Chapter 19 Chapter 5 IN DAEMONE DEUS ① (the devil also has God)

Michel Fletcher was still a league away when she saw the tower red with the setting sun.She could barely take a step, but she went on without hesitation.Women are weak, but mothers are strong.She insisted on going. ① Latin, can be translated as: the devil also has God; the wicked also have a good heart. The sun had set, dusk was coming, and then the deep night.As she walked, she heard eight o'clock and nine o'clock struck by some invisible clock tower in the distance.Most likely Parignier's bell tower.She stopped every now and then, listening to the deep sound of gunshots, perhaps an indistinct noise in the night.

She walked straight on, bleeding from her feet on the gorse and brambles.The gleam of light from distant towers guided her; towers loomed in the light and shimmered mysteriously in the darkness.The sound of gunfire became clearer and brighter, and the light grew brighter.Then it went out. On this vast plateau to which Michel Fleischer climbed, there were only grass and brambles, neither houses nor trees.The plateau rises slowly, its long, stiff line stretching across the endless, dark starry sky.Michelle Fleischer always had the tower in front of her eyes, which gave her the strength to climb.

She saw the tower slowly growing in size. We have just said that the faint gunshots and lights coming from the tower came and went intermittently.The poor, anxious mother guessed that there was some heartrending secret behind the hiatus. Suddenly, everything stopped, sound and light disappeared.Then there was silence, an eerie silence. At this moment, Michelle Frye was coming to the edge of the plateau. She saw a ravine under her feet, and the bottom of the ravine was a thick layer of off-white.On the top of the plateau not far away, wheels, slopes and shooting holes are staggered together, which is the fort.In the dim light of the burning cannon match, she saw ahead a huge building that seemed blacker than the surrounding darkness.

This building consisted of a bridge built in a ravine with an arch base, and a castle on the bridge. Both the bridge and the castle were attached to a dark round tower. Swimming lights flickered in the skylight of the high tower, and there were noises. It could be guessed that there were many people in the tower, and several of them still appeared on the top platform of the tower. Next to the fort was the camp, and Michelle Fryff saw several sentries, but she was in the dark and among the bushes, so she was not noticed. She finally came to the edge of the plateau, so close to the bridge that she could almost see it with her hands, only separated by a deep ditch.In the dark, she saw a three-story castle on the bridge.

She stared blankly at the gaping ravine and the dark buildings for an indeterminate amount of time, because there was no time scale in her mind.what is this?What's going on here?Is this Turg?She was dizzy with anticipation that seemed both an end and a beginning.She asked herself why she came here. She is watching, she is listening. Suddenly, she couldn't see anything. A cloud of smoke rose between her and what she was looking at.The blinding heat made her close her eyes, and she felt her eyelids were red and shiny as soon as she closed them, and she opened them again. Before her was no longer night but day, an ominous light of fire.A fire just broke out.

The smoke turned from black to bright red with a large tongue of flame in the middle.Tongues of flame flickered and twisted menacingly like lightning and snakes. Flames spewed from what looked like a mouth, and it was a blazing window on the first floor of the castle on the bridge, and the iron bars on the window were red-hot.In the whole building, people only see this window.Thick smoke covered everything, even the plateau. In front of the bright red flames, only the black edge of the plateau was faintly visible. Michelle Fletcher stared blankly.Smoke is clouds, and clouds are dreams.She didn't understand what was happening before her eyes.

Should she run away or should she stay?She felt almost hallucinated. A gust of wind blew, and the smoke screen cracked.The tragic fortress was suddenly exposed through the cracks, and the main tower, bridge, and small castle all stood in front of the eyes, shining brightly and frighteningly, bathed in brilliant golden firelight from top to bottom.In the sinister light, Michelle Fryff saw clearly. The first floor standing on the bridge is burning. The other two floors above the ground floor are still intact, but seem to be supported by a large basket of fire.From the edge of the plateau where Michel Fleischer stood, the interior of the two floors could be vaguely seen through the gaps of fire and smoke.All the windows are open.

