Jean-Marie Blas De Robles - Where Tigers Are at Home

The Prince immediately rang & ordered the scales to be brought from the pantry. A few minutes later several servants appeared, struggling under the weight of the instrument.

“How much do you normally weigh?” Kircher asked.

“A hundred and twenty-two pounds,” the Prince replied, “I not change weight since former youth.”

“Good. Then if you have eaten four pounds of food, you ought to weigh a hundred and twenty-six pounds now.”

“We soon see,” said the Prince, climbing onto the pan.

Kircher moved the weights until the scales were in balance & read off the result: “A hundred & twenty-seven pounds, three marks & two ounces! You ate a little more than you estimated this evening.”

“Unheard of!” the Prince exclaimed, highly amused.

AFTER HAVING CHECKED the accuracy of the weights, he wanted all of us to try. Kircher climbed onto the pan; it turned out that he had eaten seven pounds of food, which he explained away by claiming that he must have underestimated his weight because he hadn’t weighed himself since leaving Rome. I was not surprised to find that I had only put on one pound, hardly having given a thought to the food during the meal. As for the Princess, she refused to submit to a trial that would have offended the natural coquetry of her sex, but she was readily pardoned her refusal. She retired soon afterward & I followed suit when the Prince intimated that he would like to discuss certain delicate matters with my master.

Once in my room, I examined my soul & realized how much the Princess was bewitching me. Her virtue & her purity seemed exemplary & I felt great satisfaction in being able to recreate her face in my thoughts. I said lengthy prayers and read the Exercises until late into the night. Obeying Saint Ignatius, who says that it is a sin to take less than the adequate amount of sleep, I took off my hair shirt, which was very uncomfortable, & fell asleep.

When I woke next morning I saw that lintea pollueram 1& the thought of having yielded to the devil during the night, even though I had no memory of it, filled me with horror. I put my hair shirt back on & began the day by examining my conscience thoroughly.

That day & the following days up to Christmas I hardly saw Kircher & the Prince at all. They shut themselves away in the library, where they were engaged in mysterious activities; several times workmen came from outside to work with them, which made me suspect some new machine was being invented. Left to my own devices, I had the pleasure of keeping company with the lady who occupied my thoughts; we discussed all kinds of topics, read the new books that had been sent to her or made music. And the Princess seemed to enjoy these innocent pastimes so much that I felt no guilt at all in doing this to lighten her spirits. Every day she became a little more determined to carry out her decision to take the veil with the Sisters of Mercy as soon as Providence gave her the opportunity & I encouraged her in this resolution with all my heart.

The meals did not last as long as on the day of our arrival, the Prince & Kircher ate quickly — when they deigned to leave the library — to return as soon as possible to whatever they were doing. But while the Prince appeared merry as a lark, Kircher seemed to me to be nervous & preoccupied. On the evening of December 23 he came to see me in my room, a little after ten in the evening. His expression was even more serious that usual.

“The die is cast, Caspar, & I fear for the consequences of my actions. The Archenemy can take so many different forms. Accustomed though I am to sniffing out his ruses, I’m not sure I’ll succeed this time. But enough of this faintheartedness! The Prince has invited several people to supper tomorrow night, after midnight mass, which the priest from Bagheria will come to celebrate in the chapel here. You know the Prince’s devious mind & I must repeat the advice to be prudent I gave you when we arrived. Be careful not to pass judgment on the things you will see, nor to offend anyone with overhasty reactions & remember, whatever happens, I take your sins upon myself. It is for the good of the Church that I am doing this, if I am mistaken I alone will take the punishment.”

Alarmed by this, I swore to my master that he could trust me & that I would rather die than disobey his orders.

“You’re a good fellow,” Kircher said, ruffling my hair, “& a better man than I am. But prepare yourself for the worst, my child, & do not forget: it is the salvation of the Church that is at stake.”

Then he knelt down & we prayed for two hours without stopping.

The morning of December 24 was so gray and cold that the fires were lit throughout the house. The kitchen staff had set to work, the servants were going backward & forward between the house & the park gate, from which they returned loaded with provisions, the whole building seemed to vibrate with the bustling preparations for the festival. Kircher was chatting with the Prince in the library; as for me, I was meditating on the Nativity, preparing myself as best I could to celebrate the arrival of Our Lord.

I was at peace with myself when my master came to fetch me in the middle of the afternoon.

The guests started to arrive, some had already gathered in small groups in the various drawing rooms. The great hall had been opened up & I could not but be astounded by it: imagine a vast rotunda with a cupola covered in hundreds of mirrors attached side by side to make a concave surface. Five large crystal chandeliers covered in candles hung down from it. The walls were composed of genuine & perfect imitation marble with niches containing polychrome busts of the most famous philosophers of Antiquity. And the Prince had had no qualms about placing busts of himself & his wife in a slightly more richly decorated recess above the entrance, together with a motto: “ Reflected in the remarkable magnificence of these mirrors, contemplate, O mortals, the image of human frailty .” I also saw a number of coats of arms painted in fresco with various devices of the type Kircher had deciphered when we first arrived. The floor, inlaid with mahogany & rosewood, shone splendidly. All this, however was not quite in the best of taste: there was a little too much ostentation & not enough genuine beauty; but the mirrors, multiplying colors, lights and movements ad infinitum, created a truly magical atmosphere. A small orchestra, with the musicians dressed as characters from a Roman tragedy, was playing quietly.

When the Prince saw us, he bustled over &, requesting silence, introduced Kircher to the assembled company; this was a new Archimedes, the glory of the age, & he was honored by his presence & his friendship. There was some discreet applause then the conversations resumed, even livelier than before. We sat down on one of the benches in the hall & the Prince told us about those he had invited for that evening.

There was Sieur La Mothe Le Vayer, known for his dialogues in the style of Latin & Greek authors; Count Manuel Cuendias de Teruel y de Casa-Pavòn; Denys Sanguin de Saint-Pavin, whose reputation for debauchery went ahead of him; Jean-Jacques Bouchard, a notorious libertine; a few poets & scholars & a swarm of ladies & petty marquis whose titles would have choked even the most robust master of ceremonies. All were intimate enough acquaintances of the Prince to be spared the usual humiliating tricks.

When the night was well advanced, the Prince, without a word, finger on his lips, shepherded us all into the hall of mirrors & suddenly had all the candles snuffed & the doors closed. Hardly had we been plunged into total darkness than the Virgin Mary appeared to us, life-sized & radiant with light, as if she were floating on one of the walls. We could clearly see the blue of her shawl & the rosy hue of her face — she seemed alive! Murmurs of amazement could be heard all around me. The Princess, startled, had taken my arm & was gripping it very tightly. I was already wagering that my master was not without involvement in this miracle, when his voice was heard, greatly amplified by some device or other & echoing all around the cupola.