The Dance of Death / Gustave Flaubert

"Many words for few things!"

"Death ends all; judgment comes to all."

[This work may be called a prose poem. It is impregnated with the

spirit of romanticism, which at the time of writing had a

temporary but powerful hold on the mind of Gustave Flaubert.]

* * * * *

DEATH SPEAKS

At night, in winter, when the snow-flakes fall slowly from heaven

like great white tears, I raise my voice; its resonance thrills

the cypress trees and makes them bud anew.

The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller / Gustave Flaubert

CHAPTER I

THE CURSE

Julian's father and mother dwelt in a castle built on the slope of

a hill, in the heart of the woods.

The towers at its four corners had pointed roofs covered with

leaden tiles, and the foundation rested upon solid rocks, which

descended abruptly to the bottom of the moat.