Through the large window on the second floor, Michelle Fleischer saw several large cabinets along the wall, which seemed to be full of books, and in the dark behind a window, there were some indistinct things on the ground. Mixed up like a nest or brood, sometimes moving. she watched. What is this little gray mass? It sometimes seemed to her like a living form.She was running a fever, hadn't eaten since early morning, walked constantly, was exhausted, seemed to be hallucinating, and instinctively couldn't believe her eyes, however, her eyes were more and more fixed on the pile of gray objects, it Likely lifeless and lifeless looking, it lay on the floor of the hall above the fire.

All of a sudden, as if deliberately, the fire sprayed tongues of flame from below onto the dead ivy, and it was this ivy-covered wall that Michel Fleischer was looking at.The fire seemed to have just discovered these dead branches, and the flames immediately devoured them greedily, and climbed up the branches with the speed of a terrible fuse.In an instant, the fire reached the third floor, and the fire light illuminated the room on the second floor from Gaoshe.Suddenly, in the bright firelight, the figures of three sleeping children appeared. The little pile turned out to be lovely children, with their arms and legs folded, their eyes closed, and their faces smiling under their blond hair.

The mother recognized her child. She let out a terrified cry. Only a mother could make such an indescribable, anxious cry.There is no other sound as dire and moving as it.When you hear a woman cry like this, you think she is a she-wolf; when you hear a she-wolf cry, you think it is a woman. Michelle Fletcher's call was a howl.Homer writes: "Hecuba barks" ①In Homer's epic poem "The Story of Ilion", the wife of King Priam of Troy witnessed the murder of her husband and her children and grandchildren.Then turned into a dog. It was this call which the Marquis de Lantenac had just heard.

