After a while Father Suryn became silent. The last echo of his voice floated away and the priest opened his eyes, as if waking from sleep and returning to reality after a long journey to mysterious lands. He noticed immediately the angelic smile and the hands, laid like flowers, on the nun's breasts. He moved away for a moment and then, bending over her again, he said:
"My daughter, try to fill your soul with heavenly love and return it to God's heart, for it is this love with which He loves us. Here, on your heart, you are holding a heart burning with sublime love. Can you resist this fire? Can you not answer love with love?"
Mother Joanna moved suddenly. Father Suryn took away the silver case. The nun opened her eyes and looked at him trustingly.
"Love drives evil away," he whispered. "Fill yourself with it completely, so that there is no room in you where evil may hide itself. b° good like a child, be joyful like a child, for God loves us very much."
With a smooth, graceful movement, so different from yesterday's, Mother Joanna freed herself from the leather straps binding her, and knelt on the bench, joining her hands as in prayer. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Father Suryn knelt below her and said:
"Let us pray. Our Father who art in Heaven ..."
Mother Joanna repeated the words of the prayer with emotion.
Father Suryn carried the Host back to the altar, returned to Mother Joanna, took her by the arm and, leading her to the altar, intoned in a full, joyous voice:
"Gloria Patri et Filio ..."
The whole church sobbed. Only on the lips of the other exorcists, especially Father Imber's, played a vague smile, as if they were thinking "It's not such an easy game with Leviathan."
And indeed they were right. For the next morning Sister Margaret reported to Father Suryn that both the mother superior and the other sisters of the convent had been tormented by the demons that night with particular violence.
All Father Suryn's attempts to tame the dark forces proved ineffective. His method of calming the mother superior gave excellent results but only for a short time. Demons, as if enraged by Father Suryn's prevalence, would return with even greater force, shaking the sisters and Mother Joanna with increased violence, filling their mouths with wicked, blasphemous words and telling through their lips tales untrue and improbable, but utterly shameful and shocking. There were times Father Suryn was ready to drop with exhaustion. His prayers for Mother Joanna went on for hours, sometimes even for a whole day. But at night the terrible screams, the nuns running down the corridors and the cries of Father Garnec, who had been burnt at the stake for witchcraft, returned to haunt the convent; even Sparky, cast out by Father Salomon during the previous exorcism, returned to Mother Joanna's body. He had the peculiar ability to induce in Mother Joanna moments of spontaneous, unrestrained merriment. She would laugh and giggle for no reason, playing with words and babbling with nonsense. On such occasions Father Suryn lamented that in one hour she would lose all that she had gained through a week of pious contemplation.
In the end Father Suryn decided to discontinue public exorcisms and recommence them in private. In the convent's attic he found an empty room with two entrances and ordered that it be divided in two with a see-through partition, like a fence, creating in this way something like a small parlatorium. Mother Joanna was usually on one side of the fence, Father Suryn on the other; the complete silence reigning in the attic helped them to be closer to each other. Father Suryn was trying to find a way to Mother Joanna's soul and in this solitude it was easier to find peace and, more important, honesty. At first Father Suryn felt the reluctance and resistance with which she was guarding her heart against him, not letting him know what secrets she carried inside her. But through prayer, reciting psalms and breviaries together, her resistance was melting and falling away. After a few days of prayers and conversations Mother Joanna, quite unexpectedly, began to talk about herself. The confession flowed easily and was full of detail. However, Mother Joanna was confessing all her thoughts and deeds too easily and Father Suryn began to suspect that her reminiscences were not entirely accurate. After a few hours of these easy conversations, which replaced the difficult struggle with her obstinacy, undoubtedly inspired by Satan, he realised that Mother Joanna wanted to interest him in her experiences, and was therefore telling her stories with colour and exaggeration. Anyway, Mother Joanna had lived in the convent practically since childhood and did not know the world. During the meetings conducted in the convent's parlatorium she heard this and that, and was now repeating words belonging to the outside world without a proper understanding of their meaning. She would say for instance that her sins were a "hearty attachment" to certain creatures, or that she had "passions". But after a closer interrogation it turned out that the "attachments" meant being fond of talking to some people and the "passions" she was giving in to were simple weaknesses, like eating a lot of jam with honey or being used to sleeping under an eiderdown. Mother Joanna did not seem to be able to tell the difference between a grave and a venial sin. After some time however, Father Suryn noticed that in this respect, too, she was deliberately misleading him. One day she would emphasise the words "sinful attachment" and "passions" to interest and shock him and then, the next day, after his careful questioning, she would explain to him the completely innocent meaning of those dangerous expressions. And so, Father Suryn found to his considerable pain that those sweet talks in the secluded parlatorium had devilish connotations. All the things she confessed to him she had done prompted by the devil, who wanted to convince him of her apparent innocence. She wanted to show herself a saint for whom the slightest indulgence in eating the delicacies sent her by a noblewoman from the town seemed a loathsome sin. He noticed also that her real passion was the desire to make everybody interested in her, to exalt herself above others by whatever means. And so she firmly insisted that of all the sisters in the Ludyn convent she was the one whom the devil possessed most completely.
Reason told him that those talks and ascetic practices - they would flagellate themselves together - carried out in the peaceful attic were just as fruitless as the official exorcisms in the church in front of a great crowd of people. But he could not find the strength to discontinue them. They were permeating him with saintliness, with a pious satisfaction derived from communing with the highest regions of the soul, and even for him they held a great importance, for they were smothering that black spider which also kept spinning its web in his soul. Despite the fear he felt thinking about Mother Joanna's possession, these conversations were for him a source of great joy.
But finally, that very joy made him stop to think and after some time he terminated this kind of exorcism, too. He did not see how these talks, which were to lead Mother Joanna onto the path of perfect prayer, diminished in any way the power of the evil spirits. The possession continued. Father Suryn took a few days of rest. He was in despair.
The other tenants in the granary where he lived could not understand him at all. The previous exorcists were in fact rather pleased with his failure, though after his first exercise they spoke of him with words of admiration. He avoided talking to his fellow-priests, even though he heard them through the wall as they used to gather for an evening talk, especially in Father Imber's room, who was reputed to keep in his cupboard many a good flask of wine. He was afraid of the cynical conversations of these priests. He knew what they were talking about in the evenings and he felt that he would find those gatherings very painful.
In such moments of doubt he would turn to Father Brym, the parish vicar, who was not involved in casting out the devil and had a very sober opinion about what was going on in the convent. He was a pious man, and full of common sense.
A few days after the termination of his holy practices Father Suryn went to see the vicar. He found him, as usual, sitting by the fire in the big room, playing with little Krysia. Her older brother Alex was bringing in firewood and was asked to bring also two mugs of hot beer with cream and cheese for the vicar and his g
uest.
Father Suryn was always surprised that the vicar allowed the children to play so freely in his rooms and did not discipline them more. Had Father Brym been a little younger Suryn might have suspected something improper in it. But he did not want to ask lest the vicar thought he was doubting his good judgement.
This time the vicar began to tell him about the children himself. He took Krysia off his lap and said:
"Go, my child. Alex, take Krysia to the kitchen."
When the children disappeared behind the door he turned to Father Suryn:
"Poor children. They are my only joy. What will become of them?"
"Are they orphans?" asked Suryn.
"The mother is still alive. She is a cook at Oiarowski's."
"And the father?"
"You don't know? He was burned."
"Ah," guessed Suryn, "so they are Garnec's children ..."
"Yes . What kind of fate awaits them? Children of a priest ... and a sorcerer ..."
"You believe in his ill intentions, vicar?"
"Unfortunately, yes. I may not believe in his sorcery, but in his ill intentions always."
Father Suryn shuddered.
"Sorcerer! He was burned! Satan was in him!"
Father Brym smiled.
"As in each and every one of us, perhaps?"
"Us?" Father Suryn felt uneasy.
"Bigger, or smaller ... Methinks I myself have inside a little devil that tempts me-to- this sweet beer and cheese."
Father Suryn bridled at this:
"You make a joke out of such terrible things, vicar."
"God forbid! Do l?" protested the vicar,quite merrily,taking a good swig out of his mug. "But if evil exists it may be both big and small. The great devil - Behemoth - who acts through great sinners and murderers, and a small one, perhaps his name is Beer? who tempts our flesh with little pleasures."
Father Suryn shook his head.
"Oh no, father, no! Satan, once he gets inside, possesses a man completely. He becomes his second nature. Second? What am I saying, first! He becomes the very man! The soul of his soul. Oh, how horrid it is!"
He covered his face with his hands.
The vicar looked at him carefully from the corner of his eye. Then he twisted his mouth into a horseshoe, as if saying, "He is lost." At last he broke the silence:
"Father Provincial sent me a letter through one of the pilgrims. He wrote he should be here in a few weeks time."
Father Suryn lowered his hands and looked anxiously at Brym.
"And here I am, no wiser than before ..."
"What can we do? It's God's will."
"But that God allows it ..."
"Tsss ..." the vicar put a finger on his lips, "tsss, don't blaspheme. You are close to it."
Father Suryn covered his face again and moaned with despair:
"What am Ito do? What am Ito do?"
The vicar smiled.
"First of all drink this beer. Give yourself some strength. You've grown thin with all these tribulations, my good chaplain. Now, on your way back, go for a long walk, take the Smolensk road, to the woods. See what the world looks like. True, it's autumn now, but, every season has its own charm. The woods are full of mushrooms ... Yesterday, Alex and I brought back a whole basket. And today, as it's a fast-day, we had an excellent mushroom ...ragout
"Mushrooms," said Father Suryn, as if he did not believe such things still existed in this world.
"Don't worry," carried on Father Brym, "don't worry. We have a tsadick here, a Jewish wonder-worker, and he always says, `Worry? You don't have to open your door to it. It'll come through the window anyway ..."'
Father Suryn took his hands away from his face and again started shaking his head.
