Where a few hours of mystical bliss are interrupted by a bloody event
sometimes symbol of the devil, sometimes the risen Christ, no animal has the most treacherous of the rooster. The order they knew of our lazy, that they did not sing at sunrise. On the other hand, especially in winter days, the office of the morning takes place when the night is still full and all of nature asleep, because the Monaco has to get up in the dark and long in the dark please wait the day and illuminating the darkness with the flame of devotion. So wisely the custom of arranged wakers not lay down with the brothers, but spent the night praying that rhythmically exact number of psalms that would give them the measure of time spent, so that, at the end of the rated hours of sleep than others, others gave the sign of waking.
So that night we were awakened by those who follow the dormitory and a house for pilgrims ringing a bell, while one was shouting from cell to cell to which each replied Benedicamus Domino Deo gratias.
William and I stick to use Benedictine in less than half an hour getting ready to face the new day, then went down in chorus, where the monks waited prostrate on the floor, reciting the first fifteen psalms, until they entered the novices led by their teacher. Then everyone sat in his stall and the choir sang Domine labia mea aperies et os meum annuntiabit Laudemio tuam. The cry went up to the vaults of the church as a child's plea. Two monks went up to the pulpit and gave voice to Psalm ninety-four, Come exultemus, which was followed by other limits. And I felt the heat of a renewed faith.
The monks were in the stalls, sixty figures made by the same robe and cap, sixty shadows barely lit by the fire of a large tripod, sixty lines which were intended to praise the Most High. And hearing this touching Concento, the vestibule delights of paradise, I wondered if indeed the abbey was a place of hidden mysteries, of illegal attempts to reveal them, and dark threats. But now because it appeared to me as a receptacle for holy coterie of virtue, wisdom reliquary, ark of caution, the tower of wisdom, gentleness fence, a bastion of strength, of holiness censer.
After six psalms began reading the scripture. Some monks hung for sleeping and one of the night wakers wandered among the stalls with a small lamp to awaken those who had fallen asleep. If someone was caught in the throes of sleep, for penance took the lamp and went around the control. Then resumed the song of six other psalms. Then the abbot gave his blessing, the hebdomadal said the prayers, all bowed to the altar in a moment of silence, which no one who has not experienced these hours of mystical fervor and intense inner peace, can understand the sweetness. Finally, the cap back on the face, they all sat down and sang a solemn Te Deum. I, too, praised the Lord because I had my doubts released from freeing themselves from the sense of unease that the first day I had thrown the abbey. We are fragile beings, I thought, even among those learned and devout monks circulates the evil little envy, subtle hostilities, but they are smoke clears the mighty wind of the faith, just all come together in the name of the Father and Christ descends yet among them.
Between morning and praise the Monaco does not return to his cell, even if the night is still based. The novices followed their master in the chapter house to study the Psalms, some of the monks remained in the church to care for the vestments, the most meditative walks in silence in the cloister, and so William and I did. The servants were still asleep and continued to sleep when the sky still dark, we returned to the hymns in the choir.
She began singing psalms, and one in particular, those set for Monday, I sank back in my primary fears: "The guilt took hold of the wicked, intimate of his heart - there is no fear of God in her eyes - acts with fraud before him - so that his language becomes hateful. "It seemed a bad omen that the rule he had prescribed for that very day, a terrible warning. Nor soothed my throbbing with anxiety after the psalms of praise, the usual reading of the Apocalypse, and I remembered the shapes of the portal that had so captivated the hearts and eyes the day before. But after responsory, the hymn and verse, when it was the beginning of the gospel song, I saw behind the windows of the choir, just above the altar, who was already a pale light shine the windows of their different colors, until then humbled by the darkness. It was not yet dawn, which would triumph at first, just while we sang Deus est sanctorum splendor mirabilis and here Iam lucis sidereal garden. It was just the first faint dawn announcement winter, but it was enough, and it was enough to rejuvenate the heart of the slight shadow that the nave was now replacing the darkness of night.
sang the words of the divine book, and as testimony to the Word came to enlighten the Gentiles, I thought that the star day in all its splendor themselves invading the temple. The light, still absent, it seemed to glow in the words of the song, mystic lily that unfolds between the odor of cruise times. "Thank you Lord for this time of indescribable joy," I prayed silently, and I said to my heart "and you fool are you afraid of?"
Suddenly some clamor rose from the northern portal. I wondered why the servants, getting ready for work, so disturb the sacred duties. At that point came three swineherds, with terror on her face, approached and whispered something to the abbot. The Abbot at first calmed them with a gesture as if he would stop the office, but other attendants came in, the cries grew louder, "It 's a man, a dead man!" Someone said, and others: "A Monaco, you have not seen the shoes? "The
praying ceased, the abbot went out hurriedly, gesturing to cellarer to follow him. William went after them, but now also the other monks abandoned their seats and rushed out.
