jonathon and the ogre came to the top of a hill.
they looked down the other side, and saw a clearing, and what looked like wagons, or small huts, in the mist. behind the clearing was a thick woods.
a town, said jonathon.
no, said the ogre, it is a circus. those are wagons that you see. can you not see the horses around them?
jonathon did not argue with the ogre’s superior experience. they started down the hill.
when they were halfway down the hill, they saw what looked like frantic activity at the bottom.
some of the wagons started to move. smaller things, people or horses, started to move , some of them up the hill , more of them to the east or west, along the line of trees.
suddenly more horses burst out of the wooded area. the people, horses, and some of the wagons fled from them.
what is going on? jonathon asked the ogre.
nothing good, the ogre answered. we had best turn back.
but he stood still, watching as the first fugitives - peasants, and clowns, fortune tellers, and rounders from the circus came up he hill!
save yourselves! cried a clown.
save yourselves! others following him took up the cry. it is the inquisition! the holy inqusition!
terrified fugitives fled past jonathon and the ogre and then they beheld the horsemen coming up the hill behind them.
the black clad, red helmeted soldiers of the holy inquisition!
jonathon turned to join the fleeing mob coursing down the side of the hill they had come up, but as they did, jonathon was knocked down and trampled by a burly fortune teller.
when he tried to rise, he was seized by an inquisition soldier and knocked on the head.
*
the ogre escaped, but jonathon and two dozen other unfortunates were carried back down the hill.
they were bound and marched in to the presence of the chief inquisitor, who commanded that the demons possessing them come forth.
the prisoners whose demons obeyed the summons of the chief inquisitor would be spared. those whose demons stayed within them would be burned at the stake.
on this day no demons came forth.
the soldiers set up stakes which they had brought in their baggage train, and jonathon and the other prisoners were bound to them, and kindling placed at their feet.
a long fuse connected the stakes, so that they could all be lit at once.
the stakes were set up with the prisoners’ backs against the western horizon. the fuse would be set up when the sun began to go down.
the soldiers broke out gourds of wine, and made merry at the condemned wretches’ expense as they waited through the afternoon.
finally, as the sun began to go down, the chief inquisitor’s assistant lit the fuse.
the fuse flared up.
then, suddenly, the sky turned black, and a great wind began to howl, and a great rain began to fall.
the terrified inquisitors and soldiers fled.
the prisoners were saved!
but by whom?
27. packy again
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment