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The setting of this story is in the summer house of Queen Marie Antoinette and she and her courtesans are enjoying an evening together with the Count Saint-Germain. One of the courtesans implores Saint-Germain to work his magic upon Marie Antoinette so that she would forever stay a lovely, beautiful child.
Saint-Germain said "I'm sorry, Countess. God has ordained that children should grow up, and I can't work against Him." "What a shame," the Countess .... responded. "Adults are so boring." The Count responded "then perhaps you ladies do not know the tale of the Isle of the Children?" Saint-Germain glanced around the eager group. They had not heard the tale and clamored for him to tell it.
"Many, many thousands of years ago," he began, "there were two emerald islands in the Mediterranean Sea. These islands were really the peaks of two mountains which had once been the landmarks of a sunken world-empire. Millions had fled the terrible cataclysm, but only a few managed to reach these mountaintops that became the happy isles. When the storm was over and the angry vault of heaven was again a brilliant blue, the survivors organized themselves on one of the twin islands.
"Using the memories of their advanced culture, they built permanent homes, cultivated the soil, tamed wild animals for domestic purposes, and followed all the useful scientific pursuits. They recreated their culture's laws of peaceful coexistence, which were based on ancient revelations, and established a society that would be of benefit to their children."
"But the children in the meantime, while the adults labored, had roved unsupervised among the rocks and had become used to irresponsible freedom. They would plunder bird's nests and drink the raw eggs or kill small game with stones and share their prey. All this made them muscular and rough-skinned, and they became boastful and competitive because of their physical strength. They thought it was fun to fight and believed they could get anything they wanted by beating someone else. Their emotions were unbridled, and they had no patience.
"When the adults had completed their labors and believed it time for their children to take over, they called in these children to teach them their new duties and the law. Great was the sorrow of these wise and gentle people when they saw the feral herd that appeared before them. They became painfully aware of the fact that while they had labored, their children had been left to become wild. Their bodies were strong enough, but they were mentally lazy and their emotions were like unchecked weeds.
"The adults tried to enlighten the coarse minds and to teach self-control and consideration for others, but it was in vain. Their youngsters abhorred their efforts and in the stupid arrogance of their physical power revolted against the leadership of the elders. They went off to the other island to establish their own free child-empire.
"The first thing they did was to build droll houses of branches whose roofs were decorated with flowers. These funny green tents were quite gay in the sun, but soon it was noticed that some were larger and more beautiful than others. These had been built by children who were physically weak but cleaverer mentally than the others. The strong ones who excelled in fighting had not been able to produce anything but shapeless, ugly lean-tos, for their hands and minds were clumsy and unskilled.
"Immediately the strong forced the weak to leave their beautiful dwellings so they could have them. When they saw that the weak were easily intimidated, they became drunk with power. They compelled the weak to do all the drudgery while they occupied themselves with hunting, fishing, and dancing around the fire. In addition, they took all the best food and allowed the weaker children only scraps.
"Meanwhile the weak children, made weaker yet by hunger, hard labor, and abuse, became embittered. Their suffering and oppression produced growing enlightenment. The strong children, on the other hand, became fat and lazy from their intemperate eating. It did not take them very long to gather all the food they needed, so they spent most of the day eating, sleeping, and abusing their slaves.
"Nor did their violence stop there. The fat tyrants began to quarrel among themselves with increasing frequency. The slaves witnessed their daily outbursts and the way they abused each other over trifles. They watched the raging fights in which their masters bit and tore at one another like wild beasts. They saw the defeated grovel in helpless rage– and the slaves began to think.
"Were the strong ones as really as invulnerable as they had thought? After all, they died off steadily. Their bodies had grown fat and soft from luxurious living, and their reflexes were no longer swift. They slept until high noon, while fish teemed in the lakes, wild fruits hung ripe from the trees, and grain blown over from the other island made luscious wheat fields ripe for harvesting. The climate was so mild and beneficent that food in abundance could be gotten free. But the fat tyrants had become too lazy even to reach up and pick the fruit above their heads. The slaves had to do all this for them while they sprawled in the shade, and then they ate their fill before giving those slaves meager scraps. Why? Because they had made a mutual agreement. After all, the tyrants in power weren't even physically superior any more. The slaves had become more agile and tenacious, for they had had to build the fires, fish, hunt, and tan hides. They knew too how to bear trouble and suffering. And they were in the majority.
"At first only a few thought like this, and they kept their magnificent, terrifying thoughts to themselves. Then some decided to change the rules. When they made a catch, they ate what they wanted first and then gave the scraps to their masters. The tyrants immediately responded by executing the rebels in front of the stony eyes of their comrades to deter them from committing similar improprieties. They tortured them to death in all the ways their inexhaustible ingenuity could invent. Some were flayed alive and had salt rubbed on their raw flesh. Some were cut to pieces as slowly as possible. Others were flogged to death or crushed beneath large rocks. Still others were immersed in water filled with leeches.
"Not surprisingly every such example multiplied the number of sinners. Soon there were intrepid bands instead of lone rebels. The machinery of execution came to be used almost every day; it stank of rotting blood.
