At the entrance to the villa, either from emotion or from fatigue, the sick man's poor, fleshless face blanched, and was covered with sweat, and he closed his great, shining eyes.

Mayda carried him to his own bed, and thus it happened that when Benedetto regained consciousness he was quite bewildered.
In his state of extreme weakness he did not regain consciousness without passing through shadows of vain imaginings.

He thought he was dead, and lying on the ever-dark face of the moon, in the centre of a funnel, formed by the solar rays, which streaked away to the infinite; and at the dark bottom of this funnel he saw the flaming eyes of the stars.
Little by little be realised he was on an enormous bed which stood in darkness, but was surrounded by a pale light, so dim that the walls were hardly visible.

Great shadows were moving about him.

Opposite him was a blue, open space, all strewn with specks of light.