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6 the miracles of antichrist
The emperor was terrified. He prostrated
himself before the empty altar and prayed to his genius.
He implored him for strength to avert the
misfortunes which this night seemed to portend.
Nothing of this either had the sibyl heard. She
listened with her whole soul to the song of the angels
which grew stronger and stronger. At last it was so
powerful that it awoke the shepherds. They raised
themselves on their elbows, and saw shining bands of
silvery white angels moving up there in the darkness
in long, fluttering lines like birds of passage. Some
had lutes and violins in their hands, others citharas
and harps, and their song sounded as gleefully as the
laughter of children and as careless as the twittering
of larks. When the shepherds heard this they arose
to go to the city in the mountains where they dwelt,
and relate the wonder they had seen.
They groped their way along a narrow, winding
path, and the old sibyl followed them. All at once
it grew light up on the mountain. A large, clear
star appeared straight over it, and the city on its top
gleamed like silver in the starlight. All the roaming
bands of angels hurried thither with cries of
exultation, and the shepherds hastened their steps. When
they had reached the city, they found the angels
gathered together above a low stall in the vicinity
of the city gate. It was a miserable building with a
straw roof and the naked cliff for a back wall. Over
this stood the star, and hither flocked more and
more angels. Some alighted on the straw roof or
on the steep wall of rock behind the house, others
hovered above it. High up, the air was glorified by
radiant wings.
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