"Meanwhile the weather had become oppressively hot and the air was filled with the tension that precedes a rainstorm. The fat tyrants were preparing a new festival of execution. They had managed to drive crowds of escaped slaves out of the caves and expected to get the rest later. The noise of rats they heard with increasing frequency, the crude signs on the cave walls, and the red flowers that were put on their houses every morning didn't bother them. The heat increased their impatience and restlessness; they were eager to work out their own tensions on the bodies of the tortured slaves.
But the slaves were also waiting the festival. They knew they were in the majority; the magic word had been spoken, like the sinister tolling of the death bell. Now they spoke other words as well; they talked about the injustices they had suffered, nor did they forget to repeat the slanderous accusations their masters had shouted at each other in their rages nor to tell the staggering secrets they had learned during theses fights. Their masters had bodies as vulnerable as their own and blood just as red.
"The adults who had continued their meditative life on the other island learned what was happening on the Isle of the Children, and they were deeply saddened. They held a council and decided to send emissaries to both sides in an effort to keep the tension below the breaking point. But the emissaries could do no good. emotions had flared too high. The tyrants were unwilling to give up their lives of luxury; they buried their heads in the sand like ostriches and pretended nothing was wrong. As for the embittered and starving slaves, they had become obsessed with choking hatred for their masters. They were already a force ready to strike; all that was needed was a moment of ignition. Realizing the situation, the emissaries returned hastily to their own island before the holocaust and reported to their council that their mission was hopeless. The group was overcome with compassion and sorrow, but their leader, who was the oldest and wisest adult, remained calm.
"'Why are you so upset? He asked them. The law of nature is also the law on the Isle of the Children.' 'The forces must be balanced everywhere. No weight can be carried properly unless it is distributed properly. If it is not, by the law of reaction it crushes the one who pushes it too far. How can these children learn this? From words? Words don't mean anything to them; they are simply symbols of reality. The children must experience the reality themselves before it means anything to them.
"'Our emissaries have not really been ineffective. Their warning will lie dormant until after the flood of passionate events fulfills it. Then when the passions abate, it will come to life and have living consequences. You know that flesh and blood that may be butchered are not identical to life.' "Then the peace of understanding came to the members of the council. They returned to their work and meditation and awaited the calm that would follow the storm."
As Saint-Germain's voice died away, silence reigned unbroken. His hearers sat quietly, overwhelmed by their feelings. The bird of gaiety had flown. The Queen's lips were pressed tightly together and her face was pale as she stared at the floor. ... Two servants came in and put fresh candles in the chandeliers. This broke the spell.
"What happened on the other island?" the Countess D'Adhemar asked hoarsely. "On the isle of the Children?" Saint-Germain turned and looked at her gravely. "It happened just as the adults had foreseen. The festival was turned into a bloodbath; the slaves massacred their masters. And when they had killed all of them, they turned on the slaves who had been faithful to their masters, then on those who had been indifferent to the struggle, and finally on those who had not been sufficiently brutal in their murdering.
The lovely island became a slaughterhouse in which no one could be sure that his turn would not come next." Saint-Germain's voice was soft but his audience was spellbound. "No one thought of gathering food or carrying on the normal tasks of life. Everyone was celebrating the victory that had turned into a holocaust. Starvation was general now and epidemics began to break out. On top of all this, a tropical storm washed away their crude houses which had sheltered their dark lust for murder. Shivering and sick, they finally had to face their true situation."
"And then they must have remembered the adults," murmured the Countess D'Adhemar.
"Not yet, Madame. That was still far in the future. The time I speak of was just a lull, not a resolution. There was much more strife yet to come, for the children did not yet understand the law of balance. There was always one individual or a small group who pushed the burden onto others before it came back to crush them."
"That – that was a horrid story," the Queen broke in angrily. "If I had known what it was about, I wouldn't have let you tell it. How could you do this to me? Her voice choked with resentment. "I was so happy this evening!"
"It was only a story," Saint-Germain responded. Did your Majesty imagine there was some other meaning to it?
Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France prior to the French Revolution and the establishment of the first French Republic. As queen, she became increasingly a target of criticism by opponents of the domestic and foreign policies of her husband Louis XVI, and those opposed to the monarchy in general.
During the French Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to proposed social and financial reforms.
The government placed the royal family under house arrest in October 1789. Almost 3 years later, on August 10, 1792, the royal family was forced to take refuge and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on August, 13. (This building was a medieval fortress in Paris, built by the Knights Templar. Parts of the fortress were later used as a prison during the French Revolution, and then demolished by the mid-19th century.)
A little over a month later, on September 21, 1792, France was declared a republic and the monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette's trial began on a little over a year after the declaration of the French Republic, on October 14, 1793; two days later, she was convicted of high treason and executed by beheading by guillotine on October 16, 1793.
This excerpt of Saint-Germain's story is from the book The Red Lion, The Elixir of Life. You may read a review of this book at our SOW blog, where you may find it under December at the Articles by month search box.