The Monk. Мэтью Грегори Льюис

Чтение книги онлайн.

      'Dear Aunt!' said Antonia when the Stranger had finished, 'Is She not mad?'

      'Mad? Not She, Child; She is only wicked. She is a Gypsy, a sort of Vagabond, whose sole occupation is to run about the country telling lyes, and pilfering from those who come by their money honestly. Out upon such Vermin! If I were King of Spain, every one of them should be burnt alive who was found in my dominions after the next three weeks.'

      These words were pronounced so audibly that they reached the Gypsy's ears. She immediately pierced through the Crowd and made towards the Ladies. She saluted them thrice in the Eastern fashion, and then addressed herself to Antonia.

      'Dearest Aunt!' said Antonia, 'Indulge me this once! Let me have my fortune told me!'

      'Nonsense, Child! She will tell you nothing but falsehoods.'

      'No matter; Let me at least hear what She has to say. Do, my dear Aunt! Oblige me, I beseech you!'

      'Well, well! Antonia, since you are so bent upon the thing, … Here, good Woman, you shall see the hands of both of us. There is money for you, and now let me hear my fortune.'

      As She said this, She drew off her glove, and presented her hand; The Gypsy looked at it for a moment, and then made this reply.

      The audience rang with laughter during the Gypsy's address; and—'fifty one,'—'squinting eyes,' 'red hair,'—'paint and patches,' &c. were bandied from mouth to mouth. Leonella was almost choaked with passion, and loaded her malicious Adviser with the bitterest reproaches. The swarthy Prophetess for some time listened to her with a contemptuous smile: at length She made her a short answer, and then turned to Antonia.

      In imitation of Leonella, Antonia drew off her glove, and presented her white hand to the Gypsy, who having gazed upon it for some time with a mingled expression of pity and astonishment, pronounced her Oracle in the following words.

      Having said this, the Gypsy again whirled herself round thrice, and then hastened out of the Street with frantic gesture. The Crowd followed her; and Elvira's door being now unembarrassed Leonella entered the House out of honour with the Gypsy, with her Niece, and with the People; In short with every body, but herself and her charming Cavalier. The Gypsy's predictions had also considerably affected Antonia; But the impression soon wore off, and in a few hours She had forgotten the adventure as totally as had it never taken place.

      CHAPTER II

      The monks having attended their Abbot to the door of his Cell, He dismissed them with an air of conscious superiority in which Humility's semblance combated with the reality of pride.

      He was no sooner alone, than He gave free loose to the indulgence of his vanity. When He remembered the Enthusiasm which his discourse had excited, his heart swelled with rapture, and his imagination presented him with splendid visions of aggrandizement. He looked round him with exultation, and Pride told him loudly that He was superior to the rest of his fellow-Creatures.

      'Who,' thought He; 'Who but myself has passed the ordeal of Youth, yet sees no single stain upon his conscience? Who else has subdued the violence of strong passions and an impetuous temperament, and submitted even from the dawn of life to voluntary retirement? I seek for such a Man in vain. I see СКАЧАТЬ