"Ah, it's terrible. To see all this torment. How these women must suffer. And why? And on top of that those public exorcisms. People come to them as if it were a circus...
Father Brym sighed.
"That's true," he said. "I have thought about it myself many times. Those wenches ... forgive me, those maidens are fired up like tight-rope dancers. People watch them like the King's theatre - ha-ha-ha! - and all that questioning comes to nothing ... I hear you've started dealing with Mother Joanna in private?" he asked after a while suspiciously.
"I think," answered Father Suryn with simplicity, "that in private one can pour into this vessel more love, more hope, and it's easier to drive away that shameful conceit which is sitting in her. And who is this tsadick?" he added.
"He lives here," answered the vicar. "Jews come to see him from as far away as Vilnius and Vitebsk. He isn't even that old, his name is Reb Ishe from Zabludow. A wise man, they say. He knows the Talmud by heart, as they all do."
"Reb Ishe from Zabludow ..." repeated Suryn ponderingly.
"Go, go, father," said the vicar looking at the chaplain's eyes, which were wandering around finding nothing to rest on, "go for a walk. It's a lovely day today, no rain. Go and look around the town."
Father Suryn rose from his seat, embraced the vicar.
"You haven't drunk your beer, pity," said Father Brym with deep reproach.
"No, I don't drink ..." smiled Father Suryn sadly, and left.
In the hall he was surprised by little Krysia, who stood with a -big watering can shouting "Boo! Boo!"
"What are you doing?" he asked the girl.
"I'm scaring off the wolves," she answered. "Alex's gone hunting," and she went on swinging the can and banging it with her little fist, "Boo! Boo!"
Father Suryn shrugged his shoulders. He could not understand this game. "Although," he thought, "there was no less truth in the `scaring the wolves' than in casting out the devil ... The thought frightened him. Yet the sight of Krysia's puffed up cheeks moved him, just like the cheeks of the little cherubs flying around the Holy Virgin in the picture in the monastery church. "Children are like the angels," he thought again. "For what are the angels but God's children? Maybe in her childish `Boo!' there is an even greater tribute to the Creator? ..."
Then he remembered Mother Joanna showing how the Thrones and the Seraphim bowed before the Lord God of Hosts, and suddenly he felt a shiver of fear running all over his body.
From the parish church he turned down towards the river, beyond which the road led to the woods. He walked down the hill and, crossing the bridge, he noticed Kaziuk, the boy from the inn, standing among the half-green trees and yellow bushes. Kaziuk took off his sheepskin hat and greeted him.
"Praise be to the Lord."
"And what are you doing here, Kaziuk?" asked Father Suryn.
"Waiting for the master, the mistress told me to. He's coming back from Smolensk."
"With supplies?"
"Something like that. And here, at the bridge, it's not always safe."
"Oh?"
"Ah, it's just silly talk. I've never seen anything here."
"And what news at the inn? Is the mistress well?"
"Sure she's well. What could be wrong with her?"
"And did you earn a lot during the fair?"
"The master maybe did, but me?"
"Lord Chrz4szczewski, or Mr Wolodkiewicz, haven't they given you anything?"
"Eh, would Mr Wolodkiewicz give me anything? He is a wicked man."
Father Suryn laughed.
"Kaziuk, don't judge people."
"Oh, but Father, when I say something I mean it for sure."
Suddenly Kaziuk moved closer to Suryn and looking straight into his eyes he said firmly:
"He is a wicked man, one shouldn't listen to him."
"But I don't!"
Father Suryn was explaining himself as in front of a superior. It surprised him.
"One mustn't ask him questions," repeated the boy.
"Ali, Kaziuk, you are a strange man," said Father Suryn somewhat irritated. "What are you warning me against?" The priest was not pleased with this meeting.
At that momenta hollow rumbling came from the other end of the wooden bridge and a cart rolled i
nto view.
"Master's coming," said Kaziuk.
The cart rolled up quickly and stopped. Kaziuk ran off towards the master but stopped suddenly. On the cart, next to Master Janko, sat Wincenty Wolodkiewicz.
"Talk of the devil ..." said Kaziuk slowly and began to help the master to unload the cart so that the toll-keepers at the gate could not see them. In the meantime Mr Wolodkiewicz got off the cart and came to greet Father Suryn.
"What a long time! What a long time!" he shouted, trying to plant a kiss on the priest's arm. "How strange! Whenever I come to Ludyn I run straight into the good father. I've been to Smolensk again!" he was shouting as if Suryn stood seven miles away. "Kind Lord Chrzgszczewski took me in his carriage and I travelled like a lord. Now I've come back on the cart like a commoner. And so in truth it should be. But would you believe, good Father?" here Wolodkiewicz raised his big finger, "I nearly became a courtier of the Prince! Well, what can't be done today can be done tomorrow ..."
Danko and Kaziuk drove off on the cart towards the town. Mr Wolodkiewicz and the priest followed on foot. Father Suryn gave up the idea of walking in the woods and picking mushrooms, and did not know why. Wolodkiewicz's relentless talking fascinated him. Maybe he could even go with him to the inn?
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