The clock in the church tower chimed the first quarter past one. She was able to count the strokes and was glad to find that she had lost no time. As soon as the long, singing echo of the bells had died away, she spoke, not loudly, but clearly and distinctly.
“Beatrice Varanger, go forward and mount the steps I have placed for you.”
The dark figure moved obediently, and Unorna heard the slight sound of Beatrice’s foot upon the wood. The shadowy form rose higher and higher in the gloom, and stood upon the altar itself.
“Now do as I command you. Open wide the door of the tabernacle.”
Unorna watched the black form intently. It seemed to stretch out its hand as though searching for something, and then the arm fell again to the side.
“Do as I command you,” Unorna repeated with the angry and dominant intonation that always came into her voice when she was not obeyed.
Again the hand was raised for a moment, groped in the darkness and sank down into the shadow.
“Beatrice Varanger, you must do my will. I order you to open the door of the tabernacle, to take out what is within and to throw it to the ground!” Her voice rang clearly through the church. “And may the crime be on your soul for ever and ever,” she added in a low voice.
A third time the figure moved. A strange flash of light played for a moment upon the tabernacle, the effect, Unorna thought, of the golden door being suddenly opened.
But she was wrong. The figure moved, indeed, and stretched out a hand and moved again. A sudden crash of something very heavy, falling upon stone, broke the great stillness--the dark form tottered, reeled and fell to its length upon the great altar. Unorna saw that the golden door was still closed, and that Beatrice had fallen. Unable to move or act by her own free judgment, and compelled by Unorna’s determined command, she had made a desperate effort to obey. Unorna had forgotten that there was a raised step upon the altar itself, and that there were other obstacles in the way, including heavy candlesticks and the framed Canon of the Mass, all of which are usually set aside before the tabernacle is opened by the priest. In attempting to do as she was told, the sleeping woman had stumbled, had overbalanced herself, had clutched one of the great silver candlesticks so that it fell heavily beside her, and then, having no further support, she had fallen herself.