 | CHAPTER ELEVENTH.
THE CHAMBER OF THE URN. Paul Ardenheim, the monk of Wissahikon |  |
11. CHAPTER ELEVENTH.
THE CHAMBER OF THE URN.
Paul was wrapt in a chaos of thought.
“I will hasten to the room which enshrouds the urn,—there, I will behold
the explanation of these mysteries. At last I will read the name of
the Deliverer.”
He hurried from the Chapel, passed along the corridor and descended
the stairs, while the uplifted pine-knot revealed his pale face, marked with
the indications of absorbing thought.
He thought no longer of the Sealed Chamber and its Revelation; the
memory of his father, his sister, passed from his soul for a moment. As
he hurried onward toward the Chamber of the Urn, his meditations, vague
and incoherent, became centred in one desire.
“I will read the Deliverer's name. Then the darkness will be day;
the mystery will be mystery no longer. It may be, that the terrible suffering
through which I have passed, is only an ordeal intended to prepare me
for a glorious future.”
He reached the door of the Chamber of the Urn. There was no key
in the lock, but Paul placed his foot against the panel, and gathering all
his strength for the effort, forced it open. The broken lock clanged on
the floor as he crossed the threshold.
Paul gazed upon the room; it looked just as it had looked on the last
night of 1774.
There was the altar standing in the centre of the place, with the White
Urn upon its surface.
“Even now I see him—my father—as he stood beside that altar, and
placed his hand within the Urn—”
Paul placed his hand within the urn, and drew forth a letter stamped
with his father's seal, and bearing, in the tremulous characters of his
father's handwriting, his own name—`Paul Ardenheim!'
Paul broke the seal. Within the letter was enclosed another letter, also
sealed and endorsed with the name of Paul Ardenheim. It fell back into
the Urn, as Paul held the open letter to the light, and read these words in
his father's hand—
Within an hour I will exact from you a Promise and an Oath. The
Promise—you are not to enter this chamber, nor place your hand within
this Urn, until a year has passed.
The Oath—you will not enter the chamber whose panel bears the sign
of the Cross, until I am dead, under peril of a father's curse and the guilt
of the Unpardonable Sin.
Before you look upon the name of the Deliverer, you will be made
acquainted with the Secret of the Sealed Chamber, which involves your
Destiny and mine.
Within a year I will be dead. At the hour of my death, you will enter
the Sealed Chamber; one year from to-day you will enter the Chamber
of the Urn. Thus you can obey your promise, your oath, and at the same
time learn within a year, the Secret of the Sealed Chamber and the Name
of the Deliverer.
That brief year rolls away—it is the appointed hour. * * * It is the
first of January, 1776. * * *
You have broken the seal—the letter which contains the narrow strip
of paper, on which the Deliverer wrote his name, is in your hand.
At this moment, my son, I charge thee—Remember the vow which thou
didst take upon thy soul, when thou wert initiated into the brotherhood
of the R. C., on the night of the first of January, 1775.
Remember the words written in the Chambers of the Brothers, Anselm,
Joseph, Immanuel.
Has the Lead indeed become Gold with thee, and hath the Sneer in truth
been changed into a Smile? Hast thou forced the Heart to reveal by boldly
grasping the Hand?
Hast thou discovered at the feet of the Imprisoned, the D—
Hast thou, in a word, learned the truth embodied in these enigmas, and
seen Union lead to Freedom, and Freedom end in Brotherhood?
Hast thou, in the Chapel of the R. C., beheld the Altar, the Bowl, and
the Book, and been nerved by their memories for the great task which
awaits thee?
Then thou art indeed prepared to read the name of the Deliverer; but
not until these mysteries are to thy soul as the sunlight is to thine eyes,
shalt thou break the seal which conceals that name.
It will be remembered, that the old man, on the Last Night of 1774,
bade Paul prepare for a solemn ceremony, which was to take place at
sunset on the next day.
This ceremony, it will be seen by the preceding letter, comprised not
only a Vow of Celibacy, but an initiation into a secret Order, designated
above as the Brotherhood of the R. C.
This letter, written after midnight, on the first of January, 1775, by the
Father of Paul, anticipates the initiation and the vow, and regards them as
having already taken place.
It will also be perceived, that the old man intended the letter to apply
to the first of January, 1776.
| CHAPTER ELEVENTH.
THE CHAMBER OF THE URN. Paul Ardenheim, the monk of Wissahikon | |