The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX “Go! Go!” said at that very moment the grave and anguished voice of a priest.“ The office cannot be continued ; we are going to close the church: it is profaned.” “ How is the Archbishop ?” said a man. “Sir,” replied the priest, ‘‘ the Archbishop is dying ; perhaps even at this very moment he is dead!” The crowd dispersed in consternation to spread the mournful news over Paris. A bizarre incident happened to Eliphas, and made a kind of diversion for his deep sorrow at what had just passed. At the moment of the uproar, an aged woman of the most respectable appearance had taken his arm, and claimed his protection. He made it a duty to reply to this appeal, and when he had got out of the crowd with this lady: ‘“‘ How happy I am,” said she, ‘‘ to have met a man who weeps for this great crime, for which, at this moment, so many wretches rejoice!” “What are you saying, madam? How is it possible that there should exist beings so depraved as to rejoice at so great a misfortune ?” “Silence!” said the old lady; “perhaps we are over- heard. . . . Yes,” she added, lowering her voice; ‘there are people who are exceedingly pleased at what has happened. And look there, just now, there was a man of sinister mien, who said to the anxious crowd, when they asked him what had happened, ‘Oh, it is nothing! It is a spider which has fallen.” * “No, madam, you must have misunderstood. The crowd 1 This man was presumably Levi himself. As “the abominable authors ot the Grimoires” concealed “child” beneath “kid,” so Levi is careful to disguise his true attitude to the Church which he wished to destroy.—O. M. 172