; his longing becomes
measureless.

"If I saw him, however--if I saw him?" ... Then, in a spasm of rage:

"The horror that I have of him will rid me of him forever. Yes!"

A cloven foot reveals itself. Antony is filled with regret. But the
Devil overshadows him with his horns, and carries him off.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MYSTERY OF SPACE.

He flies under Antony's body, extended like a swimmer; his two great
wings, outspread, entirely concealing him, resemble a cloud.

_Antony_--"Where am I going? Just now I caught a glimpse of the form of
the Accursed One. No! a cloud is carrying me away. Perhaps I am dead,
and am mounting up to God? ...

"Ah! how well I breathe! The untainted air inflates my soul. No more
heaviness! no more suffering!

"Beneath me, the thunderbolt darts forth, the horizon widens, rivers
cross one another. That light spot is the desert; that pool of water the
ocean. And other oceans appear--immense regions of which I had no
knowledge. There are black lands that smoke like live embers, a belt of
snow ever obscured by the mists. I am trying to discover the mountains
where each evening the sun goes to sleep."

_The Devil_--"The sun never goes to sleep!"

Antony is not startled by this voice. It appears to him an echo of his
thought--a response of his memory.

Meanwhile, the earth takes the form of a ball, and he perceives it in
the midst of the azure turning on its poles while it winds around the
sun.

_The Devil_--"So, then, it is not the centre of the world? Pride of man,
humble thyself!"

_Antony_--"I can scarcely distinguish it now. It is intermingled with
the other fires. The firmament is but a tissue of stars."

They continue to ascend.

"No noise! not even the crying of the eagles! Nothing! ... and I bend
down to listen to the music of the spheres."

_The Devil_--"You cannot hear them! No longer will you see the
antichthon of Plato, the focus of Philolaues, the spheres of Aristotle,
or the seven heavens of the Jews with the great waters above the vault
of crystal!"

_Antony_--"From below it appeared as solid as a wall. But now, on the
contrary, I am penetrating it; I am plunging into it!"

And he arrives in front of the moon--which is like a piece of ice, quite
round, filled with a motionless light.

_The Devil_--"This was formerly the abode of souls. The good Pythagoras
had even supplied it with birds and magnificent flowers."

_Antony_--"I see nothing there save desol