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- 8168
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 8105
- text
- or thought he did, that it was not entirely rigid, but was, in a
manner, pliant. At last, when the hidden thing had attained its final
height, and, obscurely seen from below, seemed almost of itself to step
into the belfry, as if with little assistance from the crane, a shrewd
old blacksmith present ventured the suspicion that it was but a living
man. This surmise was thought a foolish one, while the general interest
failed not to augment.
Not without demur from Bannadonna, the chief-magistrate of the town,
with an associate—both elderly men—followed what seemed the image up
the tower. But, arrived at the belfry, they had little recompense.
Plausibly entrenching himself behind the conceded mysteries of his art,
the mechanician withheld present explanation. The magistrates glanced
toward the cloaked object, which, to their surprise, seemed now to have
changed its attitude, or else had before been more perplexingly
concealed by the violent muffling action of the wind without. It seemed
now seated upon some sort of frame, or chair, contained within the
domino. They observed that nigh the top, in a sort of square, the web
of the cloth, either from accident or design, had its warp partly
withdrawn, and the cross threads plucked out here and there, so as to
form a sort of woven grating. Whether it were the low wind or no,
stealing through the stone lattice-work, or only their own perturbed
imaginations, is uncertain, but they thought they discerned a slight
sort of fitful, spring-like motion, in the domino. Nothing, however
incidental or insignificant, escaped their uneasy eyes. Among other
things, they pried out, in a corner, an earthen cup, partly corroded
and partly encrusted, and one whispered to the other, that this cup was
just such a one as might, in mockery, be offered to the lips of some
brazen statue, or, perhaps, still worse.
But, being questioned, the mechanician said, that the cup was simply
used in his founder’s business, and described the purpose; in short, a
cup to test the condition of metals in fusion. He added, that it had
got into the belfry by the merest chance.
Again, and again, they gazed at the domino, as at some suspicious
incognito at a Venetian mask. All sorts of vague apprehensions stirred
them. They even dreaded lest, when they should descend, the
mechanician, though without a flesh and blood companion, for all that,
would not be left alone.
Affecting some merriment at their disquietude, he begged to relieve
them, by extending a coarse sheet of workman’s canvas between them and
the object.
Meantime he sought to interest them in his other work; nor, now that
the domino was out of sight, did they long remain insensible to the
artistic wonders lying round them; wonders hitherto beheld but in their
unfinished state; because, since hoisting the bells, none but the
caster had entered within the belfry. It was one trait of his, that,
even in details, he would not let another do what he could, without too
great loss of time, accomplish for himself. So, for several preceding
weeks, whatever hours were unemployed in his secret design, had been
devoted to elaborating the figures on the bells.
The clock-bell, in particular, now drew attention. Under a patient
chisel, the latent beauty of its enrichments, before obscured by the
cloudings incident to casting, that beauty in its shyest grace, was now
revealed. Round and round the bell, twelve figures of gay girls,
garlanded, hand-in-hand, danced in a choral ring—the embodied hours.
“Bannadonna,” said the chief, “this bell excels all else. No added
touch could here improve. Hark!” hearing a sound, “was that the wind?”
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