Short Fiction · Chapter
Epilogue explained
Cotgrave returns the green manuscript to Ambrose, who interprets its occult references and reveals that the girl who wrote it died by suicide after being found before a white Roman statue hidden in a thicket.
What happens
Cotgrave returns the green manuscript to Ambrose, who interprets its occult references and reveals that the girl who wrote it died by suicide after being found before a white Roman statue hidden in a thicket. Ambrose explains that the manuscript describes ancient 'processes' and traditions, and he destroyed the statue, emphasizing the danger and secrecy of such forbidden knowledge.
Themes in this chapter
Occult and Forbidden Knowledge
Ambrose discusses ancient 'processes' and traditions, comparing them to locked cabinets containing both medicines and poisons, and emphasizes the danger of such knowledge falling into unprepared hands.
Supernatural and the Divine
The white Roman statue, incorporated into Sabbath mythology, and the girl's fatal encounter with it suggest a supernatural or divine presence tied to ancient worship.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Powerful and sovereign medicines, which are, of necessity, virulent poisons also, are kept in a locked cabinet. The child may find the key by chance, and drink herself dead; but in most cases the search is educational, and the phials contain precious elixirs for him who has patiently fashioned the key for himself.”
Potent remedies are also deadly poisons, so they are locked away. A child might accidentally find the key and die, but usually the quest to unlock them teaches wisdom, and the rewards are great for those who earn the key.
Ambrose uses the metaphor of a locked cabinet to explain why occult knowledge is kept secret and dangerous for the uninitiated.
“I sent for tools, and we hammered it into dust and fragments.”
I brought tools and smashed the statue into pieces.
Ambrose describes destroying the white Roman statue to prevent further harm.