Robert W. Chambers

“ THE COURT OF THE DRAGON.
IN THE COURT OF THE DRAGON.
“Oh Thou who burn’st in heart for those who burn
In Hell, whose fires thyself shall feed in turn;
How long be crying,—‘Mercy on them, God!
Why, who art thou to teach and He to learn?”
N the Church of St. Barnabé vespers were over; the clergy left the altar; the little choir-boys flocked across the chancel and settled in the stalls. A Suisse in rich uniform marched down the south aisle, sounding his staff at every fourth step on the stone pavement; behind him came that eloquent preacher and good man, Monseigneur C⸻. ”

“ For I had been reading “The King in Yellow.”
“The sun ariseth; they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens.” Monseigneur C⸻ delivered his text in a calm voice, glancing quietly over the congregation. My eyes turned, I knew not why, toward the lower end of the church. The organist was coming from behind his pipes, and passing along the gallery on his way out, I saw him disappear by a small door that leads to some stairs which descend directly to the street. He was a slender man, and his face was as white as his coat was black. ”

“ Over the entrance on the rue de Rennes is a balcony, supported by an iron dragon. Within the court tall old houses rise on either side, and close the ends that give on the two streets. Huge gates, swung back during the day into the walls of the deep archways, close this court, after midnight, and one must enter then by ringing at certain small doors on the side. The sunken pavement collects unsavory pools. Steep stairways pitch down to doors that open on the court. The ground floors are occupied by shops of second-hand dealers, and by iron workers. ”