ぼくはそこに、何かに追い立てられるまで、四ヶ月滞在した。ここで発見した遺体は全部で五体のみで、神父や修道士たちにいったい何が起こったのかは分からなかったが、ぼくはそのうちの四体を、二度の遠出の際に車に積んで、離れた場所にあるサン＝マルシアル＝ダルトンセに運び、そこに安置してきた。そして五体目は、三週の間ぼくの側に残したままにしていたが、それは彼の祈りの邪魔をしたくはないと思ったからだった。彼は顎髭をたくわえた四十がらみの男で、法衣と頭巾で幽霊のように白い肉体を包み、自分の小部屋で膝まづいていた。非現実性や不気味さというものは、こうした人々の群れが黄昏や漆黒の夜によって感じ取られるからに違いなく、彼が決して何もかもが幽霊の大半たちと異なっていたというわけではない。この修道士は自分のさっぱりとした小さな部屋の中で膝まづいていたが、その部屋の上の方には、幅の狭い三段の書棚の脇と壁の出っ張りの間に長い手を吊るしてちょっと休んでいるかのように、キリスト像が輝いていた。キリストの下には金箔と青の聖母があった。三段の書棚には本は少しだけしかなく、様々な角度に傾いていた。彼の右肘は正方形をしたシンプルなテーブルの上に乗っていて、そこには一脚の木製の椅子があった。彼の背後の部屋の隅にはベッドがあった。ベッドは暗い色の板で覆われており、垂直に立った板の一枚はベッドの足に沿って天井にまで伸びていて、ベッドに入ったときに水平に脇から上に被さる板は、フリンジとカーテンのせいで、もうひとつの狭い天井のようで、別の垂直の板は枕を隠しており、とてもひっそりとした心地よい小さな私室のようになっていて、その中には清潔なベッドが整えられており、壁にはまた別のキリスト像と小さな写真があった。垂直な板の下の方に白い衣服が二着吊るされており、ベッド脇のセカンドチェアの上にはもう一着あった。どれもこざっぱりとした、神聖な衣服だった。彼は巨体の厳しい男で、トウモロコシのような金髪を生やしていたが、いくらか赤い部分があり、それは彼の髭も同じだった。ゾッとしたのは、祈りを捧げるそのまなざしの真剣さで、サフラン色の頬に細長く穿たれた穴のようだった。ぼくにはなぜ自分がこの男に敬意を抱くのか分からなかった。だがそれは確実に存在した。他の多くの人々は明らかに逃げ出してしまっていた。だが彼は違った。迫りくる雲に十字架を持って対抗したが、それは十字架を他のものと同じように、たったひとつの現実として捉えていたからだ――多くの人々の中で、彼だけが。キリスト教は「選ばれし」宗教であると誰もが口にしていたが、その手を伸ばして全てを掴み、勝ち取ったイスラム教や仏教とは異なり、神を選んだものはわずかだった。キリストの影響力は、どちらかと言えばプラトンやダンテのそれに似ているように思われた。だがマホメットのそれは、ホーマーやシェークスピアのようだと思った。
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I was there four months, till something drove me away. I do not know what had become of the fathers and brothers, for I only found five, four of whom I took in two journeys in the motor beyond the church of Saint Martial d'Artenset, and left them there; and the fifth remained three weeks with me, for I would not disturb him in his prayer. He was a bearded brother of forty years or thereabouts, who knelt in his cell robed and hooded in all his phantom white: for in no way different from whatever is most phantom, visionary and eerie must a procession of these people have seemed by gloaming, or dark night This particular brother knelt, I say, in his small chaste room, glaring upward at his Christ, who hung long-armed in a little recess between the side of three narrow bookshelves and a projection of the wall; and under the Christ a gilt and blue Madonna; the books on the three shelves few, leaning different ways. His right elbow rested on a square plain table, at which was a wooden chair; behind him, in a corner, the bed: a bed all enclosed in dark boards, a broad perpendicular board along the foot, reaching the ceiling, a horizontal board at the side over which he got into bed, another narrower one like it at the ceiling for fringe and curtain, and another perpendicular one hiding the pillow, making the clean bed within a very shady and cosy little den, on the wall of this den being another smaller Christ and a little picture. On the perpendicular board at the foot hung two white garments, and over a second chair at the bed-side another: all very neat and holy. He was a large stern man, blond as corn, but with some red, too, in his hairy beard; and appalling was the significance of those eyes that prayed, and the long-drawn cavity of those saffron cheeks. I cannot explain to myself my deep reverence for this man; but I had it, certainly. Many of the others, it is clear, had fled: but not he: and to the near-marching cloud he opposed the Cross, holding one real as the other―he alone among many. For Christianity was an élite religion, in which all were called, but few chosen, differing from Mohammedanism and Buddhism, which grasped and conquered all within their reach: the effect of Christ rather resembling Plato's and Dante's, it would seem: but Mahomet's more like Homer's and Shakespeare's.
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I was there four months, till something drove me away. I do not know what had become of the fathers and brothers, for I only found five, four of whom I took in two journeys in the motor beyond the church of Saint Martial d'Artenset, and left them there; and the fifth remained three weeks with me, for I would not disturb him in his prayer. He was a bearded brother of forty years or thereabouts, who knelt in his cell robed and hooded in all his phantom white: for in no way different from whatever is most phantom, visionary and eerie must a procession of these people have seemed by gloaming, or dark night This particular brother knelt, I say, in his small chaste room, glaring upward at his Christ, who hung long-armed in a little recess between the side of three narrow bookshelves and a projection of the wall; and under the Christ a gilt and blue Madonna; the books on the three shelves few, leaning different ways. His right elbow rested on a square plain table, at which was a wooden chair; behind him, in a corner, the bed: a bed all enclosed in dark boards, a broad perpendicular board along the foot, reaching the ceiling, a horizontal board at the side over which he got into bed, another narrower one like it at the ceiling for fringe and curtain, and another perpendicular one hiding the pillow, making the clean bed within a very shady and cosy little den, on the wall of this den being another smaller Christ and a little picture. On the perpendicular board at the foot hung two white garments, and over a second chair at the bed-side another: all very neat and holy. He was a large stern man, blond as corn, but with some red, too, in his hairy beard; and appalling was the significance of those eyes that prayed, and the long-drawn cavity of those saffron cheeks. I cannot explain to myself my deep reverence for this man; but I had it, certainly. Many of the others, it is clear, had fled: but not he: and to the near-marching cloud he opposed the Cross, holding one real as the other―he alone among many. For Christianity was an élite religion, in which all were called, but few chosen, differing from Mohammedanism and Buddhism, which grasped and conquered all within their reach: the effect of Christ rather resembling Plato's and Dante's, it would seem: but Mahomet's more like Homer's and Shakespeare's.