- Project Runeberg -  The story of San Michele /
509

(1929) [MARC] Author: Axel Munthe - Tema: Medicine
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Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - In the old Tower - III

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tell us what he saw. One man alone might
have told us, but he was the son of a God, and
he went back to His Father, his lips sealed in
inscrutable silence.”

I stroked the big head, but my benumbed
hands no longer felt the touch of his glossy coat.

As I bent down to kiss him good-bye a sudden
fear shone in his eyes, he drew back in terror and
crept to his couch under the refectory table. I
called him back but he did not come. I knew
what it meant. I had seen it before. I had
thought there might have been still another day
or two left. I stood up and tried to go to the
window for a deep breath of air, but my limbs
refused to obey, and I sank back in my chair.
I looked round the old tower. All was dark and
silent, but I thought I heard Artemis, the stern
goddess, taking her swift arrow from her quiver,
ready to raise her bow. An invisible hand
touched my shoulder. A shiver ran through my
body. I thought I was going to faint, but I
felt no pain and my head was clear.

“Welcome, Sire! I heard the galloping of
your black charger through the night, you have
won the race after all, for I can still see your
sombre face as you bend over me. You are no
stranger to me, we have often met before ever
since we stood side by side by a bed in Salle St.
Claire. I used then to call you wicked and
cruel, an executioner enjoying the slow torture
of his victim. I did not know Life then as I
know it now. I know now that you are by far the
more merciful of the two, that what you take away
with one hand you give back with the other. I

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