We saw him stop. He stood between the exit of the passage through which Almaro had led him and the ravine.Through the brambles that criss-crossed above his head, he saw the bridge burning, and saw Turg covered in red reflections.He found the branch, and saw above him, on the edge of the opposite plateau, in front of the burning castle, the strong firelight was shining on a frightened, mournful figure. It was a woman, leaning over a ravine. body. The voice came from this woman. This woman was no longer Michelle Fleischer, but the most miserable and most terrible of the Gore workers.The peasant woman became Eumenides.This ordinary, ignorant village woman suddenly becomes an epic figure out of desperation.Great grief widens the mind immensely.This mother is the embodiment of maternal love.All feelings that embrace humanity are superhuman.She stood on the edge of the ravine, watching the fire and the crime like death.She cries like a beast and poses like a goddess.Her cursed face seemed to burn.With tears in her eyes, her piercing eyes were extremely majestic, staring fixedly at the fire. ①A monster in Greek mythology that can turn the beholder into stone. ② Nemesis in Greek mythology. The Marquis is listening.The voice fell on his head.It's not sobs, it's not words, it's a muffled, heartbreaking voice: "Oh, God! My boy! This is my boy! Help! Put out the fire! Put out the fire! Put out the fire! Are you brigands? Is there no one here? My boy is burning! Oh!" Who has seen such a thing? Jorge Te! my child!Fat Alain, René-Jean!what happened?Who brought my child here?They are still sleeping.I'm going crazy!How could this be?help! " At this time, both Turg and the plateau were in a commotion.Everyone in the camp ran towards the fire that had just started.The attackers had just dealt with the rain of bullets in Berlin, and now they had to deal with the fire.Govan, Simurdan, and Gaishan are giving orders. what to do?It is impossible to fetch a few buckets of water from the thin ditches and streams.People are getting more and more anxious.The edge of the plateau was full of stunned people watching the fire. What they saw terrified them. They are watching, but helpless. The fire spread through the burning ivy to the upper story, the straw-stacked attic.Flame hurried up. Now the whole attic is burning.Tongues of flame dance; gay tongues are death knell.Someone seems to be secretly fanning the fire, maybe the terrible Immanus has become a blazing flame, and revives his body with fierce fire, maybe the soul of this demon has become a fire.The library floor, with its high ceilings and thick walls, hadn't burned yet, but it wasn't far off.It was licked by the tongue of fire on the first floor and caressed by the tongue of fire on the third floor.The terrible kiss of death touches it lightly.Below it was a cellar of lava, and above it a dome of flames.Any hole in the floor meant a fall into red-hot lava, any hole in the ceiling meant being buried in red-hot coals.René-Jean, Fat Alain, and Jean-Ponte were still awake, sleeping soundly like all children.Flame and smoke alternate, the window is sometimes covered and sometimes exposed, and in this cave of fire, one sees these three children lying in a fleeting twilight, calm, graceful, Motionless, as if sleeping peacefully in hell.Even a tiger would weep at the sight of these roses trapped in the fire, and these cradles laid in the grave. The mother bowed and shouted: "Fire! I'm calling for fire! Why don't you come! They're all deaf! My children are burning! You people are standing there, come on! I've been walking day after day before I found them Help! Ambassador, these are angels! They are so innocent, what have they done wrong? Someone shot me, and now they are going to be burned. Who did this? Help! Help! Babies! Can't you hear me? Bitch, even a bitch will get sympathy! My children! My children! They're still sleeping! Oh! Jorget! I see this sweet little Stomach! René-Jean! Fat Alain! That's their name. Look, I'm their mother. It's a terrible time. I've been traveling day and night. I spoke to a woman this morning. Help! Help! Ah! Put out the fire! Are you all devils?How terrible!The eldest is less than five years old, and the little girl is less than two years old!I saw their little bare legs.They are sleeping, merciful Virgin Mary!Heaven gave them back to me, and hell took them away.Think about how far I have traveled!These babies are breastfed by me!How tormented I am that I cannot find them!Have pity on me!I want my baby, I need my baby!But now they are surrounded by fire!Look at my poor feet, covered with blood!help!Are there any men in the world who can watch these poor children being burned to death like this!help! Catch the murderer!Never seen such a thing.Ah!bandit!Where is this hideous house?Someone has stolen my children and is going to burn them.Jesus, what a misfortune!I want my baby!I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want them to die!help!help!help!Ah!If the children die, I will kill God! " Mother uttered these terrible pleas, and at the same moment voices arose from plateau and ravine: "ladder!" "No ladders!" "water!" "no water!" "Up there, on the third floor of the tower, there's a door." "That's an iron gate." "Break it open!" "It can't be hit." Mother still cries out in despair: "Fire! Help! Hurry up! Or kill me! My boy! My boy! Oh! What a horrible fire! Get them out, or throw me in!" Between the cries the fire could be heard crackling peacefully. The Marquis fumbled in his pocket, found the key to the iron door, and stooped down into the vaulted passage from which he had escaped, walking back. The entire army was at a loss because they couldn't organize a rescue. Four