that of Elijah the Prophet;
here and there he felt a piercing pain....

The earth continued to turn light-mindedly around the sun, now coming
nearer to it, now retreating coquettishly, and giving the impression
that it fixed all its attention upon its household friend, the moon;
the days were replaced by other days, and the dark nights by other dark
nights, with such pedantic German punctuality and correctness that all
the artistic natures were compelled to move over to the far north by
degrees, where the devil himself would break his head endeavouring to
distinguish between day and night--when suddenly something happened to
Max.

Somehow it happened that Max became misunderstood. He had calmed the
crowd by his words of wisdom many a time before and had saved them from
mutual destruction but now he was not understood. They thought that it
was he who had shouted "Fire!" With all the eloquence of which he was
capable he assured them that he was exerting all his efforts for their
sake alone; that he himself needed absolutely nothing, for he was alone,
childless; that he was ready to forget the sad misunderstanding and
serve them again with faith and truth--but all in vain. They would
not trust him. And in this respect Max did not have any special
peculiarities, either. The sad incident ended for Max in a new
intermission.

. . . . . . . .

Max was alive, as was positively established by medical experts, who had
made a series of simple tests. Thus, when they pricked a needle into his
foot, he shook his foot and tried to remove the needle. When they put
food before him, he ate it, but he did not walk and did not ask for any
loans, which clearly testified to the complete decline of his energy.
His soul was dead--as much as the soul can be dead while the body
is alive. To Max all that he had loved and believed in was dead.
Impenetrable gloom wrapped his soul. There were neither feelings in it,
nor desires, nor thoughts. And there was not a more unhappy man in the
world than Max, if he was a man at all.

But he was a man.

According to the calendar, it was Friday or Saturday, when Max awakened
as from a prolonged sleep. With the pleasant sensation of an owner to
whom his property has been restored which had wrongly been taken from
him, Max realised that he was once more in possession of all his five
senses.

His sight reported to him that he was all alone, in a place which might
in justice be called eith