Strange Conflict (3 page)

‘I do. But they had some special powers granted to them.'

‘Exactly.
Special powers.
But I suppose you would deny that Gautama Buddha and his disciples performed miracles of a similar nature?'

‘Not a bit of it. I'm sufficiently broad-minded to believe that Buddha was a sort of Indian Christ, or at least a very holy man, and no doubt he, too, had some special power granted to him.'

‘Then if you admit that miracles, as you call them—although you object to the word
Magic
—have been performed by two men of different faiths, living in different countries and in periods hundreds of years apart, you can't reasonably deny that other mystics have also performed similar acts in many portions of the globe and, therefore, that there is a power existing outside us which is
not peculiar to any religion
but can be utilised if one can get into communication with it.'

Sir Pellinore laughed. ‘I've never looked at it that way before, but I suppose you're right.'

De Richleau poured another portion of the old brandy into his friend's glass as Sir Pellinore went on more slowly.

‘All the same, it doesn't follow that because a number of good men have been granted supernatural powers there is anything in Black Magic.'

‘Then you do not believe in witchcraft?'

‘Nobody does these days.'

‘Really? How long d'you think it is since the last trial for witchcraft took place?'

‘Two hundred years.'

‘No. It was in January 1926, at Melun, near Paris.'

‘God bless my soul! D'you mean that?'

‘I do,' de Richleau assured him solemnly. ‘The records of the court are the proof of it; so, you see, you are hardly accurate when you say that
nobody
believes in witchcraft in these days; and many, many thousands still believe in a personal Devi.'

‘Central European peasants, perhaps, but not educated people.'

‘Yet every thinking man must admit that there is such a thing as the power of Evil.'

‘Why?'

‘My dear fellow, all qualities have their opposites, like love and hate, pleasure and pain, generosity and avarice. How could we recognise the goodness of Jesus Christ, Lao-Tze, Ashoka, Marcus Aurelius, Francis of Assisi, and thousands of others, if it were not for the evil lives of Herod, Cesare Borgia, Rasputin, Landru and the rest?'

‘That's true.'

‘Then, if an intensive cultivation of Good can beget strange powers, is there any reason why an intensive cultivation of Evil should not beget them also?'

‘That sounds feasible.'

‘I hope I'm not boring you; but just on the off-chance that there might be something in my suggestion that the Nazis are using occult forces to get information out of this country, I think it is really important that you should understand the theory of the occult, since you appear to know so little about it.'

‘Go ahead, go ahead.' Sir Pellinore waved a large hand. ‘Mind you, I don't say that I'm prepared to take for granted everything you may tell me, but you certainly won't bore me.'

De Richleau sat forward. ‘Very well; I'll try and expound to you the simple rudiments of the Old Wisdom which has come down to us through the ages. You will have heard of the Persian myth of Ormuzd and Ahriman, the eternal powers of Light and Darkness, said to be co-equal and warring without cessation for the good or ill of mankind. All ancient Sun and Nature worship—Festivals of Spring and so on—were only an outward expression of that myth, for Light typifies Health and Wisdom, Growth and Life, while Darkness means Disease and Ignorance, Decay and Death.

‘In its highest sense Light symbolises the growth of the spirit towards that perfection in which it becomes Light itself. But the road to perfection is long and arduous, too much to hope for in one short human life; hence the widespread belief in Reincarnation: that we are born again and again until we begin to transcend the pleasures of the flesh. This doctrine is so old that no man can trace its origin, yet it is the inner core of Truth common to all religions at their inception. Consider the teaching of Jesus Christ with that in mind and you will be amazed that you have not realised before the true purport of His message. Did He not say that the Kingdom of God was within us? And when he walked upon the waters he declared: “These things that I do ye shall do also, and greater things than these shall ye do, for I go unto my Father which is in Heaven”; meaning most certainly that he was nearing perfection but that others had the same power within each one of them to do likewise.'

