The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature by C. F. (Constantin François) Volney
page 87 of 368 (23%)
page 87 of 368 (23%)
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God of goodness, grant us to exterminate these Christians; it is for
thy glory we fight, and our death is a martyrdom for thy name. And then, offering victims, they prepared for battle. On the other side, the Russians, kneeling, said: We render thanks to God, and celebrate his power. He hath strengthened our arm to humble his enemies. Hear our prayers, thou God of mercy! To please thee, we will pass three days without eating either meat or eggs. Grant us to extirpate these impious Mahometans, and to overturn their empire. To thee we will consecrate the tenth of our spoil; to thee we will raise new temples. And the priests filled the churches with clouds of smoke, and said to the people: We pray for you, God accepteth our incense, and blesseth your arms. Continue to fast and to fight; confess to us your secret sins; give your wealth to the church; we will absolve you from your crimes, and you shall die in a state of grace. And they sprinkled water upon the people, dealt out to them, as amulets and charms, small relics of the dead, and the people breathed war and combat. Struck with this contrast of the same passions, and grieving for their fatal consequences, I was considering the difficulty with which the common judge could yield to prayers so contradictory; when the Genius, glowing with anger, spoke with vehemence: |
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