Nostradamus free e-book novel - The Greatest Sinner Ever

I hope no one heard that, Father thought, feeling afraid again. He took his
daughter down from his back and laid her down in a hollow in the ground.
Our clothes will just have to dry on us, he concluded, after feeling his
jacket. He blew out the candle, after which they both fell into an exhausted
sleep. Michel soon woke up to find some stones painfully pressing into his
ribs. Isabelle was still asleep.
Too bad. It was not a nightmare, he sighed. He felt around for the last
candle and lit it. He saw water dripping down a rock-face, and caught it in
a cup. His little girl woke up a few minutes later and he gave her some
water to drink. There was some bread and dried meat in the bag, and they
used this to still their hunger for the time being. Their clothes were a bit
dryer, and it was time to start looking for an exit. He tied his child onto his
back again and began to search for the light. After an hour they had still
not found an opening and the last candle was getting frightfully small.
They just kept on wandering around, when suddenly the flame started to
pull to one side. In hopeful expectation, he waked toward the breath of
wind and soon discovered a ray of light, shining through a hole in the
ceiling. He could see the blue of the sky. It was a sight for sore eyes after
that prolonged darkness.
But there’s nothing for me to pull myself up on, he thought, discouraged,
while he examined the steep walls.
“Wait a minute…” and he took a knife out of his bag, thinking he could
carve out hand and foot-holds. The limestone was brittle enough and it
worked well. When the job was done, he carefully pulled himself up to on
the carved out crevices, with Isabelle on his back. After a super-human
effort, he reached the opening and sticking to the wall, he put his hand
outside for a minute. The sun shone on it.
The star that makes everything visible, he thought, humbled. And after
enlarging the opening, he crawled out and found himself on a grassy plain,
where he immediately scouted out the area like an eagle. There was no
human in sight and he breathed a great sigh of relief.
“Isabelle, we made it, it’s all behind us now,” and he took his daughter
down from his back. The girl was finally standing on her own two feet
again and ran around through the landscape, where there was no house
anywhere to be seen.
“We’ve got to get ourselves cleaned up, little one,” said Father, who
suspected there might be a river or stream up in the hills further on. He put
Isabelle up on his shoulders and after a short walk they reached a valley
with a small brook running through it. The river water looked clean and
they took a drink from it. Then they took off their shoes and dangled their
feet in the clear water. After they had washed their faces, Michel gave his
daughter a piece of bread from the bag, which also held a small fortune.
Over three hundred francs; the De Vaudemont dowry.
That should get us through the next few years, he estimated and he began
to think of a strategy for the future.
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