Nocturnal Emissions Read Online Free PDF

Popery, since it reached the zenith of its power, and obtained a perfect organization, are such as must work for evil to the mass of a population. As its power rises, the people must fall. It is in direct antagonism to the free and healthful play of the human faculties, to mental enlightenment, to civil progression, to social worth and domestic happiness.”
    During this period of uproar, important figures like Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman were burned in effigy, “No Popery” marches were held, and windows were broken in a number of Catholic churches.
    Venn had heard from some of the older priests that Trendle had written articles for The Reformation Journal , being in Scotland in those years. Further rumor had it that the fiery young reverend himself might have thrown a rock at a stained glass window or two in those days.
    But Venn and his fellows had always been polite to the man, and while they had heard that during his sermons he was known to rail against the Catholic church that shared his town, he had always treated its priests with grudging respect when meeting them in person. Venn attributed his gruff tone today simply to his advancing years and failing health.
    “Who in particular is it that needs your assistance, Father?” Trendle went on, as if testing him.
    “Ahh…I’ve been summoned by the farmer named Brook, in fact. Do you know him?”
    “Brook? I knew him, Father, his property bordering upon that of my church,” he inclined his head down the road, “though he has never been one of my congregation. I am surprised to hear that he was one of yours. I thought he was quite godless…an unbeliever.”
    “Perhaps he once was. Nevertheless, he must have had a change of heart.”
    Trendle smiled oddly. “Then his change of heart must have occurred as soon as he found himself at the gates of the underworld, because the man perished several months ago.”
    “Perished?”
    “Have you been delayed these months in seeing him, Father? Or was it his wife, more recently, who summoned you?”
    “Yes…perhaps it was his wife who sent for me,” Venn stammered, “and I was simply mistaken. I did not know that the farmer had died. I confess to not remembering the man and his wife very well.”
    “I suspect it is the wife who has had a change of heart, following the death of her young husband. Perhaps she desires to change her own godless ways, having seen the fate visited upon her spouse.”
    “And how did he die, John?”
    “In a fire. He burned to a handful of ash while in his reading chair.
    Perhaps he dropped his pipe while dozing. Funny, though, how nothing else in the room was so much as singed.” Trendle shared a little smile again. “Like Mr. Krook, in Bleak House .”
    “How terrible!”
    “I could little blame his wife for wishing to mend her ways,” Trendle repeated.
    “You say he was godless, John. Did you ever hear rumors of Brook being involved in, ah,” he hesitated, “blasphemous rituals? The worship of Satan?”
    “He was an atheist,” Trendle growled, “and that’s quite the same thing, isn’t it?”
    “Well…thank you for better informing me of these matters, John. I must be off now to see the woman, and comfort her.”
    “Save her soul if you can, Father, before something of the same happens to her.”
    Venn gave a thoughtful nod, looking back down the road in the direction of his own ruined church. Whatever force had obliterated it was still at work in Candleton. Its hunger still not sated.
    He turned to Trendle as if to warn him, too, to beware this force, but the man had already disappeared back inside his church.
    ««—»»
     
    The property of the sheep owner, Brook, did indeed commence shortly beyond that of the vicar’s church. No sooner had Venn left the church behind when he began to see sheep like lone clouds scattered across the sky, grazing in the deceased farmer’s vividly green pasture.
    Several of these sheep grazed close to the road, behind the rough fence