Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/120

 METROPOLIS "A fellow, dressed in black, the caricature of a monk, stood in the pulpit, howling out in a pulpit-voice:

" 'Repent! The kingdom of heaven is at handl' "A loud neigh answered him. "The organ-player-I saw him, he was like a demonstood with his hands and feet on the keys and his head " heat time to the ring-dance of the spirits.

"The fellow in the pulpit pulled out a book, an enormous, black book with seven locks. Whenever his fingers touched a lock it sprang up in flame and shot open. «Murmuring incantations, he opened the cover. He bent

over the book. A ring of Hames suddenly stood around his head. "From the heights of the cathedral it struck midnight. But it was as though it was not enough for the clock to proclaim the hour of demons _just once. Over and over

again did it strike the ghastly twelve, in dreadful, baited haste.

"The light in the cathedral changed colour. Were it possible to speak of a blackish light this would be the expression best applied to the light. Only in one place did it shine, white, gleaming, cutting, a sharply whetted sword: there where death is figured as a minstrel.

"Suddenly the ·organ stopped, and suddenly the dance. The voice of the preacher-fellow in the pulpit stopped. And through the silence which did not dare to breathe. rang the sound of a £lute. Death was playing. The minstrel was playing the song which nobody plays after him, on his Hute which was a human hone.

«The ghostly minstrel stepped from out Ws side-niche, carved in wood, in hat and wide cloak, scythe on shoulder, the hour-glass dangling from his girdle. Playing his Hute, he stepped out of his niche and made his way through the cathedral. And behind him came the seven Deadly Sins as the following of Death. "Death performed a circle around every pillar. Louder and ever louder rang the sound of his flute. The seven Deadly Sins seized hands. As a widely swung chain they

125