"Jules Verne. Off on a Comet. WORKS" - читать интересную книгу автора

They made their way into the enclosure, and finding an open door,
they passed through and soon came to a second door,
also open, which admitted them to the interior of the mosque,
consisting of a single chamber, the walls of which were ornamented
in the Arabian style by sculptures of indifferent execution.
In the center was a tomb of the very simplest kind, and above
the tomb was suspended a large silver lamp with a capacious
reservoir of oil, in which floated a long lighted wick,
the flame of which was evidently the light that had attracted
Servadac's attention on the previous night.

"Must there not have been a custodian of the shrine?" they mutually asked;
but if such there had ever been, he must, they concluded, either have fled
or have perished on that eventful night. Not a soul was there in charge,
and the sole living occupants were a flock of wild cormorants which,
startled at the entrance of the intruders, rose on wing, and took a rapid
flight towards the south.

An old French prayer-book was lying on the corner of the tomb;
the volume was open, and the page exposed to view was that
which contained the office for the celebration of the 25th
of August. A sudden revelation dashed across Servadac's mind.
The solemn isolation of the island tomb, the open breviary,
the ritual of the ancient anniversary, all combined to apprise
him of the sanctity of the spot upon which he stood.

"The tomb of St. Louis!" he exclaimed, and his companions
involuntarily followed his example, and made a reverential
obeisance to the venerated monument.

It was, in truth, the very spot on which tradition asserts that
the canonized monarch came to die, a spot to which for six centuries
and more his countrymen had paid the homage of a pious regard.
The lamp that had been kindled at the memorial shrine of a saint
was now in all probability the only beacon that threw a light
across the waters of the Mediterranean, and even this ere long
must itself expire.

There was nothing more to explore. The three together quitted the mosque,
and descended the rock to the shore, whence their boat re-conveyed
them to the schooner, which was soon again on her southward voyage;
and it was not long before the tomb of St. Louis, the only spot that had
survived the mysterious shock, was lost to view.



CHAPTER XII

AT THE MERCY OF THE WINDS