320 THE PROSCRIBED. 



Thy living, ardent thoughts, thy creations advance and become 

 grand in thine own soul alone. Go on, give not thy thoughts to the 

 vulgar. Be at once the altar, the victim, and the priest! Thou 

 knowest the heavens, dost thou not? Thou hast seen the myriads of 

 angels with their snowy pinions and golden citherns, who all keep an 

 equal flight towards the throne ; — and thou hast often admired their 

 wings, which, under the voice of God, quiver like the tufts of the 

 forest under the tempest. Oh, what beauty in the boundless expanse ! 

 Speak thou ! " 



The old man strained Godfrey's hand convulsively, and both con- 

 templated the firmament, from which the stars seemed to hold con- 

 verse with them. 



— " O ! to see God," murmured Godfrey softly. 



— "Child," resumed suddenly the stranger, in a severe tone, "hast 

 thou so soon forgotten the holy instructions of our good master the 

 doctor Sigier .'' In order to return, thou to thy celestial country, and 

 I to my terrestrial country, ought we not both to show submission 

 to the will of God ? Let us walk with resignation in the rugged 

 paths where his powerful finger has traced our route. Dost thou 

 not shudder at the danger to which thou hast exposed thyself? Ap- 

 pearing without order, having said, / am here ! before the time, 

 wouldst thou not have refallen into a sphere inferior to that in which 

 thou existest at this moment? O, poor cherub, oughtest thou not 

 to bless God for having placed thee in one where thou hearest but 

 celestial accords. Art thou not pure as crystal, young and lovely 

 as a flower! Ah! if, like me, thou knewest but the city of 

 dolours ! I have wandered in it till I have consumed my heart. 

 O ! to dig into the tombs, to demand their horrible secrets, — to dry 

 the blood-stained hands, to count them every night, to contemplate 

 them all raised towards me, imploring a pardon that I cannot award, — 

 to study the convulsions of the assassin, the last cries of the victim, — 

 to listen to horrible noises and to frightful silences, the silence of a 

 father feeding on his dead sons, — to interrogate the laugh of the 

 damned, — to search for some human forms among the discoloured 

 masses that crime has rolled and twisted, — to learn the words that 

 living men hear not without dying, — always to invoke the dead, in 

 order always to judge them, — to expose them, in order to translate 

 them, — is it then to live ? " 



— " Stop," cried Godfrey, *' I could neither look at you nor listen 

 to you longer. My reason is wandering, my sight becoming dim. 

 You raise in me a devouring flame." 



— "And yet I must speak ! " resumed the stranger, shaking him 

 by the hand with an extraordinary movement, which produced upon 

 the young man the effect of a charm. For an instant, the stranger 

 fixed upon Godfrey, his large, dim, and dejected eyes, then extended 

 his finger towai-ds the earth. And you might have believed that 

 you saw a great gulf opening all at once at his commandment. He 

 remained standing, seen only by the undivided and vague reflections 

 of the moon, which rendered his forehead, where heaven beamed, 

 still more resplendent. A species of light seemed to radiate from his 

 features. If an expression, almost of disdain, seemed at first to lose 



