The Sword of Song

AMBROSII MAGI HORTIS ROSARUM 79 pearls, big and round like the breasts of a sea-ny mph ; and they gleamed round like moons. She held in leash th e four Beasts, but he strode boldly to her, and kissed her full on the lip s. Wherefore she signed and fell back a s pace, and he pres sed on. Now at the end of the darkness a fire glowed: she would have hindered him: clung she to his neck and wept. But the fire grew and the light dazzled her; so that with a s hriek she fell. But the beasts flung them selves against the burning gateway of iron, and it gave way. Our Father passed into the fire. Som e say that it consumed him utterly and that he died; howbeit, it is certain that he rose from a sarcophagus, and in the skies stood an angel with a trumpet, and on that trumpet he blew s o mighty a blas t that the dead rose all from their tombs, and our Father among them. “Now away !” he cried. “I would look upon the sun !” And with that the fire hissed like a my riad of serpents and went out suddenly . It was a gr een sward golden with buttercups ; and in his way lay a high wall. Befo re it were two children, and with obscene gestures they em braced, and laughed aloud, with filthy words and acts unspeakable. Over all of which stood the sun calm and radiant, and was glad to be. Now, think y e well, was our Father perplexed; and he knew not what he would do. For th e children left their foulness and came soliciting with shameless words his acquiscence in their s port ; and he, knowing the law of courtesy and pity , rebuked them not. But master ever of himself he abode al one, about and above. So he saw his virginity deflowered, and his thoughts we re otherwere. Now loosed they his body ; he bade it leap the wall. The giant flower of ocean bloom ed above him! He had fallen headlong into the great deep. As the green and crimson gloom disparted somewhat before his eyes, he was aware of a Beetle that s teadily and earnes tly m oved acros s the floor of that Sea unutterable. Him he followed; “for I wit well,” thought the Adept, “that he goeth not back to the gross sun of earth. And if the sun hath become a beetle, m ay the beetle tr ansform unto a bird.” Wherewith he came to land. Night shone by lamp of wining moon upon a misty land- scape. Two paths led him to two towers; and jackals howled on either. Now the jackal he knew; and the tower he knew not y et. Not two would he conquer—that were easy : to victory over one did he aspire. Made he therefore toward the m oon. Rough was the hillside and the shadows deep and treacherous ; as he advanced the towers seemed to approach one another closer and closer yet. He drew his sword : with a crash they came together; and he fell with wrath upon a single fortress. Three windows had the tower; and against it ten cannons thundered. Eleven bricks had fallen dislodged by lightning : it was no house wherein our Father might abide. But there he m ust abide. “ To destroy it I am come,” he said. And through he pa ssed out therewithal, y et ’twas his home until he had attained. So at last he came to a river, and sailing to its source he found a fair woman all naked, and she filled the river from two vessels of pure water. “She-devil,” he cried, “have I gone back one step ?” For the Star Venus burned above. And with his sword he clave her from the head to the feet, that she fell clean asunder. Cried the echo: “Ah ! thou hast slain hope now !” Our Father gladdened at Intellectus. Deus. H. et S. V. A. Luna. Quid Umbra- tur in Mari. Deo Duce Comite Ferro. Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum