Two elderly women rise silently and go away. Then a third, an old
woman, also rises.

"We must ask the abbot whether it isn't a sin to look at such a light."

She goes off. The smoke in the sky is ever increasing and the fire
is subsiding, and the unknown city is already near its dark end. The
sea odour is growing ever sharper and stronger. Night is coming from
the shore.

Their heads turned, the women watch the departing old woman. Then
they turn again toward the light.

Mariet, as though defending some one, says softly:

"There can't be anything bad in light. For there is light in the
candles on God's altar."

"But there is also fire for Satan in hell," says another old woman,
heavily and angrily, and then goes off. Now four remain, all young
girls.

"I am afraid," says one, pressing close to her companion.

The noiseless and cold conflagration in the sky is ended; the city
is destroyed; the unknown land is in ruins. There are no longer any
walls or falling towers; a heap of pale blue gigantic shapes have
fallen silently into the abyss of the ocean and the night. A young
little star glances at the earth with frightened eyes; it feels like