As the terrors of imagined suffering are always worse than actual pain, so dreams are frequently more vivid than the reality of life,- -that is we are sure that life is indeed reality, and not itself a dream within a dream.  Cardinal Bonpre’s sleep was not often disturbed by affrighting visions,—­his methods of daily living were too healthy and simple, and his conscience too clear;—­but on this particular night he was visited by an impression rather than a dream,—­the impression of a lonely, and terrifying dreariness, as though the whole world were suddenly emptied of life and left like a hollow shell on the shores of time.  Gradually this first sense of utter and unspeakable loss changed into a startled consciousness of fear;—­some awful transformation of things familiar was about to be consummated;—­and he felt the distinct approach of some unnameable Horror which was about to convulse and overwhelm all mankind.  Then in his dream, a great mist rose up before his eyes,—­a mingling as of sea-fog and sun-flame,—­and as this in turn slowly cleared,—­ dispersing itself in serpentine coils of golden-grey vapour,—­he found himself standing on the edge of a vast sea, glittering in a light that was neither of earth nor of heaven, but that seemed to be the inward reflection of millions of flashing sword blades.  And as he stood gazing across the width of the waters, the sky above him grew black, and a huge ring of fire rose out of the east, instead of the beloved and familiar sun,—­fire that spread itself in belching torrents of flame upward and downward, and began to absorb in its devouring heat the very sea.  Then came a sound of many thunders, mingled with the roar of rising waters and the turbulence of a great whirlwind,—­and out of the whirlwind came a Voice saying—­“Now is the end of all things on the earth,—­and the whole world shall be burnt up as a dead leaf in a sudden flame!  And we will create from out its ashes new heavens and a new earth, and we will call forth new beings wherewith to people the fairness of our fresh creation,—­ for the present generation of mankind hath rejected God,—­and God henceforth rejecteth His faithless and unworthy creatures!  Wherefore let now this one dim light amid the thousand million brighter lights be quenched,—­let the planet known to all angels as the Sorrowful Star fall from its sphere forever,—­let the Sun that hath given it warmth and nourishment be now its chief Destroyer, and let everything that hath life within it, perish utterly and revive no more!”

And Cardinal Felix heard these words of doom.  Powerless to move or speak, he stood watching the terrible circle of fire, extend and expand, till all the visible universe seemed melting in one red furnace of flame;—­and in himself he felt no hope,—­no chance of rescue;—­in himself he knew that the appalling work of destruction was being accomplished with a deadly swiftness that left no time for lamentation,—­that the nations of the world were as flying straws swept into the burning, without space or moment for a parting prayer or groan.  Tortured by an excruciating agony too great for tears, he suddenly found voice, and lifting his face towards the lurid sky he cried aloud—­