Mayda feared he had spoken too plainly, and whispered to him.
"But you will recover." He left the room.

Benedetto, thinking of Don Clemente, passed from the quiet of his contentment into a light sleep, into dreams, whither the spirits of evil descended, and conjured up for him a deceitful vision, suggested by the Professor's last words.

He saw himself confronted by a colossal marble wall, crowned with rich balustrades, which shone white in the moonlight.

Up there, behind the balustrades, a dense forest swayed in the wind.

Six flights of stairs, these also flanked by balustrades, slanted down, across the face of the great wall, three on the left, and three on the right, and terminated upon six landings, jutting out from the wall.