"As I can now prove to you in ten minutes, the Corsican's name spells accurately the Number of the Beast.

But that's only the beginning.

Power, you remember, was given to the Beast to continue forty and two months.

Add forty and two months to the first day of the century, which I have shown to be January 1st, 1801, and you come to May 1st, 1804: that is to say, next May-day.

You perceive the significance of the date ?" "Not entirely," confessed the Major, still a trifle pale.