Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/512

 4/8 THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA, IV

more dwelt among them. But when they came unto the door of the cave, and the sound of their steps went before them, the lion, terribly startled, turned all at once away from Zarathustra, and leaped, wildly roaring, towards the cave. But the higher men, when they heard him roar, all cried out as with one mouth, and fled back and vanished in a moment.

But Zarathustra himself, stunned and strange, rose from his seat, looked round, stood there astonished, asked his heart, remembered, and was alone. "What heard I ? " he at last said slowly. " What happened unto me this moment?"

And immediately his memory came back, and with one look he understood all that had happened be- tween yesterday and to-day. " Here is the stone," he said and stroked his beard. " On it I sat yester-morn- ing. And here the fortune-teller stepped unto me; and here for the first time I heard the cry I heard this moment, the great cry for help.

Oh, ye higher men, of your need it was that yester-morning that old fortune-teller told me his tale.

Unto your need he tried to seduce me and tempt me. ' O Zarathustra,' he said unto me, ' I come to seduce thee unto thy last sin.'

Unto my last sin ? " cried Zarathustra, and angrily laughed at his own word. " What hath been reserved for me as my last sin ? "

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