“God of Eternity, stay Thy hand!  For one remaining Cause be merciful!  Doom not Thy creature Man to utter destruction!—­but still remember that Thou wast born even as he!  As helpless, as wronged, as tempted, as betrayed, as suffering, as prone to pain and death!  Thou hast lived his life and endured his sorrows, though in the perfect glory of Thy Godhead Thou hast not sinned!  Have patience yet, oh Thou great Splendour of all worlds!  Have patience yet, Thou outraged and blasphemed Creator!  Break once again Thy silence as of old and speak to us!—­pity us once again ere Thou slay us utterly,—­come to us even as Thou earnest in Judaea, and surely we will receive Thee and obey Thee, and reject Thy love no more!”

As he thus prayed he was seized with a paralysing fear,—­for suddenly the red and glowing chaos of fire above him changed into soft skies tinged with the exquisite pearl-grey hues of twilight, and he became conscious of the approach of a great invisible Presence, whose awful unseen beauty overwhelmed him with its sublimity and majesty, causing him to forget altogether that he himself existed.  And Someone spoke,—­in grave sweet accents, so soft and close to him that the words seemed almost whispered in his ears,—­

“Thy prayer is heard,—­and once again the silence shall be broken.  Nevertheless remember that ’the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not’.”

Deep silence followed.  The mysterious Presence melted as it were into space,—­and the Cardinal awoke, trembling violently and bathed in a cold perspiration.  He gazed bewilderedly around him, his mind still confused and dazzled by the strong visionary impression of the burning heavens and sea,—­and he could not for a moment realize where he was.  Then, after a while, he recognised the humble furniture of the room he occupied, and through the diamond-shaped panes of the little lattice window, perceived the towers of Notre Dame, now gleaming with a kind of rusty silver in the broader radiance of the fully uplifted moon.

“It was a dream,” he murmured,—­“A dream of the end of the world!” He shuddered a little as he thought of the doom pronounced upon the earth,—­the planet “known to all angels as the Sorrowful Star”—­“Let the Sun that hath given it warmth and nourishment be now its chief Destroyer.”

According to modern scientists, such was indeed the precise way in which the world was destined to come to an end.  And could anything be more terrifying than the thought that the glorious Orb, the maker of day and generator of all beauty, should be destined to hurl from its shining centre death and destruction upon the planet it had from creation vivified and warmed!  The Vision had shown the devastating ring of fire rising from that very quarter of the heavens where the sun should have been radiantly beaming,—­and as Felix Bonpre dwelt upon the picture in his mind, and remembered his own wild prayer to the Eternal, a great uneasiness and dread overwhelmed him.