Three short works | Page 9

trees, through the branches, the sky
appeared like a sheet of blood.
Julian leaned against a tree and gazed with dilated eyes at the enormous
slaughter. He was now unable to comprehend how he had
accomplished it.
On the opposite side of the valley, he suddenly beheld a large stag, with

a doe and their fawn. The buck was black and of enormous size; he had
a white beard and carried sixteen antlers. His mate was the color of
dead leaves, and she browsed upon the grass, while the fawn, clinging
to her udder, followed her step by step.
Again the bow was stretched, and instantly the fawn dropped dead, and
seeing this, its mother raised her head and uttered a poignant, almost
human wail of agony. Exasperated, Julian thrust his knife into her chest,
and felled her to the ground.
The great stag had watched everything and suddenly he sprang forward.
Julian aimed his last arrow at the beast. It struck him between his
antlers and stuck there.
The stag did not appear to notice it; leaping over the bodies, he was
coming nearer and nearer with the intention, Julian thought, of charging
at him and ripping him open, and he recoiled with inexpressible horror.
But presently the huge animal halted, and, with eyes aflame and the
solemn air of a patriarch and a judge, repeated thrice, while a bell tolled
in the distance: "Accursed! Accursed! Accursed! some day, ferocious
soul, thou wilt murder thy father and thy mother!"
Then he sank on his knees, gently closed his lids and expired.
At first Julian was stunned, and then a sudden lassitude and an
immense sadness came over him. Holding his head between his hands,
he wept for a long time.
His steed had wandered away; his dogs had forsaken him; the solitude
seemed to threaten him with unknown perils. Impelled by a sense of
sickening terror, he ran across the fields, and choosing a path at random,
found himself almost immediately at the gates of the castle.
That night he could not rest, for, by the flickering light of the hanging
lamp, he beheld again the huge black stag. He fought against the
obsession of the prediction and kept repeating: "No! No! No! I cannot
slay them!" and then he thought: "Still, supposing I desired to?--" and
he feared that the devil might inspire him with this desire.

During three months, his distracted mother prayed at his bedside, and
his father paced the halls of the castle in anguish. He consulted the
most celebrated physicians, who prescribed quantities of medicine.
Julian's illness, they declared, was due to some injurious wind or to
amorous desire. But in reply to their questions, the young man only
shook his head. After a time, his strength returned, and he was able to
take a walk in the courtyard, supported by his father and the old monk.
But after he had completely recovered, he refused to hunt.
His father, hoping to please him, presented him with a large Saracen
sabre. It was placed on a panoply that hung on a pillar, and a ladder was
required to reach it. Julian climbed up to it one day, but the heavy
weapon slipped from his grasp, and in falling grazed his father and tore
his cloak. Julian, believing he had killed him, fell in a swoon.
After that, he carefully avoided weapons. The sight of a naked sword
made him grow pale, and this weakness caused great distress to his
family.
In the end, the old monk ordered him in the name of God, and of his
forefathers, once more to indulge in the sport's of a nobleman.
The equerries diverted themselves every day with javelins and Julian
soon excelled in the practice.
He was able to send a javelin into bottles, to break the teeth of the
weather-cocks on the castle and to strike door-nails at a distance of one
hundred feet.
One summer evening, at the hour when dusk renders objects indistinct,
he was in the arbour in the garden, and thought he saw two white wings
in the background hovering around the espalier. Not for a moment did
he doubt that it was a stork, and so he threw his javelin at it.
A heart-rending scream pierced the air.
He had struck his mother, whose cap and long streams remained nailed

to the wall.
Julian fled from home and never returned.
CHAPTER II
THE CRIME
He joined a horde of adventurers who were passing through the place.
He learned what it was to suffer hunger, thirst, sickness and filth. He
grew accustomed to the din of battles and to the sight of dying men.
The wind tanned his skin. His limbs became hardened through contact
with armour, and as he was very strong and brave, temperate