Under the Witches' Moon: A Romantic Tale of Mediaeval Rome
By Gallizier, Nathan
Classic work by Gallizier, Nathan.
Table of Contents
THE FIRES OF ST. JOHN It was the eve of St. John in the year of our Lord Nine Hundred Thirty-Five. High on the cypress-clad hills of the Eternal City the evening sun had flamed v...
THE WEAVING OF THE SPELL After they had disappeared Tristan stood at gaze, puzzled where to turn, for the spectacle had suddenly changed. New bands of revellers had invaded the P...
THE DREAM LADY OF AVALON Like a disk of glowing gold the sun had set upon hill and dale. The gardens of Avalon lay wrapt in the mists of evening. Like flowers seemed the fair wome...
THE WAY OF THE CROSS It was late on the following morning when Tristan waked. The sun was high in the heavens and the perfumes from a thousand gardens were wafted to his nostrils....
ON THE AVENTINE When Tristan at last regained his bearings, he found himself among the convents and cloisters on Mount Aventine. His eyes rested wearily on the eddying gleam of th...
THE COUP Tristan spent the greater part of the day visiting the churches and sanctuaries, offering up prayers for oblivion and peace. His heart was heavy within him. Like the stra...
MASKS AND MUMMERS Amid the ruin of cities and the din of strife during the tenth century darkness closed in upon the Romans, while the figures of strange despots emerged from obsc...
THE SHRINE OF HEKATÉ Athwart the gleaming balconies of the east the morning sun shone golden and the shadows of the white marble cornices and capitals and jutting friezes were blu...
THE GAME OF LOVE The pattering of footsteps resounded on the marble floor of the corridor and the hangings once more parted, revealing the form of a man sombre even in the shadows...
A SPIRIT PAGEANT When, on the day succeeding his appointment Tristan returned to the Inn of the Golden Shield he felt as one in a trance. Like a puppet of Fate he had been plunged...
THE DENUNCIATION The Basilica of Constantine no longer retained its pristine splendor, its pristine purity as in the days, ere the revival of paganism by the Emperor Julian the Ap...
THE CONFESSION The storm had abated, but the sheen of white lightnings to southward and the menacing growl of distant thunder that seemed to come from the bowels of the earth held...
THE GRAND CHAMBERLAIN Castel San Angelo, the Tomb of the Flavian Emperor, seemed rather to have been built for a great keep, a breakwater as it were to stem the rush of barbarian ...
THE CALL OF EBLIS In the lurid flash that had illumined the gallery, lighting up rows of cells and deep recesses, Basil had seen, as if risen from the floor, a black, indefinable ...
THE CRYSTAL SPHERE Outwardly and in daylight there was nothing noticeable about the sixth house in the Lane of the Sclavonians in Trastevere beyond the fact that it was a dwelling...
PERSEPHONÉ It was not Tristan's other self, conjured by the Persian from the mystic realms of night which Theodora had seen outlined against the dark curtain that screened the ent...
MAGIC GLOOMS Floods of soft and mellow light dazzled Tristan's eyes at first, but he soon realized the luxurious beauty of the retreat into which he had been ushered. It was obvio...
THE LURE OF THE ABYSS The sun had sunk to rest in fleecy clouds of crimson and gold. The clear and brilliant moonlight of Italy enveloped hill and dale, bathing in its effulgence...
THE FACE IN THE PANEL On the following day Tristan entered upon his duties as captain of the Senator's guard. The first person upon whom he chanced on his rounds at the Lateran w...
THE SHADOW OF ASRAEL It was ten in the morning. Deep silence reigned in the strange walled garden on the Pincian Hill that surrounded the marble villa of the Grand Chamberlain. O...
THE FEAST OF THEODORA A fairy-like radiance pervaded the great pavilion in the sunken gardens of Theodora on Mount Aventine. It was a vast circular hall, roofed in by a lofty dom...
THE CHALICE OF OBLIVION A delirium of the senses such as he had never experienced to this hour began to steal over Tristan, as he found himself seated between Theodora, the faires...
WOLFSBANE The early summer dawn was creeping over the silent Campagna when Tristan reached the Inn of The Golden Shield. As one dazed he had traversed the deserted, echoing stree...
