THE EQUINOX
epic of martyrdom; it was an acceptance and an offering; a
prayer for his people, and a pardon for his murderer.
The day was falling, and the church was beginning to
grow dark. The Archbishop, his arms raised to heaven,
lighted by a last ray which penetrated the casements of the
nave, stood out upon a dark background, where one could
scarcely distinguish a pedestal without a statue, on which
were written these two words of the Passion of Christ:
Ecce Homo! and farther in the background, an apocalyptic
painting representing the four plagues ready to let themselves
loose upon the world, and the whirlwinds of hell, following
the dusty traces of the pale horse of death.
Before the Archbishop, a lifted arm, sketched in shadow
like an infernal silhouette, held and brandished a knife.
Policemen, sword in hand, were running up.
And while all this tumult was going on at the bottom of
the church, the singing of the litanies continued in the choir,
the Ardennes,’ entered into a conspiracy with the discontented citizens of Liege
against their Bishop, Louis of Bourbon, being aided with considerable sums of
money by the King of France. By this means and with the assistance of many
murderers and banditti, who thronged to him as to a leader befitting them,
De la Marck assembled a body of troops. With this little army he approached
the city of Liége. Upon this, the citizens, who were engaged in the conspiracy,
came to their Bishop, and, offering to stand by him to the death, exhorted him
to march out against these robbers. The Bishop, therefore, put himself at the
head of a few troops of his own, trusting to the assistance of the people of Litge.
But as soon as they came in sight of the enemy, the citizens, as before agreed,
fled from the Bishop’s banner, and he was left with his own handful of adherents.
At this moment De la Marck charged at the head of his men with the expected
success. The Bishop was brought before De la Marck, who first cut him over
the face, then murdered him with his own hand, and caused his body to be
exposed naked in the great square of Litge before St. Lambert’s Cathedral.”
Three years after the Bishop's death, Maximilian, Emperor of Austria,
caused De la Marck to be arrested at Utrecht, where he was beheaded in 1485.
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