De Richleau paused for a moment, then went on more slowly: ‘Unfortunately the hours of the night are still equal to the hours of the day, so the power of Darkness is no less active than when the world was young, and no sooner does a fresh Master appear to reveal the Light than Ignorance, Greed and Lust for Power cloud the minds of his followers. The message becomes distorted and the simplicity of the Truth submerged and forgotten in the pomp of ceremonies and the meticulous performance of rituals which have lost their meaning. Yet the real Truth is never entirely lost, and through the centuries new Masters are continually arising either to proclaim it or, if the time is not propitious, to pass it on in secret to the chosen few.

‘Apollonius of Tyana learned it in the East. The so-called heretics whom we know as the Albigenses preached it in the twelfth century throughout Southern France until they were exterminated. Christian Rosenkreutz had it in the Middle Ages; it was the innermost secret of the Order of the Templars, who were suppressed because of it by the Church of Rome; the alchemists, too, searched for and practised it. Only the ignorant take literally their struggle to find the Elixir of Life. Behind such phrases, designed to protect them from the persecution of their enemies, they sought Eternal Life, and their efforts to transmute base-metals into gold were only symbolical of their sublimation
of matter into Light. And still today, while the bombing of London goes on about us, there are mystics and adepts who are seeking the Way to Perfection in many corners of the earth.'

‘You honestly believe that?' remarked Sir Pellinore with mild scepticism.

‘I do.' De Richleau's answer held no trace of doubt.

‘Granted that there are such mystics who follow this particular Faith which is outside all organised religions, I still don't see where Black Magic comes in.'

‘Let's not talk of Black Magic, which is associated with the preposterous in our day, but of the Order of the Left-Hand Path. That, too, has its adepts, and just as the Rein-incarnationists scattered all over the world are the preservers of the Way of Light, the Way of Darkness is perpetuated in the horrible Voodoo cult which had its origin in Madagascar and has held Africa, the Dark Continent, in its grip for centuries and spread with the slave trade to the West Indies.'

A stick of bombs crumped duty in the distance and Sir Pellinore smiled. ‘It's a pretty long cry from the mumbo-jumbo stuff practised by the Negroes of the Caribbean to the machinations of this damn'd feller Hitler.'

‘Not so far as you might suppose. Most of the black man's Magic is crude stuff but that does not affect the fact that certain of these Voodoo priests have cultivated the power of Evil to a very high degree. Among whites, though, it is generally the wealthy and intellectual, who are avaricious for greater riches or power, to whom it appeals. In the Paris of Louis XIV, long after the Middle Ages were forgotten, the Black Art was particularly rampant. The poisoner, La Voisin, was proved to have procured over fifteen hundred children for the infamous Abbé Guibourg to sacrifice at Black Masses. He used to cut their throats, drain the blood into a chalice and then pour it over the naked body of the inquirer which lay stretched upon the altar. I speak of actual history, and you can read the records of the trial that followed, in which two hundred and forty-six men and women were indicted for these hellish practices.'

‘Come, come; that's all a very long time ago.'

‘If you need more modern evidence of its continuance
there is the well-authenticated case of Prince Borghese. He let his Venetian
palazzo
on a long lease, expiring as late as 1895. The tenants had not realised that the lease had run out until he notified them of his intention to resume possession. They protested, but Borghese's agents forced an entry. What d'you think they found?'

‘Lord knows.'

‘That the principal salon had been redecorated at enormous cost and converted into a Satanic Temple. The walls were hung from ceiling to floor with heavy curtains of scarlet-and-black silk damask to exclude the light. At the further end, dominating the whole room, there was stretched a large tapestry upon which was woven a colossal figure of Lucifer. Beneath it an altar had been built and amply furnished with the whole liturgy of Hell; black candles, vessels, rituals—nothing was lacking. Cushioned
prie-dieus
and luxurious chairs of crimson-and-gold were set in order for the assistants and the chamber was lit with electricity fantastically arranged so that it should glare through an enormous human eye.

‘If that's not enough I can give you even more modern instances of Satanic temples here in London; not so luxuriously furnished, perhaps, but having all the essentials for performing Black Masses. There was one in Earl's Court after the 1914-1918 War, there was another in St. John's Wood as recently as 1935, which I myself had occasion to visit, and less than three years ago there was one in Dover Street, where a woman was flogged to death during one of the ceremonies.'

