Inquisition Read Online Free PDF

more than his mind, remembered the sensation of Angelo’s cold corpse, of the close, intimate contact with death. Gerardo was shaken by a long tremor and had to sit down on the floor. Finally tears streamed down his cheeks.
    Without taking the slightest notice, Mondino returned to the matter in hand.
    ‘The grave-diggers who I am waiting for cannot be far now,’ he said. ‘They have probably been hiding so as not to be seen by the firefighters and the Inquisitor, but as soon as the road is clear, they’ll knock at the door.’
    ‘You’re waiting for grave-diggers?’ asked Gerardo, drying his eyes with the back of his hand. ‘At this hour?’
    ‘What did you think I was doing here in the middle of the night? Waiting for you? Help me lift up your friend, we must be quick.’
    Minutes before, the physician had risked arrest and a heavy sentence if the guards had found what they were looking for, and yet he seemed perfectly calm. Gerardo looked at him closely, and perhaps because now their relationship was no longer that of teacher and student, it was as though he were seeing him for the first time. A man in his forties, but who appeared younger than his years. He was tall and thin, with intense green eyes beneath a large forehead. Judging by his rugged physique, wrapped in the black robe that went down to his ankles, Gerardo thought that he had been right not to try and disarm Mondino. Despite his training and the difference in age, a scuffle with the physician might have held surprises.
    While they pulled Angelo’s body out of the chest and laid it back on the marble slab, Mondino explained that he was waiting for the delivery of the corpse of a woman who had been put to death that day, and on which he wanted to carry out a dissection.
    ‘I made an application to the magistrate and it is all legal,’ he said, opening the dead man’s breast once again and studying the iron heart as though it were a wonder and not the monstrosity that it represented. ‘But I must do it secretly because the Church is opposed to scientific progress and loses no chance to interfere.’ He turned to look at Gerardo as though the templar were directly responsible for the Church’s behaviour towards him. ‘As long as the priests continue to meddle in everything instead of looking after the salvation of souls, we will never make progress.’
    It was no mystery that Mondino was politically on the side of the Ghibellines, in favour of the Emperor’s rule as against that of the Pope. His convictions had even earned him exile, and he had only been able to return to Bologna by paying a very high fine. Gerardo, being a monk, was naturally of the opposite persuasion and supported the Guelphs, but it was not the moment to object.
    Silently, Mondino took the knife and started to cut the places where the metal gave way to flesh. Watching him work, Gerardo could not help feeling admiration. He was concentrated and precise. His actions never seemed hasty, and yet in a few seconds he extracted that horror of flesh and iron from Angelo’s chest, passing it to Gerardo so that he could hide it in the wooden coffer. When he found himself holding what had been his friend’s heart in his hands, Gerardo nearly cried out, but he restrained himself and carried out the order without arguing.
    ‘Tell me what you intend to do now,’ said Mondino, without looking at him.
    He had closed Angelo’s breast again and seemed more relaxed.
    ‘In what way, Master?’
    ‘We want to find out who killed your friend, don’t we?’ demanded Mondino, impatiently. ‘So we have to draw up a plan of action.’
    ‘You’re saying that you’ll help me in that too?’ Gerardo couldn’t hide the annoyance in his voice. He was happy that the physician was prepared to help him get rid of the body, but he didn’t want anyone hampering him and slowing him down in the search for the culprit.
    Mondino was looking the other way, standing in front of the cupboard where he kept