Page 228 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

which met her groom for the first time. I instantly understood that he was my fate. Soon
we married and never parted. He was a wonderful husband – affectionate and very
kind. When our little daughter was born, he became loving and tender father. Ten very
happy and cloudless years passed. Our darling daughter was a merry, lively and
very clever child. The Gift was gradually shown in her too.

Life was light and wonderful. It seemed that no misfortune could darken our
peaceful existence. But I was afraid... It had been already almost a year that I saw
nightmares every night – terrible images of tortured people and burning fires. It
repeated and repeated and repeated, driving me mad. But most of all I was scared of a
strange person’s image which constantly visited my dreams and devoured me with the
ardent glare of his deep black eyes without uttering a word. He was intimidating and
very dangerous.
Finally it happened... The black clouds began to gather on the pure sky of my
beloved Venice. Anxious rumors rambled throughout the city. People conversed in
whispers about the horrors of the Inquisition and soul-freezing living human fires.
Spain was on fire a long time ago burning out pure human souls with "fire and sword"
in the name of Christ. After Spain the whole of Europe was seized with fire. I never was
a believer and never considered Christ a God. But he was an extraordinary Vedun, the
strongest of all the living. He had a surprisingly pure and highly- developed soul. And
the killing "in the glory of Christ", which the church did then, was a terrible and
inexcusable crime.

Isidora’s eyes became dark and deep like a golden night. Probably, everything
pleasant that the earthly life had given her was over and another life – terrible and dark,
about which we would soon know, began. Suddenly I had a sinking sensation in the pit
of my stomach and it seemed that I lacked air. Stella was incredibly quiet too. She did
not ask her usual questions, but very attentively listened to what Isidora told us.
– My beloved Venice rebelled. People indignantly grumbled on the streets and
gathered on the squares. Nobody wished to submit. The always free and proud city
refused to take the priests under its wing. On seeing that Venice was not going to fall
to its knees, Rome decided to undertake a serious step. Rome sent to Venice one of its
best inquisitors – a mad cardinal, who was the most fervent fanatic, the real "father of
the Inquisition" and who was impossible to ignore in any way. He was the Pope’s right
hand. His name was Giovanni Pietro Caraffa. I was thirty six then…
(When I began to look over Isidora’s story, which seemed to me interesting

enough to write about, in my way I was very happy to find one detail. The name of
Pietro Caraffa seemed familiar to me and I decided to look it up among "historically-
important" persons. And I found him there! Caraffa appeared to be an authentic
historical figure. He was the real "father of the inquisition" who on becoming Pope
Paul IV, put to fire the best half of Europe. Regrettably I found just one line about
Isidora’s life in Caraffa’s biography which mentions the case of the "Venetian Witch"
who was considered the most beautiful woman in Europe of that time. Unfortunately,
it was all that could correspond to the story).
Isidora fell silent for a long time... Her amazing golden eyes shone with such deep
sorrow, that the black despair "howled" inside me. This marvellous woman still kept

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