De Richleau hammered the table with his clenched fist. ‘These are facts that I'm giving you—things I can prove by eye-witnesses still living. Despite our electricity, our aeroplanes, our modern scepticism, the Power of Darkness is still a living force, worshipped by depraved human beings for their unholy ends in the great cities of Europe and America to this very day.'

Sir Pellinore shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘I'm quite prepared to take your word for all this, and, of course, I have myself heard from time to time that such things go on, even to an occasional murder the motive for which remains undiscovered by the police. But, quite honestly,
I feel that you're putting an entirey wrong interpretation upon the facts. Such parties are simply an excuse for certain wealthy and very decadent people, of which a certain number exist in every great city, to indulge in deliberately planned orgies where they can give themselves up to the most revolting sexual practices. Such circles are, in fact, very exclusive vice-clubs, generally run by clever crooks who make an exceedingly good thing out of them. I don't for one moment doubt that you're right about the trimmings, but in my view the ceremonial part of it is simply a mental stimulant which serves to get these people into the right frame of mind for the abominable licence in which they intend to indulge later the same night when they've got their clothes off. I don't believe that these so-called Satanists could harm a rabbit by exercising supernatural powers in the manner that you suggest.'

‘That is a pity,' replied the Duke; ‘because this is no question of my endeavouring to convince you that I am right for the mere pleasure of triumphing in a purely academic argument. You came to me this evening with a problem which it is vital that we should solve if we are to get the better of the Nazis. I put up what I consider to be a possible solution to that problem. If you brush it aside as nonsense, yet it later proves that I am right, entirely through your reluctance to accept what may sound a fantastic solution we shall be in a fair way to lose the war, or at least it will be prolonged to a point where grave hardship will be inflicted upon our entire people. Either my theory is a possible one, or it is not. If it
is
possible, we can take steps to counter the menace. Therefore, whether you like it or not, you have laid it upon me as a national duty to convince you that Magic is an actual scientific force and may, therefore, be employed by our enemies.'

Sir Pellinore nodded gravely. ‘I appreciate your point, Duke, and there can be no question whatever about the sincerity of your own belief or the honesty of your intentions, but if we sat here until the middle of next week you would never succeed in convincing me that anyone could use occult forces in a similar manner to that in which they could operate a wireless.'

‘Oh, yes, I shall,' replied the Duke, and his grey eyes bored into Sir Pellinore's with a strange, hard light. ‘You
force me, in the interests of the nation, to do something that I do not like; but I know sufficient about this business to call certain supernatural forces to my aid, and when you leave this flat tonight you will never again be able to say that you do not believe in Magic.'

Sir Pellinore looked a little startled, then his hearty laugh rang out. ‘Not proposing to turn me into a donkey or anything, are you?'

‘No,' de Richleau smiled. ‘I rather doubt if my powers extend that far, but I might cause you to lose your memory for the best part of a week.'

‘The devil! That would be deuced inconvenient.'

‘Don't worry; I have no intention of doing so. I'm happy to say that I have never allowed myself to be tempted into practising anything but White Magic.'

‘White Magic—White Magic,' repeated Sir Pellinore suspiciously. ‘But that's only conjuring-tricks, isn't it?'

‘Not at all.' The Duke's voice was a trifle acid. ‘It only differs from Black Magic in that it is a ceremony performed without intent to bring harm to anyone or any personal gain to the practitioner. I propose to use such powers as I possess to bring it about that a certain wish which you have expressed tonight shall be granted. Let's go into the other room, shall we?'

Distinctly mystified and vaguely uneasy at this unusual proposal for his after-dinner entertainment, Sir Pellinore passed with the Duke into that room in the Curzon Street flat which was so memorable for those who had been privileged to visit it; not so much on account of its size and decorations as for the unique collection of rare and beautiful objects which it contained—a Tibetan Buddha seated upon the Lotus, bronze figurines from Ancient Greece, delicately chased rapiers of Toledo steel and Moorish pistols inlaid
with turquoise and gold, ikons from Holy Russia set with semi-precious stones, and curiously carved ivories from the East—each a memento of some strange adventure which de Richleau had undertaken as a soldier of fortune or traveller in little-known lands. The walls were lined shoulder-high with richly bound books and the spaces above them were decorated with priceless historical documents, old colour-prints and maps.