CHAPTER 27
YULIYA GIVEN a satisfied SMILE as if she were about to start teaching the most important class of her life.
— Young Blake received intellectual influence from his older brother, Robert Blake, who died at the age of twenty of tuberculosis. At this time, he claimed to have seen his brother's soul ascending to heaven. At the age of ten, he claimed to see and communicate with angels. Belief in the spiritual world would accompany him throughout his life and directly influence the mysticism of his work.
Blake was an engraver's apprentice to the famous stamper, James Basire , for a period of seven years. In the second half of 1772, at the age of 21, he became a professional engraver. Receiving a very relevant income. At the time it was a small fortune, even more so for a family not very wealthy and full of children, as was the family of William Blake, I dare say that of all the geniuses, Blake was one of the few who had to defy his own destiny, be it in the financial field and in the arts. No record survives of any disagreement or serious conflict between the two during Blake's period of apprenticeship. Peter Ackroyd wrote in Blake's biography later and added Basire's name to a list of artistic opponents — and then crossed it out.
That aside, Basire's line engraving style was of a kind considered old — fashioned compared to the more flashy dotted or mezzotint styles. It has been speculated that Blake's education in this old — fashioned way may have been detrimental to his acquisition of work or recognition in later life, and if we look coldly, a genius of William Blake's level did not die rich, we can only understand how some kind of boycott.
The three nodded.
— After two years, Basire sent his apprentice to copy Gothic images in churches in London, including here in Westminster, perhaps to settle a dispute between Blake and James Parker, his fellow apprentice. His experiences here at Westminster Abbey helped shape his unique artistic style and ideas. The abbey of its time was decorated with armor, painted funerary effigies and wax ornaments of various colors. Ackroyd notes that:
... the most immediate impression would be of faded gloss and color.
— This detailed study of the Gothic he saw as the living form left clear traces in his artistic style that they were never able to copy. On the long afternoons Blake spent drawing here at the Abbey, he was occasionally interrupted by boys from Westminster School , who were allowed into the Abbey. They teased him and one tormented him so much that Blake knocked the boy off a scaffold to the ground, onto which he fell with terrible violence. After Blake complained to the dean, the students' privilege was withdrawn. Blake claimed he had visions here at Westminster Abbey. He saw Christ with his Apostles and a great procession of monks and priests, and heard their singing.
— Any coincidence with the text here?
— The visions of Isaiah? — Greg said breaking the silence.
— No wonder your fame precedes you, Mr. Evans, you must have been a brilliant student in your time.
— Many see, but few observe.
She smiled.
'An American paraphrasing one of the most famous London symbols in the world, like Sherlock Holmes, isn't such an elegant way to solve a mystery, is it?
— It would be worse not to settle it out of mere formality, Miss Barah.
— It's elementary, my dear Evans, — Yuliya said, sending him an elegant wink.
— We can continue — said Morant, interrupting their inopportune moment of humor — we have to find a murderer, the way doesn't matter.
— But we still have this quote from John.
Yuliya was fiddling with her cell phone when she gave a satisfied smile at her guess.
— Correcting… — Yuliya said — the reference is correct, we are looking the wrong way.
— Like this? — Morant asked.
— Let's say that each person has a religion and here we see the explicit reference to William Blake's religion and his personal Holy Bible, so to speak.
— William Blake is buried here in a Catholic cathedral, isn't he? — asked Gregory Evans.
— I'll have to correct you again, Mr Evans — Yuliya said — this is an Anglican cathedral and not a Catholic one, a very common mistake in the eyes of anyone living outside England, and as much as Blake has a memorial, he's not buried here.—, in fact no one knows exactly where he was buried, although there is a headstone bearing his name and that of his wife not far from here in Bunhill Fields, and Blake is far too far from being considered a Christian, at best, he was. a Miltonian.
— Miltonian?
— People who revere John Milton, — added Igor, — coincidentally have a bust of you here too.
— Here at Westminster Abbey,— continued Yuliya — we have a sacred place to honor great names in literature, such as William Shakespeare, William Blake and John Milton, and even if they are not fervent Christians, or even Christians, they deserve the respect of their people., and this is not a church that exclusively defends the dogma of Christ, but also defends the dogmas of the English people, their traditions and their historical importance, if there was a single monument that summarized the history of our people, certainly Westminster, it would be the best way to pay homage to one of the last symbols of human glory, of the contemporary world.
Gregory was impressed by the appeal these people had with themselves.
— Maybe the Americans will still do something of this level.
Igor and Yuliya gave a slight smile.
— Let's go back to our case, it's better… — Yuliya interrupted — William Blake was an aficionado of John Milton, especially for his work. Paradise lost, it was as if Blake were Paul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and saw Jesus Christ, what happened to Blake when he contemplated Milton's writings is something similar.
— So what do we have here specifically?
Yuliya took out her cell phone and opened it to the reference.
— By the optical instrument, at the first night...
— The 'night' again — Morant said sullenly.
— Again? — Asked Yuliya and Greg together.
— Want to have the honor, Zumerick?
He nodded.
— I'll skip the details and cut to the chase, I cracked the new Cicada 3301 code and…— He looked at Yuliya who was looking at him intently, — and we discovered that the murder here at the Abbey was the end result of your new code.
— And what was written in the final decoding?
Igor repeated...
Under the watchful eyes of the prophet and Saint William, who does not rest in his holy place, there will be a sacrifice. And, under the symbol of the great beast, the world will know the truth and its own end, in nine days...
— Vala...
— Vala? — Morant asked.
— Or the four Zoas — completed Igor.
— That's right... Blake's latest book...
— And what did this book say?
Yuliya's face this time took on a darker tone.
— Let's say it's the apocalypse according to William Blake...