely wide-awake, a
feeling of uneasiness came over him as of some threatening presence
behind him, and again he felt the thirst. He stretched out his hand for
the flagon, but now there was a mist before his eyes and he could not
see, his hand trembled so that he spilled the water. And the uneasiness
was magnified till it became a terror, and the thirst was horrible. He
opened his mouth to call out, but his throat was dry, so that no sound
came. He tried to rise from his bed, but his limbs were heavy and he
could not move. He breathed quicker and quicker, and his skin was
extraordinarily dry. The terror became an agony; it was unbearable. He
wanted to bury his face in the pillows to hide it from him; he felt the
hair on his head hard and dry, and it stood on end! He called to God for
help, but no sound came from his mouth. Then the terror took shape and
form, and he knew that behind him was standing Dona Sodina, and she was
looking at him with terrible, reproachful eyes. And a second Dona Sodina
came and stood at the end of the bed, and another came by her side, and
the room was filled with them. And his thirst was horrible; he tried to
moisten his mouth with spittle, but the source of it was dry. Cramps
seized his limbs, so that he writhed with pain. Presently a red glow
fell upon the room and it became hot and hotter, till he gasped for
breath; it blinded him, but he could not close his eyes. And he knew it
was the glow of hell-fire, for in his ears rang the groans of souls in
torment, and among the voices he recognised that of Dona Sodina, and
then--then he heard his own voice. And, in the livid heat, he saw
himself in his episcopal robes, lying on the ground, chained to Dona
Sodina, hand and foot. And he knew that as long as heaven and earth
should last, the torment of hell would continue.
When the priests came in to their master in the morning, they found him
lying dead, with his eyes wide open, staring with a ghastly brilliancy
into the unknown. Then there was weeping and lamentation, and from house
to house the people told one another that the archbishop had died in his
sleep. The bells were set tolling, and as Don Sebastian, in his
solitude, heard them, referring to the chief ingredient of that strange
wine from Cordova, he permitted himself the only jest of his life.
'It was _Belladonna_ that sent his body to the worms; and it was
_Belladonna_ that sent his soul to hell.'