“True, Luciel. Our Father’s Spirit has fallen on them with pity and love, and He is warning them that their days are numbered and that the holocaust is upon them, and the terrible Apocalypse—unless they repent at once and say to Our Father, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
“They will not say it, Michael, they will not say it. I perceive the haunting dark dread which pervades them now, the vast uneasiness, the wide look at the skies, the amorphous suspicion of which fear is the mother, the sensation of pending horror and conflagration, even while they proclaim themselves lords of the universes. They speak of peace, and plan massacres. They exalt science, and use it for destruction. They whimper love, while they spread hatred. Yes, they are full of terror, and know not what it is. If it is the warning of Our Father, then the warning has been uttered in vain. Man is doomed, and he knows it in his heart, and will blame all else but himself.”
“If he is doomed, Luciel, then you are doomed with him.”
“It will be a worthy culmination, and will have its satisfactions.”
Again he turned to go, and again Michael caught his arm. “It is not too late, Luciel. Do not tempt man to his final destruction.”
Lucifer pretended amazement. “My dear Michael! It is true I tempt, but man has only to reject. If he is so poor a creature that he must always succumb to temptation, is he worthy to survive and insult Our Father by his being?”
Michael’s hand dropped to his side but he earnestly gazed into the eyes of his brother, wordlessly imploring.
“You have forgotten,” said Lucifer, with some gentleness. “Though the Lord prophesied, before His agonized death on Terra, that that world and all it is will come to an end and be consumed, and the Apocalypse fall upon mankind, there will be some who will survive. A handful of the just—but they will survive.”
“But you will not, Luciel. You will be cast into the pit with those you have corrupted, forever and forever.”
“It will be a magnificent spectacle. I anticipate the wailing and the weeping, and the gnashing of teeth, particularly on the part of the vaunted ‘wise’ of Terra. I will rejoice in their stupid anguish, at the advent of the Apocalypse, their wide stare of fear and fright, the sound of their confused questioning, the eagerness with which they will vainly reassure each other, the hopelessness of their final hours. I will conduct them to my hells and say to them, ‘This is your habitation for all eternity, for you made it with all the days of your life.’ And I, with pleasure, and they, with despair, will contemplate the drama of the consuming of Terra in fire and flame, and the justice of God.”
He looked once more over the shoulder of Michael and saw his other brothers, and he saluted them, not entirely with mockery, and even with somber sorrow. “Farewell,” he said. “Farewell, forever.”
He retreated, but Michael followed him, and the earth became dim and formless about them so that they stood in shadow. Finally, Lucifer halted in the murk about them, and he raised his hand and on the chaos there appeared the spinning mirage of Terra, where the men shouted of new light while the darkness and confusion increased upon them.
“Regard it, Michael,” said Lucifer. “Regard the most debased and most contemptible of all the worlds which Our Father created, and on which His Son died in infamy. Regard it for the last time, Michael, for it listens only to my voice. I will signal it, and men will immediately obey me and fall upon each other in the last death and the last fire.”
“Refrain!” cried Michael. “I beg of you, refrain!”
“I do not compel. I only tempt. Have you forgotten?”
His finger pointed in a threatening and commanding gesture. Michael’s hand lifted, as if to catch the hand of his brother. Then it fell to his side. Michael turned away his head, his lips moving in prayer.
“Our Father,” prayed. Michael, “Our Father, Who art in Heaven—” And then, with deep groaning, “Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy!”
A Biography of Taylor Caldwell
Taylor Caldwell was one of the most prolific and widely read American authors of the twentieth century. In a career that spanned five decades, she wrote forty novels, many of which were New York Times bestsellers.
Caldwell captivated readers with emotionally charged historical novels and family sagas such as Captains and the Kings, which sold 4.5 million copies and was made into a television miniseries in 1976. Her novels based on the lives of religious figures, Dear and Glorious Physician, a portrayal of the life of St. Luke, and Great Lion of God, a panoramic novel about the life and times of St. Paul, are among the bestselling religious novels of all time.
Born Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell in 1900 in Manchester, England, into a family of Scotch-Irish descent, she began attending an academically rigorous school at the age of four, studying Latin, French, history, and geography. At six, she won a national gold medal for her essay on novelist Charles Dickens. On weekends, she performed a long list of household chores and attended Sunday school and church twice a day. Caldwell often credited her Spartan childhood with making her a rugged individualist.
