Page 232 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

a reply, exerting every effort to smile.

– Cardinals are people too, Madonna, and they are able to distinguish the
beautiful from the simple... Where is your wonderful daughter? Will I be able to enjoy
double beauty today?
– She is not in Venice, Your Eminence. She and her father left for Florence to visit
her sick cousin.

– As far as I know, nobody is ill in your family at the moment. Who fell ill so
suddenly, Madonna Isidora? – His voice breathed with undisguised threat.
Caraffa began to play openly.There was nothing left for me to do but meet the
danger face to face...
– What do you want from me Your Eminence? Would be it simpler to say it
directly, sparing both of us from this unnecessary, cheap game? We are clever enough
people who could respect each other even having different views.

I became weak in the knees with horror, but Caraffa did not notice for some
reason. He fixed his blazing eyes on my face without answering and noticed nothing
around. I could not understand what was happening and this dangerous comedy
frightened me more and more. But something unforeseen happened, something totally
beyond usual concepts. Caraffa came very close to me, still fixing his eyes on my face,
and whispered, almost breathless:
– You cannot be from God. You are too beautiful! You are a witch!!! Woman has
no right to be so beautiful! You are from the Devil!

He turned and dashed from the house, as if Satan pursued him. I stood in absolute
shock, still expecting to hear his steps, but nothing happened. Gradually I came to
myself and managed to relax my stiffened body. I breathed deeply and lost
consciousness. I awoke in bed. My dear maid Keya was giving me some hot wine. At
once I remembered what had happened, jumped from the bed and began to rush about
the room, having absolutely no idea what to do... Time went, and it was necessary to
do something, to think of something, somehow to defend myself and the family from this
two-legged monster. I knew that the game was over now and the war had begun.
Regrettably, our forces were very unequal. Naturally, I could beat him in my own way.
I could simply stop his blood-thirsty heart, and all these horrors would end at once.
But the point is that, even at thirty six I still remained too pure and kind to kill
somebody. I never took life; on the contrary I often returned it. I could not yet execute
even such a frightful man as Caraffa.
The next morning I heard a deafening knock at the door. My heart stopped. I knew
it was the Inquisition. They took me, accusing me of "verbiage and practising black
magic, dulling honest citizens’ minds by false predictions and heresy". It was the
beginning of the end.
The room where I was taken was very damp and dark, but for some reason it
seemed to me, that I would not stay too long in it. Caraffa came at midday.

– Oh, I beg your pardon, Madonna Isidora. You were given a room destined for
another person. It’s not for you, of course.
– Why all this game, monsignore? – I asked proudly (as it seemed to me) jerking

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