Others, prostrate in resignation, look on, and echo what is said above them: "After us the deluge," and the saying passes across town and country in one enormous and fantastic breath, for they are innumerable who murmur it.

Ah, it was well said: "I have confidence in the abyss of the people." * * * * * * And I?
I, the normal man?
What have I done on earth?
I have bent the knee to the forces which glitter, without seeking to know whence they came and whither they guide.

How have the eyes availed me that I had to see with, the intelligence that I had to judge with?
Borne down by shame, I sobbed, "I don't know," and I cried out so loudly that it seemed to me I was awaking for a moment out of slumber.
Hands are holding and calming me; they draw my shroud about me and enclose me.
It seems to me that a shape has leaned over me, quite near, so near; that a loving voice has said something to me; and then it seems to me that I have listened to fond accents whose caress came from a great way off: "Why shouldn't _you_ be one of them, my lad,--one of those great prophets ?" I don't understand.

I?
How could I be?
All my thoughts go blurred.

I am falling again.