The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wandering Jew, Book XI., by Eugene Sue

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Title: The Wandering Jew, Book XI.

Author: Eugene Sue

Release Date: October 25, 2004 [EBook #3349]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WANDERING JEW, BOOK XI. ***

Produced by David Widger and Pat Castevens

THE WANDERING JEW

By Eugene Sue

BOOK XI.

L. The Ruins of the Abbey of St. John the Baptist
LI. The Calvary
LII. The Council
LIII. Happiness
LIV. Duty
LV. The Improvised Hospital
LVI. Hydrophobia
LVII. The Guardian Angel
LVIII. Ruin
LIX. Memories
LX. The Ordeal
LXI. Ambition
LXII. To a Socius, a Socius and a Half
LXIII. Faringhea's Affection
LXIV. An Evening at St. Colombe's
LXV. The Nuptial Bed
LXVI. A Duel to the Death
LXVII. A Message
LXVIII. The First of June

EPILOGUE.

I. Four Years After
II. The Redemption

CHAPTER L.

THE RUINS OF THE ABBEY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

The sun is fast sinking. In the depths of an immense piny wood, in the
midst of profound solitude, rise the ruins of an abbey, once sacred to
St. John the Baptist. Ivy, moss, and creeping plants, almost entirely
conceal the stones, now black with age. Some broken arches, some walls
pierced with ovals, still remain standing, visible on the dark background
of the thick wood. Looking down upon this mass of ruins from a broken
pedestal, half-covered with ivy, a mutilated, but colossal statue of
stone still keeps its place. This statue is strange and awful. It
represents a headless human figure. Clad in the antique toga, it holds in
its hand a dish and on that dish is a head. This head is its own. It is
the statue of St. John the Baptist and Martyr, put to death by wish of
Herodias.

The silence around is solemn. From time to time, however, is heard the
dull rustling of the enormous branches of the pine-trees, shaken by the
wind. Copper-colored clouds, reddened by the setting sun, pass slowly
over the forest, and are reflected in the current of a brook, which,
deriving its source from a neighboring mass of rocks, f