thousand people couldn't save three children!That's the way it is. Indeed they had no ladder, and the ladder sent from Javne did not reach here.The fire grew wider and wider like an erupting crater.The creek is almost dry, and trying to put out the fire with the stream water is like pouring a glass of water into the crater of a volcano. Simurdan, Gaishan, and Radu descended into the ravine, and Govan returned to the third floor of Turg, where there were revolving stones, secret passages, and an iron door leading to the library.This is where Immanus lit the fuse, and this is where the fire started. Govan brought twenty sappers with him.There was no other way but to break open the iron gate.The iron gate was closed tightly. They cut first with an axe.The ax cut.A sapper said: "With this iron, steel becomes glass." The iron gates were indeed wrought, and had two double sheets of iron bolted to them, each fully three inches thick. They picked up iron rods and stuffed them under the door, trying to pry the door open.The iron rod broke. "Like matches," said the sapper. Gowan looked sad and murmured: "Only cannonballs can open this door, but cannon can't bring it up." "Maybe it can't be blasted." It's frustrating.The helpless arms stopped.No word was spoken, and the people stared with disappointment and dismay at the dreadful, immovable iron gate.A red light came through from under the door, and the fire was burning hotter behind the door. The hideous corpse of Emmanus lay there, gloomy and triumphant. In about a few minutes, everything will come crashing down. what to do?There is no longer any hope. Govan stared at the whirling stones on the wall and the escape passage, and exclaimed angrily: "That's where the Marquis de Lantenac ran away!" "Come back from here too," said a voice. A white-haired head appeared at the door of the stone gate of the secret passage. He is the Marquis. Govan hadn't seen him this close for many years.Govan backed away. All the people present were stunned, transfixed. The Marquis held a big key in his hand, glanced haughtily at the sappers in front of him, walked straight to the iron gate, bent down under the dome, and stuffed the key into the keyhole.The lock creaked, and the door opened, revealing a blazing abyss, through which the Marquis walked. He held his head high and walked firmly. Everyone looked at him, shuddering. He had just taken a few steps in the burning hall when he trampled down the burnt floor, and a chasm appeared behind him, separating him from the iron gate.He didn't look back, just walked on and disappeared into the smoke. People can no longer see anything. Can the Marquis go further?Had a new fire pit appeared beneath his feet?Maybe he killed himself too?It's hard to say.There is only a thick wall of smoke and fire before people's eyes.The Marquis is on the other side of the wall, is he alive or dead? At this moment, the children finally opened their eyes again. The fire hadn't burned into the library yet, but it cast orange light on the ceiling.The children had not seen such a dawn, and looked at it.Georgette was staring. The fire displayed all its splendid splendor.Black snakes and red dragons emerged from the grotesque smoke, their black and red being magnificent.The long sparks splashed into the distance, cutting through the darkness, like comets chasing and fighting each other.Fire is so generous that it scatters jewels in abundance, and it seems that coals are compared to diamonds for nothing.Cracks appeared in the walls of the third story, from which the fire spilled strings of gems into the ravine.The piles of straw and oats on the attic burned and began to pour down the windows like an avalanche of gold, the oats turning into amethysts and the straw into rubies. "Beautiful!" Jorget said. All three of them sat up. "Oh!" cried the mother, "they're awake!" René-Jean got up, then Fat Alain got up, then Jorget got up. René-Jean stretched his arms, went to the window, and said: "I feel hot." "I'm hot." Jorge Te followed suit. Mother calls to them: "My children! René! Alain! Jorgette!" The children looked around, trying to figure it out.There are things that frighten adults and intrigue children.He who is amazed at everything is seldom frightened.Ignorance involves fearlessness.Children have nothing to do with hell, so they appreciate it when they see it. Mother shouted again: "René! Alain! Jorgette!" René-Jean turned his head, the voice rousing him from his inattention.Children have a bad memory, but they recall quickly.The whole past seemed to them yesterday.René-Jean saw his mother and felt nothing unusual.With so many strange things about him, he felt a vague need for support, and he cried out: "Mother!" "Mommy!" cried Fat Alan. "Mom!" Jorget shouted. She also stretched out those little arms. Mother is howling: "my child!" All three children came to the window, but fortunately there was no fire on this side. "It's hot," said René-Jean.He went on to say: "Hot." He looks for his mother with his eyes: "Come on, mother." "Come on, mother," Gillette said imitatively. Mother has rolled into the ditch climbing the thorns.Her hair was disheveled, and she was stabbed and bleeding.Simuldan and Gaishan are both in the ditch, helpless like Govan in Tari.Soldiers, helpless, surrounded them in despair.It was unbearably hot, but no one could feel it.The focus is on steep bridges, high arches, high floors, and inaccessible windows, and the thought is that immediate action must be taken.It is impossible to climb three floors.Radu, sweating profusely and covered in blood, ran over. He was wounded, stabbed in the shoulder and knocked off one ear.As soon as he saw Michelle Fleischer, he said: "Hey, woman who was