The sky was now clear, and the snow on the ground made it even brighter than the plateau. On the back of the choir, in front of the stables, where he dominated the day before the big bowl with the blood of pigs, an odd-shaped object almost cross-shaped protruding from the edge of the ogre, like two poles thickened to the ground to be covered with rags to scare birds.
were instead two human legs, the legs of a man stuck upside down in the blood vessel.
The abbot ordered that drew the corpse from the infamous liquid (because, unfortunately, no living person could have remained in that obscene position). The swineherds hesitant approached the board and bad blood I drew the poor bloody thing. As I was told, stirred to duty immediately after being poured, and left in the cold, the blood had not clotted, but the layer that covered the corpse and now tends to solidify, it soaked his clothes, he made the face unrecognizable. Approached a servant with a bucket of water on his face and threw a miserable little bare. Someone else is bent with a cloth to wipe the face. It appeared to us the white face of Venanzio Salvemec, the Greek scholar of things with which we had in the afternoon before the speech codes Adelmo.
"Maybe Adelmo committed suicide," William said, staring at that face, "but not him, nor can we think that is hoisted up to the edge by accident and the ogre has fallen by mistake. "
The abbot approached:" Brother William, as you can see something happens to the abbey, something that requires all your wisdom. But I beseech you, act quickly! "
" This was in choir during the office? "William asked, pointing to the corpse.
"No," the abbot said. "I had noticed that his stall was empty."
"No one else was absent?"
"I do not think so. I did not notice anything. "
William hesitated before making the new application, and did so in a whisper, careful that others do not hear:" Berengar was at its place? "
The abbot looked at him with uneasy admiration, as if to signify that he was impressed to see my master feed a suspicion that he himself had nurtured for a while, but for more understandable reasons. Then he said quickly: "There was, is in the front row, almost at my right hand."
"Of course," William said, "all this means nothing. I do not think anyone has gone to join the choir behind the apse, and then the body could have been here for several hours at least after it had all gone to sleep. "
" Of course, the first servants are raised with the 'Dawn and that's why they only found out now. "
William bent on corpse, as if it were used to deal with dead bodies. He dipped the cloth lying in the water beside the bucket and mopped his face Venanzio better. Meanwhile, the other monks crowded frightened, forming a circle shouting that the abbot was imposing silence. Among them is his way Severino, who was entrusted with the care of the bodies of the Abbey, and stooped with my teacher. I, to hear their dialogue, and to help William, who needed to have a new clean cloth soaked in water, I joined them, overcoming my fear and my disgust.
"Have you ever seen a drowned man," asked William.
"Many times," Severino said. "And if I guess what you mean, have not This time, their features are swollen. "
" Then the man was already dead when someone threw in the jar. "
" Why would he do this? "
" Why would he kill him? We are facing the work of a twisted mind. But now we must see if there are wounds or bruises on the body. I propose to take him in bathing, to strip, wash and examine it. I will reach soon. "
And while Severino, received license from the abbot, was transporting the body from swineherds, my teacher asked that the monks were made back in unison along the way they had come, and that the servants should retire at the Similarly, in a way that the open space remain desert. The abbot did not ask the reason for this desire and contented. We were so alone, near the ogre from whom the blood was spilling over during the grim recovery operation, the snow around all red, dissolved in several places by the water that had been scattered, and a large dark stain where the corpse had been lying .
"A fine mess," William said, pointing to the complex interplay of left footprints all around by the monks and servants. "Snow, dear Adso, is an admirable parchment on which the bodies of men leaving legible writing. But this is a program badly scraped and perhaps we will read anything interesting. From here, the church has been a great rush of monks, hence the corral at the stables and the servants came in droves. The only space is intact ranging from pens to Building. Let's see if we find something interesting. "
" What would you like to find? "I asked.
"If you threw yourself into the bowl, someone brought him there, I guess already dead. And who carries the body of another left deep traces in the snow. So look around here if you find tracks that you think themselves different from those left by these monks rumored that have ruined our parchment. "
So we did. And I say right away that it was me, God save me from vanity, I discovered something in the container and building. There were footprints human, enough funds, in an area where no one had yet passed, and immediately noticed how my teacher, milder than those left by the monks and the servants, a sign that more snow had fallen there, and then were left long ago. But what seemed to us worthy of interest was that between those footprints mingled a more continuous track, like something drawn by those who had left the footprints. In short, a trail that went from the jar at the door of the refectory, on the side of the building that stood between the tower south and east.
