"Something makes me so sad—what it is I cannot tell. But this at least I know—I hate my father!"
Then Mashinka took the boy's cold hand in hers and tried to soothe away the pain that filled his heart. She taught him how he ought to love both his Heavenly and his earthly father, even though both should chastise their child so severely that love was moved to give place to fear.
Thus the evil seeds which the Master was perpetually striving to sow in his son's heart by night, were ever rooted up again in the daytime by the poor Volhynian peasant girl.
CHAPTER VII
The Meeting
This terrible life had now gone on for twelve long years. Most of the actors in the drama had become grey. Several had died, and the total number in the tower had now fallen to forty. Even the master-spirit of Dago had snow-white hair, and seemed some twenty years older than he really was.
During that time some six hundred vessels had been shattered on the rocks of Dago. Some eighteen thousand men had perished, and a fortune of a hundred millions of thalers had been destroyed.
But still the demon of revenge and destruction was unsatisfied. Twelve years of blood had not sufficed to quench the fire of hate that consumed his heart.
All those whose bodies lay scattered among the rocks beneath him were men quite unknown to him. He never even learnt their names, nor was he present when they were struck down.