The Man Who Saw the Future by Edmond Hamilton

They were evidently caused by a sorcerer of power since evenexorcists could not halt them. Ever and anon great claps ofthunder have been heard issuing from an open field there without visiblecause. 'It is stated bymany witnesses that for long that part of Paris, called Nanley by some,has been troubled by works of the devil. Jean de Marselait read calmly on from the parchment. The prisoner spoke for the first time, his voice low but steady. 'Henri Lothiere, apothecary's assistant of Paris,' he read, 'is chargedin this year of our lord one thousand four hundred and forty-four withoffending against God and the king by committing the crime of sorcery.' The latter regarded the prisoner fora moment, and then lifted one of the parchments from before him and readfrom it in a smooth, clear voice.

Hisdark hair was long and straight, and his face held a dreaming strength,altogether different from the battered visages of the soldiers or thechangeless mask of the Inquisitor. He was a straight figure, and was dressed in drab tunic and hose. Then the clang of the returning soldiers, and they entered theroom with another man between them whose hands were fettered. The two disappeared through the door, and in moments there came a clangof opening bolts and grating of heavy hinges from somewhere in thebuilding.

'You may bring in the prisoner,' he said. A word from him and two of them sprang forward. His glance shifted along the long stone-walled, torchlitroom to the file of mail-clad soldiers who stood like steel statues byits door. Jean de Marselait, Inquisitor Extraordinary of the King of France,raised his head from the parchments that littered the crude desk atwhich he sat.

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at Ī Classic Reprint from AMAZING STORIES, October, 1930

The Man Who Saw the Future by Edmond Hamilton