METROPOLIS Death. I stood out there and looked over at the cathedral, which seemed to me to be desecrated and soiled. Its doors stood open. Dark, human snakes were creeping into the cathedral, and collecting themselves upon the steps. I thought: Perhaps, among all those pious people, is my Maria too..... I said to my father: 'I wish to go to the cathedral. .. : He let me go. I was no captive. As I reached the cathedral the organ was thundering like the Trump of Doom. Singing from a thousand throats. Dies lrae. ... The incense clouded above the head of the multitude, which was kneeling before the eternal God. The crucifix hovered above the high altar, and, in the light of the restless candles, the drops of blood 00 the thorn-crowned brow of the son of Mary seemed to come to life, to nm. The saints in the pillar-niches looked at me sadly, as though they knew of my evil dream. "I sought Maria. Oh, I knew quite well that all the thousands could not hide her from me. If she were here I should find her out, as a bird finds its way to its nest. But my heart lay as if dead in my breast. Yet I could not help looking for her. I wandered about the place where I had already waited for her once before. . . . Yes-so may' a bird wander about the place where was its nest which it cannot find again, because the lightning or the storm has destroyed it. And, when I carne to the side-niche, in which Death stands, as a minstrel, playing upon a human bone, the niche was empty, Death had disappeared, ... "It was as though the Death of my dream had not returned home to his following.... "Do not speak, Josaphatl It is really of no importance ... a coincidence.... The carving was, perhaps, damaged-I do not knowl Believe me: it is of no importance. "But now a voice yelled out: " 'Repent! The kingdom of he~veo is at handl' "It was the voice of Desertus, the monk. His voice was like a knife. The voice peeled bare my spine. Deathly stillness reigned in the church. Among all the thousands round about, not one seemed to breathe. They were kneeling and their face...;, pale masks of horror, were turne'd towards the preacher. "His voice flew through the air like a spear. U
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