Page 240 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

The next day I was taken downward, to a sullen and enormous stone hall which
did not go with the general style of this magnificent palace. Caraffa sat on a high
wooden arm-chair at the end of this strange hall and looked like a personification of
the gloomy resolution which could turn into the most acute evil right here...

I stopped in the middle of the room not daring to come nearer, because I did not
know yet what he had expected from me.ThePope got up and statelily-slowly moved
toward me. Something was wrong! He was too solemn and remote. Suddenly I clearly
felt that my body was frost-bound by animal fear. But I was not afraid of him; at leas
nott to such a degree! It was like a presentiment of something very bad, something that
could freeze my tired soul... And I was unable to define – what that could be.
– Well, have you enjoyed reading, Isidora? I hope you had a pleasant day.

He addressed me simply by my name, as if emphasising that we did not need to
stick to formalities anymore...
– Thank you, Your Holiness. Indeed you have a really incomparable library. – I
answered as calmly as possible. – I think even the great Medici would envy you! But I
would like to ask you a question, if you let me?
Caraffa nodded.

– How could this pure HERESY get into Your Holy House? And how can it still be
there?
– Don’t be so naive, Madonna! – Caraffa smiled indulgently. – One must
understand an enemy in order to defeat it, and one can understand it only through
knowing it. But in order to know an enemy, one has to study him very thoroughly.
Otherwise it won’t be a real victory...

– Has Your Holiness read all these books?! But a whole lifetime is not enough to
do that!
– Well, it depends on how long the life is, Isidora, and how to read, doesn’t it? In
fact you do something of those tricks too, don’t you?
Caraffa’s eyes became sharp and piercing, as if he wished to look deep into my
soul. And maybe he did?

He knew too much about me that only the nearest people to me could know.
Therefore I decided to ask.
– You know about me such things which even my late mother did not. What does
it mean, Your Holiness?

– Do you still want to face the truth, Isidora? I learned everything about you that
I wanted to know. Does it frighten you? I had one of your teachers in my basement.
He told me everything. Before that I did not know you as I do now.
Immediately I saw him. Indeed it was my teacher, the kindest and cleverest of all
who taught me. He hung on a hook, in some terrible basement, totally covered with his
own blood... And he was dying...
– How could you do such a thing?! It is monstrous!!! What was his guilt?!

My heart broke to pieces refusing to accept the horror of what I had seen. It
happened that I calmed down for some time and lost! Not in vain Caraffa was elected

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