Morbus Dei: The Sign of Aries. Matthias Bauer
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Название: Morbus Dei: The Sign of Aries
Автор: Matthias Bauer
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
Серия: Morbus Dei (English)
isbn: 9783709936337
isbn:
All at once the lamb stopped wailing, closed its eyes but kept breathing. The physician picked up a glass cannula, to which was attached a thin tube made of intestine, inserted it into the artery and tied it fast.
Johann and the others watched, riveted.
The physician took hold of a scalpel and made an incision about the length of three fingers in the Prussian’s underarm, spread the wound, opened another artery with the curved scissors and inserted a glass cannula, which also had a bent tube attached to it. Then he opened the pinchcock of the cannula in the neck of the lamb and a thin stream of blood began to run out of the tube. Leonardus pulled the tube off the cannula in the Prussian’s arm and inserted the tube filled with lamb’s blood.
Then he stopped for a moment to admire his masterpiece. ‘The transfusion is now underway!’ he cried triumphantly, looking round at the others. They scarcely gave him a glance for they were all staring instead at the Prussian who was looking more dead than alive.
Leonardus shrugged his shoulders and quietly began to count.
All at once the Prussian’s breathing became more frantic, his face turned bright red and sweat streamed down his forehead. Then he opened his eyes and looked about him in panic.
‘Johann? Where are we? Where–’ he cried, trying to rear up against the leather straps that held him fast.
‘Johann, something is rolling down my back–’ he said, his face contorted in agony.
‘For crying out loud, help him!’ shouted Johann, without understanding what his friend had meant. The physician took hold of the Prussian’s neck. ‘His pulse is hard and slow, that’s not unusual,’ he said, in an attempt at reassurance.
‘My chest,’ groaned the Prussian, ‘it’s getting tighter and tighter–it’s crushing me–’
Johann looked down at his friend. The arteries of his arms and hands looked very swollen and his skin was flushed.
‘Help me–’ cried the Prussian. Then he passed out again.
‘I already have,’ said Leonardus, stopping the transfusion by clamping the pinchcock at the end of the cannula in the Prussian’s arm. Then he yanked out the cannula and placed a clean linen cloth on the wound.
‘And violà, as the French say so prettily. The deed is done,’ declared the physician. He pulled the cannula out of the lamb’s artery and untied the unconscious animal. Then he picked it up and pressed it into the arms of the Count, who was rather taken aback. ‘Guten Appetit, sir, you paid for it after all!’
Von Binden went out without a word. Johann noticed the Prussian’s breathing was steadier and his pulse regular. He gave the physician a quizzical look. ‘Now what?’
‘Let him have several days’ rest. Sleep is the best medicine. He’ll probably get the ague later on today but that’ll pass after a few hours. And his skin might itch for a few days and turn red but he’ll manage to cope with that I think, won’t he?’
Johann looked sharply at the physician. ‘But he’ll pull through?’
‘He already has, as you see, but how long this state is likely to continue I cannot, with the best will in the world, say. He will die of course.’
Johann stared at him, aghast.
‘Eventually. As we all will,’ said the physician with a laugh. He helped himself to another swig of wine and lit his pipe. ‘And now off you go, I too deserve a bit of rest.’
The cool evening air outside was a shock. Johann, Hans and Karl took a few deep breaths.
‘Animal and man joined together–that’s not the will of God,’ said Hans, shaking his head.
‘It’s all the same when it comes down to it, even if he’d joined him with a sow–as long as it helps,’ said Karl, grinning at Hans.
Von Binden was sitting on a barrel, chewing tobacco and watching his daughter trying to balance a stick on her nose. She was managing it pretty well, if only for a few moments at a time.
Johann sat down beside him.
‘Has he survived?’ asked von Binden, without taking his eyes off his daughter.
Johann nodded with a grunt. ‘I’ve heard of such methods but never thought they were actually put into practice.’
‘‘The church does everything it can to prevent them. New ideas are always the work of the devil!’
‘Was it the work of the devil then?’ asked Johann, looking at von Binden doubtfully. Von Binden shrugged his shoulders.
‘What isn’t the work of the devil? We’re all born sinners and we die sinners, and during our lives we commit sins, that’s the way it is. I think, if the treatment helps, then it can’t be so very wrong.’
Johann cleared his throat. ‘I bet the lamb doesn’t see it that way.’
Von Binden couldn’t help smiling to himself. ‘Some say the animal’s characteristics are transferred to the human being through its blood.’
‘So the Prussian’s going to become–as meek as a lamb then?’ said Johann, with a guffaw. ‘That’ll be the day!’
The two men continued to watch with amusement the acrobatic arts of the girl in front of them. It was a tranquil moment, the first in a long time.
‘I wonder what a physician of his calibre is doing in a village like this. Couldn’t he be a court physician?’
‘Leonardus hasn’t always lived here,’ said von Binden. ‘I first met him at the court of Prince Ferdinand August von Lobkowicz, the Duke of Sagan. The Duke’s daughter had a serious riding fall when a yapping dog frightened her horse and bit a chunk out of her thigh. That spelled death–for the mutt,’ said the Count with a fleeting grin. ‘His daughter failed to make a recovery, though. Nothing helped–not bloodletting, not herbal tinctures, not prayers. When she was finally at death’s door, the Prince summoned Leonardus to his court and ordered him to give her a transfusion, a method much talked about. Leonardus was against it for he knew the child was too weak. But the Prince assured him that he would incur no blame should the unthinkable happen. So Leonardus carried out the procedure to the best of his knowledge and belief but the girl died a few hours after the transfusion.’
The Count spat out a bit of chewing tobacco. ‘Prince von Lobkowicz was distraught. He not only cut off all Leonardus’ privileges but he also did everything to ensure that no blue blood ever consulted him again. Or anyone else for that matter. Leonardus lost all his possessions, all his privileges and finally his wife. After that, he came to live here in Deutsch-Altenburg. He’s never got over what happened.’
‘So that’s why he overdoes it with the wine,’ said Johann, pensively.
‘No,’ retorted von Binden, ’he always was a drinker.’
IV
Billows of gun smoke everywhere, and the sound of screams and the bark of commands. The dead and the wounded lay at their feet.
There СКАЧАТЬ