Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Witching Hour


Often when I take a photo, I imagine how it must have been in years past...what may have happened in this village of Loches, France on All Hallow's Eve in 1453.

With the crack of lightening I was awakened from a deep sleep.  I arose and lit my bedside lamp to survey the damage.  From my 8th story window I saw nothing out of the ordinary...just the shadows cast on the cobblestones below with each lightening bolt from the approaching storm.  The clock tower struck 10, 11.....12...it was midnight of All Hallow's Eve.  I felt a chill at the thought of souls released from the fires of hell and purgatory to roam the earth on this night.

Since I had Joan of Arc imprisoned in the castle keep tower...a tower that I could see not far to the right of my chamber, I dreaded this night.  Would God punish me for what I had done to his beloved Joan?  But was I not right in doing so?  The church had deemed her a heretic and for that she must die at the stake.

I heard stirrings in the servant's quarters down below me.  Why were they up at this time of night?  I could see the glare of a light extending out onto the street in front of the quarters.  Were the stirrings from the servants, English invaders or roaming souls?  Any of the three would love nothing more than to see me dead.  Any of the three would like to release Joan of Arc.  Should I let her walk free and rid myself of her curse forever?  In a fortnight, she will burn and I'll not be haunted with this anymore.

The king's self appointed executioner was to never take anyone's life again.  He accidentally fell from the 8th story window of his bedroom on All Hallow's Eve.  Some say it was an accident, some say the guilt drove him to jump.  The servant's in the quarter below however noticed him standing in the window at midnight and watched a fleeting figure pull him through the window to his death.  The local parish priest just raised his eyebrow, turned on his heel and disappeared behind his door without a comment when asked his thoughts on the death.


(This IS the castle in Loches France which held Joan of Arc.)

Happy Halloween!

Dan


11 comments:

DawnTreader said...

Spooky... ;)
I hope you're safe from the hurricane?

Dan Felstead said...

DawnTreader....thanks for thinking of me! We live in the midwest and thankfully...just barely out of reach of "Sandy" I have never seen a storm this big. Even though Chicago is hundreds of miles from the ocean...the storm was big enough to cause flooding in Chicago! Unbelievable.

Dan

Barbara/myth maker said...

A bewitching tale.
greetings from NYC, where I survived Sandy just fine, thank goodness.

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