(Cont.)
So now Abimelech and his cabinet were occupying the high ground, at the top of Mount Dunsinane, while Gabriel and his marauders encamped in the field, at its base, with the Septuagint (the corporate personhood of Gideon’s sons, being seventy altogether).
And there was a bell tower in the church upon Mount Dunsinane, and all the prophetesses from Abimelech’s cabinet went to the top, to ring the bell, because they had always wanted to pull a bell rope while reciting that canto from Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam (104) which begins “Ring out wild bells to the wild sky” — especially that part that goes
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
So they all gat them up to the top, and did this. They also chanted “The Broken Tower” by Hart Crane.
And those souls who had aforetime accompanied Gabriel during his mountain raids on Abimelech were wholly enchanted by the above display; and they addressed the prophetesses of the cabinet with a diplomatic missive, asking forgiveness for their past conduct and requesting membership in the Volcano’s caravan. And they were given a friendly Welcome Note in answer. They were cautioned, however, to remain below, and to wait in Bethlehem, where the cabinet would meet them after the smoke cleared; because the church was very dangerous at present. We should also mention that, in a postscript of their letter, the reformed raiders also revealed the location of the ark where they kept the spoils that they had pilfered from Abimelech. So that was a blessing.
However, when Gabriel and the Septuagint heard those same divine prophecies bellowing out of the church, they were infuriated, and they accused the reciters of blasphemy. Then Gabriel climbed up on top of the Septuagint, and straddled its shoulders, and together they ascended the mountainside, and came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the belfry to burn it with fire.
It was at this point that one of the prophetesses from Abimelech’s cabinet happened to notice that the robo-butler, Man, bore a strong resemblance to the character Bannadonna from “The Bell Tower” by Herman Melville. So, amid the heat of the battle, she remarked this aloud unto the android. And Man replied, saying: “Do you not mean Talus?” And the prophetess said no: she most certainly meant Bannadonna.
Man blushed deeply when he heard this, and he thanked her and said: “I was just thinking that you yourself bear a striking resemblance unto Una.” And this was perceptive, for the prophetess in question was being played by the same Ms. Stein who acted the role of Deborah earlier. (In Melville’s tale, the chief magistrate of the town utters a similar remark: “In Christ’s name, Bannadonna . . . Una’s face looks just like that of Deborah, the prophetess, as painted by the Florentine, Del Fonca.”)
This “Una” smiled at Man, and he smiled back. Then she turned, holding in her arms the bell (which she had removed from the tower’s frame while they were talking), and she cast the enormous piece of metal upon the head of the Septuagint, and all but broke its skull.
Recall also that Gabriel was riding upon the shoulders of the Septuagint, when the bell hit the latter: so he himself got struck as well. And they both fell down together.
Then the Septuagint called hastily unto its armourbearer Gabriel, and said: “Draw thy sword, and finish me off, so that men will not be able to say of me: ‘He was slain by a lesbian poet’.” And Gabriel thrust the Septuagint through, and it died.
Then Gabriel, also, gave up his ghost: and it returned to his father who owned it.
And when the cabinet of Abimelech saw that the Septuagint was dead, and that Gabriel had been recalled, everyone went home.
Then Metatron came and took Abimelech back to the Fulness.
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