"I was the God of armies, the Lord, the Lord God!" Then comes an appalling silence, a profound darkness.
Antony—"They are all gone!"
"I remain!" says some one.
And, face to face with him stands Hilarion, but transfigured—beautiful as an archangel, luminous as a sun, and so tall that, in order to see him, Antony lifts up his head—"Who, then, are you?"
Hilarion—"My kingdom is as wide as the universe, and my desire has no limits. I am always going about enfranchising the mind and weighing the worlds, without hate, without fear, without love, and without God. I am called Science."
Antony, recoiling backwards—"You must be, rather, the Devil!"
Hilarion, fixing his eyes upon him—"Do you wish to see him?"
Antony no longer avoids his glance. He is seized with curiosity concerning the Devil. His terror increases; his longing becomes measureless.
"If I saw him, however—if I saw him?" ... Then, in a spasm of rage:
"The horror that I have of him will rid me of him forever. Yes!"