I have given him up; oh,
generation of vipers, I have given him up for you!
"Take your salvation, since it is yours! I fling
it to you as a bone is flung to a pack of snarling
curs! The price of your banquet is paid for
you; come, then, and gorge yourselves, cannibals,
bloodsuckers--carrion beasts that feed on the
dead! See where the blood streams down from
the altar, foaming and hot from my darling's
heart--the blood that was shed for you! Wallow
and lap it and smear yourselves red with it!
Snatch and fight for the flesh and devour it--and
trouble me no more! This is the body that was
given for you--look at it, torn and bleeding,
throbbing still with the tortured life, quivering
from the bitter death-agony; take it, Christians,
and eat!"
He had caught up the sun with the Host and
lifted it above his head; and now flung it crashing
down upon the floor. At the ring of the metal on
stone the clergy rushed forward together, and
twenty hands seized the madman.
Then, and only then, the silence of the people
broke in a wild, hysterical scream; and, overturning
chairs and benches, beating at the doorways,
trampling one upon another, tearing down curtains
and garlands in their haste, the surging,
sobbing human flood poured out upon the street.
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