“What, Leonhard?” he said. “How is it you’re here?”
“I’m sent by the Dean,” I said. “I’m to bring you to the University.”
“To the University? Why, what is it? I’m being summoned?”
“The University is convening, Master. And I’ve a token for you of the seriousness of the matter.” And I held up the candle.
Master Desiderius took it carefully and examined it thoroughly. “Then I’ll come,” he said. And of course it was no signal at all that I was expected, that he happened to have on his University robe and cap!
So we set off. Master Desiderius was not too senior a Chair to keep his own lively pace through the Basel streets. And when we turned one way or the other in our path that wasn’t the straightest route, I thought it was that he even wanted to be seen by some acquaintances. While Master Johann would surely be stepping his slow, stately beat, only hurrying at all because it would be tiresome to be a spectacle for the common people, Master Desiderius knew that he was on display and made well of it. His robe flowed behind him like an exultation of larks.
His appearance in the Barefoot Square was especially meant to be jubilant. We came to the Coal Gate and saw the Square beyond, over full as people had planned their marketing to coincide with the Convening. We even paused a moment in the shadow of the gate in anticipation of our entrance. And as we stood in that dark spot I had a sudden sense of something, motion or sound, but really of rending. I took hold of Master Desiderius’s arm, and in the instant felt him also gripping mine, and then I lunged, pulling and being pulled. Above me, and then as I fell headlong forward, behind me, there was weight, and force, and a terrible plunging, and collapse. All the stones of the arch came crashing into the space they’d stood over, with roaring and tumbling clamor, piling in an instant into a mountain of rock, a blockade, and a destruction. I was on my face on the paving of the Square, and Desiderius beside me, and we turned to see the tons of gate where we’d stood three seconds before, while still more stones were falling, and finally the last did.
And a great cloud of dust rose from the pile.
In a few seconds more we were being helped to our feet. Master Desiderius was unscathed; I think I’d tripped and he’d been pulled more gently down by his hold on me. But I was battered and scraped and felt unsteady from unexpected pains as I stood. Small, bright red lines appeared from the brown dirt on my hands. And I was covered with dust. I stared at the great wind of dust that wrapped the pile of stones.
“Are you well?” Desiderius asked me, very anxious, and I nodded. And other people around me were asking, also, and holding me as I swayed.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m only bruised.” I looked at myself and saw torn sleeves and breeches. I could feel that my face was as bad as the rest. Beside the black and brown dust of the Wall, there was fine gray dust, among it but separate.
“You’ll need help,” Desiderius said.
“No. But you’ll need a new guide.” I grabbed the shoulder of a child I knew from Saint Leonhard’s, one I’d tutored and who I thought might achieve the University himself someday. “Friedrich, here, you take Master Desiderius, and get him to the University! I need you to!” And I pushed them off, encouraging them both as they looked back in reluctance at leaving me. “Go, go! The University’s convening! They need the Master!” And finally they did turn, and go on, and the crowd parted for them. Then I turned, back to the stones and the dust.
Already a few men were stooping down to see the pile, and I thrust myself in with them. “Pull,” I said. “Move the stones!” And with my bleeding hands I tore at the stones, and my urgency flooded the other men, and they pulled, too. The dust was still high and we stirred it and added to it. And it wasn’t long, or many stones, before there was a cry of dismay, and a carved block was lifted from a hand, white with dust but dark veined, and still in death gripping a hammer.
I fell back. Others untombed the stonemason.
And even as I reeled and sat, and the dust swirled, and the stones were pushed away from their heap, and shingle and rubble were thrown out from the un-pilers, one handful of the debris landed close to me, and one piece of the ruin fell nearly in my hand. It was soft and wadded and black beneath thick dust. I was stunned by it. Then I thrust it into my pocket.
I didn’t wait there longer. I stepped back, brushed off my dust, and smoothed my rumpling. The door of the University would be closing soon as the black starlings flocked to their nesting. There was no use following them. Instead I went into the church.