When they reached the house in Harley-street the gentleman
took a most affectionate farewell of Stephen, urging him not to feel sad at
this parting and reminding him that they would meet again that very night at
Lost-hope. “…when a most charming ceremony
will be held in the belfry of the Easternmost Tower. It commemorates an occasion which happened –
oh! five children of my enemy and we pushed them out of the belfry to their
deaths. Tonight we will re-enact this
great triumph! We will dress straw dolls
in the children’s blood-stained clothes and fling them down on to the paving
stones and then we will sing and dance and rejoice over their destruction!”
“And do you perform this ceremony every year, sir? I feel sure I could have remembered it if I
had seen it before. It is so very…striking.”
“I am glad you think so.
I perform it whenever I think of it.
Of course it was a great deal more striking when we used real children.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
Chapter 26
I’m finally able to get back to blogging more regularly. Still plodding through Susanna Clarke’s
unforgivably long Hugo.
No comments:
Post a Comment