Crouched on the very edge of the cliff, and shading her eyes with her hand, she stared out into the night. But she sat as still as if she had been without life. They were so terrified that all would have fallen on their knees with their foreheads to the ground had the sibyl made the slightest movement. Why has she come out of her cave to-night? What does she foretell to the emperor and to the country, she who writes her prophecies on the leaves of trees, and knows that the wind carries the words of the oracle to him who needs them?' 'It is she,' they whispered to each other, 'who counts as many years as there are grains of sand on her native shores. If the emperor had not been there, they would have all fled home to their beds. They had never seen anything so old, so weather-beaten, and so gigantic. At last they saw that it could only be the old sibyl. They thought at first that it was an old twisted olive trunk then they thought that an ancient statue from the temple of Jupiter had wandered out on the cliff. It could not be a night like any other, for on the edge of the cliff they saw the strangest being. It was only on reaching the open place on the top of the Capitol, which had been thought of for the new temple, that it was revealed to them that something unusual was occurring. On the way the emperor chatted gayly with his retainers, and none of them noticed the infinite silence and calm of the night. Torch-bearers walked in front of him, as if to force a way through the darkness of the night, and behind him followed slaves, carrying the tripod, the charcoal, the knives, the holy fire, and everything needed for the sacrifice. Neither priests, nor soldiers, nor councillors accompanied him only his nearest friends. He held the cage of doves which was his offering. Followed by a few faithful retainers, he was now on his way to perform that sacrifice.Īugustus was carried in his litter, for he was old, and the long stairs to the Capitol fatigued him. He did not know if it would be pleasing to the gods for him to possess a temple next to theirs, and he had answered that he wished first to discover by a nocturnal sacrifice to his genius what their wishes were.

But Augustus had not immediately given his consent.

During the day just completed his councillors had asked the emperor if they might not raise a temple to him on Rome's holy mountain. In Rome, on that very night, a little group of people came down from the emperor's palace on the Palatine and made their way over the Forum to the Capitol. No false key could open a lock, and no knife could shed blood. And what was even more wonderful, none of the inanimate things would have disturbed the holiness of the night by lending themselves to an evil deed. The grass did not dare to grow, the dew could not fall, and the flowers feared to exhale their perfume.ĭuring that night the beasts of prey did not hunt, the serpents did not sting, the dogs did not bay. Everything was as if turned to stone and without motion, in order not to disturb the holy night. Any one walking by the sea would have found that the waves no longer broke on the shore, and the sand of the desert did not crunch under the wanderer's foot. The rivers stood still in their course the wind did not stir, and even the leaves of the aspen ceased to tremble. All the stars stayed in their houses, and the fair moon kept her face turned away.Īnd just as intense as the darkness was the silence and the calm. And it could not be otherwise, for not a ray of light came from the sky. It was impossible to distinguish water from land, or to find the way on the most familiar paths. It was the darkest night ever seen by man it seemed as if the whole earth had passed under a vault. It happened once upon a time that a very great and holy night sank down over the earth. Was at the time when Augustus was emperor in Rome and Herod was king in Jerusalem. 'When Antichrist comes, he shall seem as Christ'

There shall be great want, and Antichrist shall go from land to land and give bread to the poor. 'When Antichrist comes, he shall seem as Christ.

Punished by kneeling on macaroni shells