UNDER THE SAFFRON SCARF Once again the pale planets of night ruled the sky, when Tristan emerged from his inn and took the direction of the Palatine. All memories of his meeting ...
DARK PLOTTINGS It was past the hour of midnight. In a dimly lighted turret chamber in the house of Hormazd the Persian there sat two personages whose very presence seemed to enha...
FACE TO FACE Roger de Laval had chosen for his abode in Rome a sombre and frowning building not far from the grim ways of the Campo Marzo, half palace half fortalice, constructed ...
THE CRESSETS OF DOOM Never had Tristan's feelings been more hopelessly involved than since that eventful night by the Arch of the Seven Candles when, like a ghost of the past, Hel...
A MEETING OF GHOSTS A voice whose prompting he could not resist, impelled Tristan, after his parting from the Monk of Cluny, to follow the Grand Chamberlain, who had taken the dir...
A BOWER OF EDEN After some hours of much needed rest Tristan started out to find the Monk of Cluny. The task he had set himself was not one easy of execution, since the Benedictin...
AN ITALIAN NIGHT The palace of Theodora on Mount Aventine was aglow with life and movement for the festivities of the evening. The lights of countless cressets were reflected from...
THE NET OF THE FOWLER The appearance of Basil who had emerged from the kiosk and regarded Theodora with a look in his pale, passion distorted features that seemed to light up rece...
DEVIL WORSHIP The dawn of the following day brought in its wake consternation and terror. From the churches of the two Egyptian Martyrs, Sts. Cosmas and Damian, the Holy Host had ...
BY LETHE'S SHORES Basil the Grand Chamberlain was giving one of his renowned feasts in his villa on the Pincian Mount. But on this evening he had limited the number of his guests ...
THE DEATH WATCH A strange and mysterious thing is the working of terror on the human mind. Some it renders incapable of thought or action, paralyzing their limbs and stagnating th...
THE CONVENT IN TRASTEVERE He stared at her speechless, so taken was he with the immensity of the thing she had suggested. Fear, wonder, joy seemed to contend for the mastery. "Wh...
THE PHANTOM OF THE LATERAN It still lacked a few minutes of midnight when Tristan arrived at the Lateran. The guard had been set in all the chapels, as on the night when he had ke...
THE RETURN OF THE MOOR In a domed chamber of the Emperor's Tomb there sat two personages engaged in whispered conversation, Basil and a weird hooded phantom that seemed part of th...
THE ESCAPE FROM SAN ANGELO Hidden away in some secret vault of the great honey-colored Mausoleum Tristan found himself when the men-at-arms had departed, and he had regained his f...
THE LURE For three whole days Hellayne consumed herself waiting for Tristan, and she began to feel listless and dispirited. She had long acknowledged to herself the necessity of h...
A LYING ORACLE It was an eventful night in Rome and, although for that reason well adapted to deeds of violence, the tumult and confusion exacted great caution from those who wish...
BITTER WATERS The dawn was creeping over the Sabine mountains when Tristan, after having made good his escape from the dungeons of Castel San Angelo, reached the hermitage of Odo ...
FROM DREAM TO DREAM Theodora's sleep had been broken and restless. She tossed and turned upon her pillow. It was weary work to lie gazing with eyes wide open at the fantastic shad...
A ROMAN MEDEA It was a moonless night.-- Deep repose was upon the seven hilled city. The sky was intensely dark, but the stars shone out full and lustrous. Venus was almost setti...
IN TENEBRIS Another day had gone down the never returning tide of time. The sun was sinking in a rosy bed of quilted clouds. All day long Hellayne had sat brooding in her chamber,...
THE CONSPIRACY It was a night, moonless and starless. Deep silence brooded over the city. Not a ray of light was in the sky. A dense fog hung like a funeral pall over the Seven Hi...
THE BROKEN SPELL Again there was feasting and high revels in the palace of Theodora on Mount Aventine. Colored lanterns were suspended between the interstices of orange and oleand...
THE BLACK MASS The night was sultry and dismal. Dense black clouds rolled over the Roman Campagna, burning blue in the flashes of jagged lightnings and the low boom of distant th...
SUNRISE The thunder clouds had rolled away to eastward. A rosy glow was creeping over the sky. The air was fresh with the coming of dawn. Softly they laid Hellayne by the side of...