... Then he looked down....
Against the ladder on which he stood, a man's figure was writhing and
embracing the rungs kneeling on the ground. He was strangely dressed, in
some sort of a loose gown, in a tight silk night-cap, and his feet were
bare. The man's head was dropped, and the priest could not see his face.
He looked beyond for some explanation, and there stood, all alone, a
girl in a hooded cloak, who raised her great eyes to his. As he looked
down again the man's head had fallen back, and the face was staring up
at him, so distorted with speechless entreaty, that even he, at first,
did not recognize it....
Then he saw it to be his father, and understood enough, at least, to act
as a priest for the last time.
He smiled a little, leaned his own head forward as from a cross, and
spoke....
"_Absolvo te a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus
Sancti_...."
VI
He only awoke once again, after the strangling and the darkness had
passed. He could see nothing, nor hear, except a heavy murmuring noise,
not unpleasant. But there was one last Pain not into which all others
had passed, keen and cold like water, and it was about his heart.
"O Christ--" he whispered, and so died.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Come Rack! Come Rope!, by Robert Hugh Benson
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COME RACK! COME ROPE! ***
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