e, with its painted leaves, was absolutely true to life and was
made of iron so as to resist all the attacks of the "patient" who was
locked into the torture-chamber. We shall see how the scene thus
obtained was twice altered instantaneously into two successive other
scenes, by means of the automatic rotation of the drums or rollers in
the corners. These were divided into three sections, fitting into the
angles of the mirrors and each supporting a decorative scheme that came
into sight as the roller revolved upon its axis.

The walls of this strange room gave the patient nothing to lay hold of,
because, apart from the solid decorative object, they were simply
furnished with mirrors, thick enough to withstand any onslaught of the
victim, who was flung into the chamber empty-handed and barefoot.

There was no furniture. The ceiling was capable of being lit up. An
ingenious system of electric heating, which has since been imitated,
allowed the temperature of the walls and room to be increased at will.

I am giving all these details of a perfectly natural invention,
producing, with a few painted branches, the supernatural illusion of an
equatorial forest blazing under the tropical sun, so that no one may
doubt the present balance of my brain or feel entitled to say that I am
mad or lying or that I take him for a fool.[1]

I now return to the facts where I left them. When the ceiling lit up
and the forest became visible around us, the viscount's stupefaction
was immense. That impenetrable forest, with its innumerable trunks and
branches, threw him into a terrible state of consternation. He passed
his hands over his forehead, as though to drive away a dream; his eyes
blinked; and, for a moment, he forgot to listen.

I have already said that the sight of the forest did not surprise me at
all; and therefore I listened for the two of us to what was happening
next door. Lastly, my attention was especially attracted, not so much
to the scene, as to the mirrors that produced it. These mirrors were
broken in parts. Yes, they were marked and scratched; they had been
"starred," in spite of their solidity; and this proved to me that the
torture-chamber in which we now were HAD ALREADY SERVED A PURPOSE.

Yes, some wretch, whose feet were not bare like those of the victims of
the rosy hours of Mazenderan, had certainly fallen into this "mortal
illusion" and, mad with rage, had kicked against those mirrors which,
neverthele