shot! You have come back to life!" The mother said: "My child!" "Yes," Radu replied, "I don't have time now It's a ghost." Then he began to climb the bridge, digging the stones with his fingernails and climbing up for a while, in vain.The stone wall was smooth, without cracks or protrusions, and the cracks were smoothed out, like a new wall, so Radu fell down.The fire is still going on, and it is scary.Three blond heads were seen at the red-hot window.Radoux waved his fist to the sky, as if looking for someone with his eyes, and said: "Is this called doing charity; God!" His mother knelt down and kissed the bridge arch, crying: "Have mercy!" The crackling of the fire was mingled with a low crackle.The glass on the bookcase in the library cracked and fell down with a clatter.Apparently the truss was about to collapse.There is nothing anyone can do.In a little while, everything will come crashing down.Difficulty is imminent.I only heard the children shouting: "Mom!Mother!People panicked. Suddenly, at another window next to the children, in front of the vermillion background of the fire, a tall figure appeared. All heads were raised, all eyes were fixed.A man was standing upstairs, in the library, in the middle of the fire.His figure was blackened in the flames, but his head was covered with white hair.It was recognized as the Marquis de Lantenac. He disappeared and reappeared shortly after. The terrible old man was playing with a very long ladder at the window, which was the fire escape in the library.He went to the wall to find the ladder and dragged it up to the window.He grasped one end of the ladder, and with the deftness of a competitor, he slid it over the edge of the window rail and slid it out to the bottom of the ditch.Standing below, Radu, overwhelmed with surprise, reached for the ladder, grabbed it tightly, and shouted: "Long live the Republic!" The Marquis replied, "Long live the King!" Radu whispered: "You can shout whatever you want, and you can talk nonsense, anyway, you are a merciful God." The ladder is in place.The burning hall establishes a connection with the ground.Twenty people ran over, Radu took the lead, and they quickly stood on the ladder from top to bottom, with their backs leaning on the rungs, like masons passing stones up and down.This is a human ladder on a wooden ladder.Radu stood at the head of the ladder, near the window, facing the fire. The troops scattered on the southern lands and slopes of Ouwu were full of surprises and flocked to the plateaus, ravines and tower top platforms. The Marquis disappears again, then reappears with a child in his arms. There was thunderous applause. The child was picked up by the Marquis casually, and he was Fat Alan. Fat Alan shouted, "I'm afraid." The Marquis handed the fat Alan to Radu, and Radu handed it to the soldier behind him, and the soldier handed it to another soldier.Alan, screaming in fear, was passed down to the bottom of the terrace, while the Marquis disappeared for a while, and then carried René-Jean to the window, who was crying and fussing when he came from When the hands of the Marquis were transferred to Radu, he also beat Radu. The Marquis returned to the burning library.Jorgete was alone, and he walked towards her.she smiles. The hard-hearted man felt his eyes moisten, and asked: "What's your name?" "Jorgette," she said. He held her in his arms, she was still smiling.When he gave the child to Radu, his so proud, so secret mind was charmed by the innocence of the child, and he kissed her. "This is the little girl!" said the soldiers.Jorgete was passed down by pairs of arms amidst cheers, until he reached the ground.People were clapping and stomping, and veterans were sobbing.She smiles at them. The mother stands at the bottom of the ladder, panting and bewildered, ecstatic in the face of unexpected surprises as she leaps from hell to heaven.Excessive pleasure damages the soul.She stretched out her arms, first embraced Fat Alain, then René-Jean, and finally Jorget. She kissed them passionately, then burst out laughing and fainted. There was a loud cry: "All saved!" Indeed, all were saved, except the old man. But no one thought of him, and most likely he himself did not think of himself. He stood by the window for a few minutes, thoughtful, as if giving the fire a moment to decide whether to stay or not.Then he stepped over the window rail unhurriedly, slowly, and haughtily, and stood upright on the ladder without looking back, with his back against the rung, his back against the abyss, his back against the fire, silent like a majestic ghost. Go down the stairs.The people on the ladder hurried down, and everyone present shuddered. Facing this man who descended from the sky, as if facing a vision, they felt a kind of holy fear, and retreated one after another. At this moment, the Marquis was slipping calmly into the darkness in front of him.They were retreating, and he was approaching.There was not a wrinkle in his marble-pale face, not a sparkle in his ghostly eyes.People stared at him in horror in the dark. With every step he took he seemed to grow taller, and the ladder trembled and rattled under his dead footsteps, as if the stone statue of the knight entered the grave again. A hand caught the Marquis by the collar as he descended the last step and stepped on the ground.He turned around. "I arrest you," said Simurdan. "I agree," said Longtenac. ①This refers to the legendary story about "Don Juan" by the Spanish playwright Tirso de Quillina (1583-1648).Don Juan invites the stone statue to a dinner party, and the stone statue comes at the invitation, so Don Juan falls into hell.People generally cite this story to illustrate the disquieting presence of someone.