“Hell!” he cried.
“I should not be displeased to earn it as the price of her favours.”
The madman made a gesture which evidently meant: “You do not understand me at all.” Then he put his hands to his forehead and began to speak.
“Horselberg! or rather Hoelenberg, the Mountain of Hell! they come to thee without being warned of thy eternal horrors, thou who waitest for the pure, punishest the chaste, and will consume in eternity the wicked misers of the flesh. They will have lived their lonely lives as rebels to the great law divine, and they will not know thy atrocious burning till the day when, by the power of the Sword, the Harbinger of Souls will plunge them into the abyss. They have eyes and they see not, ears have they and they hear not, they have mouths and they do not.... My God, they are mad! mad! mad!”
Suddenly turning to me he shouted—
“How can you think that the Venusberg can become a place of damnation when it is hell itself.”
I made a movement.
“Alas!” he groaned. “Alas! My God!” (his hands fell from his eyes to his beard) “Alas! shall I be the only living person to know the truth, the truth, the truth. Will it be all in vain that the patriarchs have placed Venus as the terrible antithesis of God, and will no one understand that she is Satan? Is it all in vain that ancient tradition has painted the satyrs with horns, black tail, goat’s legs and cloven hoofs: will no one realize that they are demons? With regard to the flames of hell, will no one in the world understand that they are thousands of naked women dancing ...” (he struck the earth) “there beneath our feet!”
He shuddered.