Shrine by James Herbert

Author:James Herbert
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction - Horror
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread,

With bitter tidings laden,

Shall summon to unwelcome bed

A melancholy maiden!

We are but older children, dear.

Who fret to find our bedtime near.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: Lewis Carroll

TWENTY-FOUR

And like a ravenous beast which sees

The hunter’s icy eye,

So did this wretch in wrath confess

Sweet Jesu’s mastery.

THE OGRE: Walter de la Mare

Television broadcast from ITN, all regions, early Sunday evening:

“… The once peaceful village of Banfield in West Sussex today.

Thousands gathered at the Roman Catholic Church of St.

Joseph’s, hoping to catch a glimpse of Alice Pagett, the eleven-year-old schoolgirl who has been proclaimed a miracle worker.

There was a two-mile-long queue of cars and coaches from both directions into the village and extra police had to be called in from the surrounding area to control the crowds.

For an on-the-spot report we go over now to Hugh Sinclair, who has been at the church since this morning …

HUGH SINCLAIRE: The scenes here today have been quite extraordinary. People began to gather outside St. Joseph’s in the early morning hours - devout Catholics, many, but others who were just sightseers, curious to catch a glimpse of this little girl whom, it’s claimed, can perform miracles. And perhaps they expected to see more miracles today.

Alice Pagett came to world attention just a few weeks …

Television broadcast from BBC I, late Sunday evening:

… cured five people who were suffering from various illnesses. Three were said by the medical profession to be incurable.

Alice herself was deaf and dumb until - she claims - she saw a vision of the Immaculate Conception. Although there has been much scepticism over her claim, particularly from the Catholic Church itself, the fact that she and five others have been cured cannot be denied.

It’s estimated that at least two thousand people went to St.

Joseph’s this morning and that the numbers doubled throughout the day. Trevor Greaves is still in the village of Banfield tonight …

TREVOR GREAVES: Although the crowds have thinned considerably, there is still a vigil being kept around the old church of St.

Joseph’s tonight. It’s as though the crowds were waiting for the same apparition that Alice Pagett alleges to have seen. Earlier today the atmosphere among the many pilgrims could only have been described as electric. There was no mass hysteria - something the authorities feared among such a gathering - but there was much fainting, much weeping, and much praying.

When Alice arrived for the Sunday service at 9.20 this morning, accompanied by her mother and a bodyguard of priests and policemen, she found it difficult to get anywhere near the church, let alone inside. The Mass was delayed for forty-five minutes as her protectors struggled to get this diminutive child, pale-faced and dressed in white, obviously distressed by the loss of her father, so tragically killed last Thursday …

Radio broadcast from LBC, after midnight:

… further interest in Alice Pagett was aroused only last Thursday when eyewitnesses say she quelled a fire which threatened to devastate a large part of Banfield village. The fire was

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