Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
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304 THE MIRACLES OF ANTICHRIST ’
the ground; the sulphur smoke from the crater,
which rolls down the mountain, too heavy to rise
into the air; the explosions inside the mountain;
the incessant, gently rumbling earthquake; the
slippery, rough ice-fields crossed by gushing brooks;
the extreme cold, the biting wind, — make the walk
hideous. And Falco says that it is like him ! How
can he have such things in his soul? Is it filled
with a cold and a horror to be compared to Etna’s?”
They stumble over blocks of ice, and they struggle
forward through snow lying sometimes a yard deep.
The mountain blast almost throws them down.
They have to wade through slush and water, for
through the day the sun has melted a mass of snow.
And while they grow stiff with cold, the ground
shakes under them with the everlasting fire.
They remember that Lucifer and all the damned
are lying under them. They shudder because Falco
has brought them to the gates of Hell.
But nevertheless beyond the ice-field they reach
the steep cone of ashes on the very summit of the
mountain. Here they drag themselves up, walking
on sliding ashes and pumice-stone. When they are
half way up the cone Falco takes the wreath, and
motions to the others to wait. He alone will scale
the summit.
The day is just breaking, and as Falco reaches
the top the sun is visible. The glorious morning
light streams over Mongibello and over the old Etna
brigand on its summit. The shadow of Etna is
thrown over the whole of Sicily, and it looks as if
Falco, standing up there, reached from sea to sea,
across the island.
Falco stands and gazes about him. He looks
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