“What is it?” he cried.
“We have just heard news of a dreadful catastrophe; the greatest thinker of the age, our most loved friend, who was like a light among us for two years——”
“Louis Lambert!”
“Has fallen a victim to catalepsy. There is no hope for him,” said Bianchon.
“He will die, his soul wandering in the skies, his body unconscious on earth,” said Michel Chrestien solemnly.
“He will die as he lived,” said d’Arthez.
“Love fell like a firebrand in the vast empire of his brain and burned him away,” said Léon Giraud.
“Yes,” said Joseph Bridau, “he has reached a height that we cannot so much as see.”
“We are to be pitied, not Louis,” said Fulgence Ridal.
“Perhaps he will recover,” exclaimed Lucien.