"refectory, scriptorium, library," William said. "Once again the library. Venanzio died in the building, the more likely in the library. "
" And why in the library? "
" I try to put myself in the shoes of the murderer. If Venanzio was dead, killed in the refectory, the kitchen or in the scriptorium, why not leave it there? But if he is dead in the library to be transported elsewhere, or because the library would never have been discovered (and perhaps particularly interested that the murderer was discovered), and because the murderess probably does not want the attention to focus on the library. "
"And the murderer could be of interest because it was discovered?"
"I do not know, I guess. Who says that the murderess has killed Venanzio Venanzio because he hated? It could have killed him, instead of anyone else, to make a mark to signify something else. "
" Omnis mundi creature, almost liber et scriptura ... "I muttered. "But that sign be?"
"This is what I do not know. But let's not forget that there are also signs that seem likely but they are meaningless, as blitiri or bu-ba-baff ... "
" It would be terrible, "I said," to kill a man to say bu-ba-baff! "
" It would be terrible, "said William," kill a man even to say I believe in unum Deum ... "
At that time we were joined by Severino. The corpse had been washed and examined carefully. No injury, no bruising on the head. Dead like a charm.
"As God's punishment?" William asked.
"Maybe," said Severino.
"Or poison?" Severino
hesitated. "Maybe, too."
"You have poisons in the lab?" William asked as we walked towards the hospital.
"too. But it depends on what you mean by poison. There are substances that are healthy in small doses and in overdose cause death. Like any good herbalist will keep, and use with discretion. In my garden grow, for example, valerian. A few drops in an infusion of herbs soothe the heart beating wildly. A dose causes exaggerated lethargy and death. "
" And you did not notice the signs on the corpse of a particular poison? "
" None. But many poisons leave no trace. "
We had reached the hospital. Venancio's body, washed in bathing, had been transported there and lay on the large table in the laboratory of Severino: stills and other instruments of glass and earthenware made me think (but I knew just to tell indirect) to the workshop of an alchemist. On a long shelf along the outer wall, lay a large number of vials, jugs, vases, filled with substances of different colors.
"A beautiful collection of simple," William said. "All of the products in your garden?"
"No," Severino said, "many substances, rare and do not grow in these areas, I have been over the years by monks from all over the world. I also have valuable things to find products, mixed with a substance that is easier to get from the vegetation of these places. More ... alghaliga pesto comes from Cathay, and he had a skilful Arabic. Aloe socoltrino is from India, good healing. Quicksilver, raises the dead, or rather, awaken those who have lost their senses. Arsenacho: dangerous, deadly poison if you ingest it. Borax plant good for the lungs sick. Bettonica good for fractures of the head. Mastic: restrain troublesome catarrh and pulmonary flows. Mirra ... "
"That the Magi?" I asked.
"That the Magi, but here's good to prevent miscarriages, cultured from a tree called Balsamodendron myrra. And this is Mumia, very rare, produced by the decomposition of mummified corpses, many drugs used to prepare almost miraculous. Mandragora officinalis, good for sleep ... "
" and to arouse the desire of the flesh, "said my teacher.
"They say, but here you do not use this effect, as you can imagine," smiled Severino. "And look at this," he said, taking a phial, "flakes, miraculous for the eyes."
"And what is this? "she asked brightly William touching a stone lying on a shelf.
"This? Was given to me long ago. I think it's loved or pencil lopris hematite. It seems to have several therapeutic virtues, but I have not found such. You know her? "
" Yes, "William said," but not as a medicine. "He drew from his habit a boxcutter and slowly approached the stone. As the boxcutter, moved from his hand with extreme delicacy, arrived a short distance from the stone, I saw that the blade performed a sudden movement, as if William had moved his wrist, but that was most firmly. And the blade stuck to the stone with a slight sound of metal.
"See," William said to me, "is a magnet. "
" And what's the point? "I asked.
"A number of things, which I'll tell you. But for now I want to know, Severino, if there is nothing here that could kill a man. "
Severino thought for a moment, I would too, given the clarity of his answer:" Many things. I said, the line between medicine and poison is very mild, the Greeks called both pharmacon. "
" And there is nothing that has been stolen recently? "
Severino thought again, then, as if weighing the words "Nothing, recently."
"And in the past?"
"Who knows. I do not remember. I'm in this for Abbey I'm in the hospital for twenty-five and thirty years. "
" Too much for a human memory, "admitted William. Then, suddenly: "We spoke yesterday of plants that can give visions. What are they? "
Severino expressed through their actions and facial expressions with the keen desire to avoid that subject:" I should think, you know I have so many miraculous substance here. But rather talk about Venanzio. What do you say? "
" I should think, "William replied.
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