flight would no doubt have opened the eyes of my two dupes, who could not
have failed to see that, far from being a magician, I was only a
poltroon. The violence of the wind, the claps of thunder, the piercing
cold, and above all, fear, made me tremble all over like an aspen leaf.
My system, which I thought proof against every accident, had vanished: I
acknowledged an avenging God who had waited for this opportunity of
punishing me at one blow for all my sins, and of annihilating me, in
order to put an end to my want of faith. The complete immobility which
paralyzed all my limbs seemed to me a proof of the uselessness of my
repentance, and that conviction only increased my consternation.

But the roaring of the thunder dies away, the rain begins to fall
heavily, danger vanishes, and I feel my courage reviving. Such is man! or
at all events, such was I at that moment. It was raining so fast that, if
it had continued pouring with the same violence for a quarter of an hour,
the country would have been inundated. As soon as the rain had ceased,
the wind abated, the clouds were dispersed, and the moon shone in all its
splendour, like silver in the pure, blue sky. I take up my magic ring,
and telling the two friends to retire to their beds without speaking to
me, I hurry to my room. I still felt rather shaken, and, casting my eyes
on Javotte, I thought her so pretty that I felt positively frightened. I
allowed her to dry me, and after that necessary operation I told her
piteously to go to bed. The next morning she told me that, when she saw
me come in, shaking all over in spite of the heat, she had herself
shuddered with fear.

After eight hours of sound sleep I felt all right, but I had had enough
of the comedy, and to my great surprise the sight of Genevieve did not
move me in any way. The obedient Javotte had certainly not changed, but I
was not the same. I was for the first time in my life reduced to a state