"Joanna Russ - Souls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russ Joanna)

seen so far south and it was too late in the year for any sensible
shipman to be in our waters. The Abbey was host to three Irish
priests who turned pale when young Sister Sibihd burst in with the
news, crying and wringing her hands; one of the brothers exclaimed
a thing in Latin which means "God protect us!" for they had been
telling us stories of the terrible sack of the monastery of Saint
Columbanus and how everyone had run away with the precious
manuscripts or had hidden in the woods, and that was how Father

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Cairbre and the two others had decided to go "walk the world," for
this (the Abbess had been telling it all to me, for I had no Latin) is
what the Irish say when they leave their native land to travel
elsewhere.
"God protects our souls, not our bodies," said the Abbess
Radegunde briskly. She had been talking with the priests in their
own language or in the Latin, but this she said in ours so even the
women workers from the village would understand. Then she said,
"Father Cairbre, take your friends and the younger Sisters to the
underground passage; Sister Diemud, open the gates to the
villagers; half of them will be trying to get behind the Abbey walls
and the others will be fleeing to the marsh. You, Boy News, down
to the cellars with the girls." But I did not go and she never saw it;
she was up and looking out one of the window slits instantly. So
was I. I had always thought the Norsemen's big ships came right up
on land—on legs, I supposed—and was disappointed to see that
after they came up our river they stayed in the water like other ships
and the men were coming ashore in little boats, which they were
busy pulling up on shore through the sand and mud. Then the
Abbess repeated her order—"Quickly! Quickly!"—and before
anyone knew what had happened, she was gone from the room. I
watched from the tower window; in the turmoil nobody bothered
about me. Below, the Abbey grounds and gardens were packed with
folk, all stepping on the herb plots and the Abbess's paestum roses,
and great logs were being dragged to bar the door set in the stone
walls round the Abbey, not high walls, to tell truth, and Radegunde
was going quickly through the crowd, crying: Do this! Do that!


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Stay, thou! Go, thou! and like things.
Then she reached the door and motioned Sister Oddha, the
doorkeeper, aside—the old Sister actually fell to her knees in
entreaty—and all this, you must understand, was wonderfully