"AH! IF RAPHAEL HAD SEEN US THUS."
Fancy has depicted men without reflection, others without shadow. But here reality, by the neutralisation of attractive forces, produced men in whom nothing had any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves.
Suddenly Michel, taking a spring, left the floor and remained suspended in the air, like Murillo's monk of the Cusine des Anges.
The two friends joined him instantly, and all three formed a miraculous "Ascension" in the centre of the projectile.
"Is it to be believed? is it probable? is it possible?" exclaimed Michel; "and yet it is so. Ah! if Raphael had seen us thus, what an 'Assumption' he would have thrown upon canvas!"
"The 'Assumption' cannot last," replied Barbicane. "If the projectile passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to the moon."
"Then our feet will be upon the roof," replied Michel.
"No," said Barbicane, "because the projectile's centre of gravity is very low; it will only turn by degrees."
"Then all our portables will be upset from top to bottom, that is a fact."