He still kept his eyes on the star, and the star seemed gradually to fix and command his gaze.

A sort of languor next seized his frame, but without, as he thought, communicating itself to the mind; and as this crept over him, he felt his temples sprinkled with some volatile and fiery essence.
At the same moment a slight tremor shook his limbs and thrilled through his veins.

The languor increased, still he kept his gaze upon the star, and now its luminous circumference seemed to expand and dilate.

It became gradually softer and clearer in its light; spreading wider and broader, it diffused all space,--all space seemed swallowed up in it.
And at last, in the midst of a silver shining atmosphere, he felt as if something burst within his brain,--as if a strong chain were broken; and at that moment a sense of heavenly liberty, of unutterable delight, of freedom from the body, of birdlike lightness, seemed to float him into the space itself.

"Whom, now upon earth, dost thou wish to see ?" whispered the voice of Mejnour.