Avon Modern Short Story Monthly #36 — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

he “Ty ¥ Te ay ey ee an Pg Mr * Nd a “ ' “4 ‘ y oe «i + ae — a * ICAL 1GHTS’ ENTE RTAINMENT ae = of her need Resins anarennant, she desired more sieahe to be told = = what would be expected of her. What the witch told her was more appalling than anything she could have imagined. But La Voisin a argued: / . 2 “Can anything be accomplished without cost? Can anything be Tg gained in this life without payment of some kind?” | “But the price of this is monstrous!” Madame. de Miata protested, | ee, “Measure it by the worldly advantages to be gained. They are not bes small, madame. To enjoy boundless woah: boundless power, and boundless honour, to be more than queen—is not all this worth some sacrifice?” ae To Madame de Montespan it must have been worth any sacrifice in this world or the next, since in the end she conquered her disgust, gee and agreed to lend herself to this horror. ST Three masses, she was told, would be necessary to ensure success, © ~ and it was determined that they should be celebrated in the chapel of a the Chateau de Villebousin, where Guibourg had been almoner, to which he had access, and which was at the time untenanted. The chateau was a gloomy medizval fortress, blackened by age, and standing, surrounded by a moat, in a lonely spot some two miles to the south of Paris. Thither on a dark, gusty night of March came- Madame de Montespan, accompanied by her confidential waiting- — yi woman, Mademoiselle Desceillets. They left the coach to await them on the Orléans road, and thence, escorted by:a single male attendant, __ they made their way by a rutted, sodden path towards. the grim castle looming faintly through the enveloping gloom. The wind howled dismally about the crenellated turrets; and a row of poplars, standing like black, phantasmal guardians of the evil place, bent groaning before its fury. From the running waters of the moat, swollen by recent rains, came a gurgling sound that was indescribably wicked. : oF Deseeillets was frightened by the dark, the. desolate loneliness and os eeriness of the place; but she dared utter no complaint as she stumbled forward over the uneven ground, through the gloom and the buffeting wind, compelled by the suasion of her mistress’s im- perious will. Thus, by a drawbridge spanning dark, oily waters, they ee Ss . oe we Lot o — te * ‘Comicbooks.cor