us. I saw His hell--I saw His
hell, I tell you. It is peopled with the damned--silent, horrible,
distorted in the midst of ashes and desolation. It was a memory that,
like the snake of Aaron, devoured all others till yesterday--till
yesterday, by Christ's mercy."

* * * * *

It seemed to me, as the days wore on, that Camille had but recovered his
reason at the expense of his life; that the long rest deemed necessary
for him after his bitter period of brain exhaustion might in the end
prove an everlasting one. Possibly the blow to his head had, in expelling
the seven devils, wounded beyond cure the vital function that had
fostered them. He lay white, patient, and sweet-tempered to all, but
moved by no inclination to rise and re-assume the many-coloured garment
of life.

His description of the dreadful desert in the sky I looked upon, merely,
as an abiding memory of the brain phantasm that had finally overthrown
a reason, already tottering under the tremendous excitement induced by
his discovery of the lenses, and the magnified images they had presented
to him. That there was truth in the asserted fact of the existence of
these, my own experience convinced me; and curiosity as to this alone
impelled me to the determination of investigating further, when my hand
should be sufficiently recovered to act as no hindrance to me in forcing
my way once more through the dense woods that bounded the waterfall.
Moreover, the dispassionate enquiry of a mind less sensitive to
impressions might, in the result, do more towards restoring the warped
imagination of my friend to its normal state than any amount of spoken
scepticism.

To Camille I said nothing of my resolve; but waited on, chafing at the
slow healing of my wounds. In the meantime the period of the full
moon approached, and I decided, at whatever cost, to make the venture on
the evening she topped her orbit, if circumstances at the worst should
prevent my doing so sooner--and thus it turned out.

On the eve of my enterprise, the first fair spring of rain in a drought
of two months fell, to my disappointment, among the hills; for I feared
an increase of the torrent and the effacement of the mighty lens. I set
off, however, on the afternoon of the following day, in hot sunshine,
mentally prognosticating a favourable termination to my expedition, and
telling Madame Barbiere not to expect me back till late.

In leisurely fashion I made my wa