Therefore he closed the sluices which let the water run out and slowly turned the winch of the flood-gates and little by little opened them. Forthwith the water began to accumulate in the confined area; the big lake pouring in in a broad sheet of water, the two cascades rearing above their stone beds.
Then they ascended the cliff by the path down which Ralph had come the night before with the two crooks, and stopping half way, they saw the water rising quickly in the little lake, flowing round the bases of the temple and rising quickly towards the magic spring.
“Yes: magic,” said Ralph. “That was the word the old Marquess used. In addition to the constituents of the springs at Royat it contains, according to him, principles of energy and strength, principles springing from an astonishing radio-activity of an almost incredible power. Rich Romans of the third and fourth centuries came to rejuvenate themselves at this spring; and it was thee last proconsul of the province of Gaul who, after the death of Theodosius and the fall of the Empire, decided to hide it from the eyes of the invading barbarians and protect against their enterprises the marvels of Juvains. Among many others a secret inscription bears witness to it:
“By the will of Fabius Aralla, Proconsul, in order to protect them from the Scythians and the Borussi, the waters of the lake have covered the Gods whom I loved and the temples in which I worshiped them.” [[311]]
“Fifteen centuries since that day! Fifteen centuries during which these masterpieces in stone and marble have been worn away. Fifteen centuries which might have been followed by a hundred more in which the destruction of these memorials of a glorious past would have been completed. If your grandfather, exploring the abandoned estate of his friend Talencay, had not by chance discovered the machinery of the flood-gates. Forthwith the two friends searched and groped and studied and cudgelled their brains. They repaired the machinery. They set machinery of the old massive wooden gates, which in days gone by kept the little lake at the level which submerged the tops of the buildings, working again. They repaired the machinery which worked the sluices.
“That’s the whole story, Aurelie, and this is the city you visited when you were six years old. Your grandfather died; the Marquess never left his estate at Juvains again; he consecrated himself body and soul to the recovery of the invisible city. With the help of two of his shepherds he excavated, dug, cleaned, consolidated, and restored the work of the past; and that is the gift he offers you, a wonderful gift, which not only brings you incalculable wealth from the exploitation of a spring more precious than all those of Royat and Vichy, but also gives you a collection of works of art and monuments such as exists nowhere else.”
Ralph’s enthusiasm knew no bounds. It was sustained [[312]]for more than an hour during which he expressed all the exaltation with which this affair of the drowned city filled him. Hand in hand they watched the rising water and the sinking columns and statues.
Aurelie, however, kept silent. At last, astonished to feel that they were no longer enjoying a complete communion of thought, he asked her the reason of it.
She did not answer at once; but presently she said:
“You don’t know yet what has become of the Marquess of Talencay, do you?”