Page 310 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

Has our Venice changed like everything else?

– It’s the Inquisition, Isidora... Damn it! It’s all the Inquisition...
– ?!.

– Yes, dear friend, it sneaked even here... And the most frightful thing is that many
people fell for it. Probably the wicked and insignificant ones needed something equally
"spiteful and insignificant"to happen to open everything that they hid for many years.
The Inquisition became the frightful instrument of human revenge, envy, lies, avidity
and spite! You cannot even imagine, my friend, how low seemingly ordinary people
can fall! Brothers slander brothers... children smear their old parents, wishing to get
rid of them as quickly as possible... envious neighbours squeal on neighbours... It’s
awful! Today nobody is safe from the "holy fathers" visits... It’s so terrible, Isidora!
One only has to say that somebody is a heretic, and you will never see this person
again.
It’s a true madness... which uncovers in people the lowest and worst... How can
one live with it, Isidora?
Francesco stood stooping down, as if the heaviest load pressed on him like a
mountain, preventing him from standing straight. I’ve known him for a long time and I
knew how difficult it was to break this honest, brave, man. But that life hunched him,
converting him into a confused senescent Francesco who could not understand this
overall human meanness and baseness... And now, looking at my kind old friend, I
understood that I was right when I decided to forget my personal life, giving it in
exchange for the death of the "holy" monster which trampled down the lives of good
and pure people. But also it grieved me bitterly that there were low and mean "people"
that rejoiced (!!!) at the arrival of the Inquisition, and that the pain of others did not
touch their stale hearts. Rather on the contrary – they remorselessly used the claws of

the Inquisition to destroy innocent kind people! How far our Earth still was from that
happy day when Man will be pure and proud! When his heart will not yield to meanness
and evil...; and Light, Sincerity and Love will live on it. Yes, Sever was right – Earth
was still too wicked, foolish and imperfect, but I believed with all my heart that some
day it would become wise and very kind... only many, many years will have to pass.
Meanwhile those who love it have to fight for it, forgetting themselves and their
families, not sparing their earthly Life, their only one and very dear for each of them.
Being absorbed with my thoughts, I did not notice that Francesco was watching me
very attentively, as if wishing to understand whether he had succeeded in persuading
me to stay. But the deep sadness in his soft grey eyes told me – he understood... And
firmly hugging him for the last time, I began to bid farewell.
– We’ll always remember you, dear. And we’ll always miss you... and Giralomo...
and your kind father. They were wonderful and pure people. I hope they find another
life more safe and kind. Take care of yourself, Isidora... no matter how strange it
sounds. Please, try to get away from him, if you can... together with Anna...

I nodded and quickly went along the wharf, not to show how deeply this farewell
wounded, and how brutally painful my heart-ache...
I sat at a parapet and submerged into sad thoughts... The surrounding world was
completely different. The joyful and open happiness which lit up our former life had

Back to content

309