"Yea, to you I have to say what the Son of the Great Architect said to Judas, and I will speak it in a while."
So replied the traveler, fastening on him one of those glances which pierced to the heart.
became whiter than his shroud, while a murmur ran round the gathering, wishful to call the accused one to account.
"You forget the delegate of France," observed the chief.
"He is not among you—as you well know, for there is his vacant place," haughtily made answer the stranger. "Bear in mind that such tricks make them smile who can see in the dark; who act in spite of the elements, and live though Death menaces them."
"You are a young man to speak thus with the authority of a divinity," resumed the principal. "Reflect, yourself—impudence only stuns the ignorant or the irresolute."
"You are all irresolute," retorted the stranger, with a smile of supreme scorn, "or you would have acted against me. You are ignorant, since you do not know me, while I know ye all. With boldness alone I succeed against you, but boldness would be vain against one with irresistible power."
"Inform us with a proof of this power," said the Swedenborg.
"What brings ye together?"