In 1907, Caldwell, her parents, and her younger brother immigrated to the United States, settling in Buffalo, New York, where she would live for most of her life. She started writing stories when she was eight years old and completed her first novel, The Romance of Atlantis, when she was twelve, although it was not published until 1975. Marriage at the age of eighteen to William Combs and the birth of her first child, Mary Margaret—Peggy—did not deter her from pursuing an education. While working as a stenographer and a court reporter to help support her family, she took college courses at night.
Upon receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Buffalo in 1931, she divorced her husband and married Marcus Reback, her boss at the US Immigration Department office in Buffalo. Caldwell then dedicated herself to writing full time. Even as her family grew with the arrival of her second daughter, Judith, Caldwell’s unpublished manuscripts continued to pile up.
At the age of thirty-eight, she finally sold a novel, Dynasty of Death, to a major New York publisher. Convinced that a pre–World War I saga of two dynasties of munitions manufacturers would be better received if people thought it was written by a man, Maxwell Perkins, her editor at Scribner—who also discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway—advised her to use only part of her name—Taylor Caldwell—as her pen name. Dynasty of Death became a bestseller in 1938 and the saga continued with The Eagles Gather in 1940 and The Final Hour in 1944. Inevitably, a public stir ensued when people discovered Taylor Caldwell was a woman.
Over the next forty years, Caldwell often worked from midnight to early morning at her electric typewriter in her book-crammed study, producing a wide array of sagas (This Side of Innocence, Answer as a Man) and historical novels (Testimony of Two Men, Ceremony of the Innocent) that celebrated American values and passions.
She also produced novels set in the ancient world (A Pillar of Iron, Glory and the Lightning), dystopian fiction (The Devil’s Advocate, Your Sins and Mine), and spiritually themed novels (The Listener, No One Hears But Him, Dialogues with the Devil).
Apart from their across-the-board popularity with readers and their commercial success, which made Caldwell a wealthy woman, her long list of bestselling novels possessed common themes that were close to her heart: self-reliance and individualism, man’s struggle for justice, the government’s encroachment on personal freedoms, and the conflict between man’s desire for wealth and power and his need for love and family bonding.
The long hours spent at her typewriter did not keep Caldwell from enjoying life. She gave elegant parties at her grand house in Buffalo. One of her grandchildren recalls watching her hold the crowd in awe with her observations about life and politics. She embarked on annual worldwide cruises and was fond of a glass of good bourbon. Drina Fried recalls her grandmother confiding in her: “I vehemently believe that we should have as much fun as is possible in our dolorous life, if it does not injure o
urselves or anyone else. The only thing is—be discreet. The world will forgive you anything but getting caught.”
Caldwell didn’t stop writing until she suffered a debilitating stroke at the age of eighty. Her last novel, Answer as a Man, was published in 1981 and hit the New York Times bestseller list before its official publication date. She died at her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1985.
William Combs, Taylor Caldwell’s first husband and father to Peggy, aboard a naval ship, circa 1926.
A portrait of Caldwell at the start of her career in the late 1930s.
A portrait of Caldwell taken before Scribner’s publication of Melissa on June 21, 1948.
Caldwell at her desk in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1949. She spent many winter months at Whitehall, a resort hotel on the property of Henry Flagler’s former estate, which is now the Flagler Museum.
Caldwell’s second daughter, Judith Ann Reback, during time with her mother at Whitehall in the 1940s.
Caldwell receiving an award in Los Angeles, California, for A Pillar of Iron after its publication in 1965.
Caldwell with her daughters, Peggy Fried and Judith Ann Reback (Goodman), and Ted Goodman in 1969 on the MS Bergensfjord.
Caldwell at a cocktail party with her daughter, Peggy, and the hostess of a research world cruise on the SS President Wilson in 1970. (Ken Parke)
Caldwell with her granddaughter, Drina Fried, at her home in Buffalo, New York, winter 1975. Soula Angelou, her personal assistant, insisted on taking this rare family picture.
An invitation from 1975 to one of Caldwell’s many cocktail parties. She hosted at least two parties a year in Buffalo, New York, before she moved to Connecticut.
Caldwell with her fourth husband, Robert Prestie, who cared for her in the last six years of her life in Connecticut.
To read more about the life and work of Taylor Caldwell, please visit www.taylorcaldwell.com.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1967 by Taylor Caldwell
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-5040-4293-2
This edition published in 2017 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
www.openroadmedia.com
TAYLOR CALDWELL
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