During the ensuing days the distance between the two planets continued to decrease, and it became more and more obvious that the earth, on her new orbit, was about to cross the orbit of Venus. Throughout this time the earth had been making a perceptible approach towards Mercury, and that planet--which is rarely visible to the naked eye, and then only at what are termed the periods of its greatest eastern and western elongations--now appeared in all its splendor.
It amply justified the epithet of "sparkling" which the ancients were accustomed to confer upon it, and could scarcely fail to awaken a new interest. The periodic recurrence of its phases;its reflection of the sun's rays, shedding upon it a light and a heat seven times greater than that received by the earth;its glacial and its torrid zones, which, on account of the great inclination of the axis, are scarcely separable; its equatorial bands;its mountains eleven miles high;--were all subjects of observation worthy of the most studious regard.
But no danger was to be apprehended from Mercury; with Venus only did collision appear imminent. By the l8th of January the distance between that planet and the earth had become reduced to between two and three millions of miles, and the intensity of its light cast heavy shadows from all terrestrial objects.
It might be observed to turn upon its own axis in twenty-three hours twenty-one minutes--an evidence, from the unaltered duration of its days, that the planet had not shared in the disturbance.
On its disc the clouds formed from its atmospheric vapor were plainly perceptible, as also were the seven spots, which, according to Bianchini, are a chain of seas. It was now visible in broad daylight.
Buonaparte, when under the Directory, once had his attention called to Venus at noon, and immediately hailed it joyfully, recognizing it as his own peculiar star in the ascendant.
Captain Servadac, it may well be imagined, did not experience the same gratifying emotion.
On the 20th, the distance between the two bodies had again sensibly diminished. The captain had ceased to be surprised that no vessel had been sent to rescue himself and his companion from their strange imprisonment; the governor general and the minister of war were doubtless far differently occupied, and their interests far otherwise engrossed.
What sensational articles, he thought, must now be teeming to the newspapers! What crowds must be flocking to the churches!
The end of the world approaching! the great climax close at hand!
Two days more, and the earth, shivered into a myriad atoms, would be lost in boundless space!
These dire forebodings, however, were not destined to be realized.
Gradually the distance between the two planets began to increase;the planes of their orbits did not coincide, and accordingly the dreaded catastrophe did not ensue. By the 25th, Venus was sufficiently remote to preclude any further fear of collision.
Ben Zoof gave a sigh of relief when the captain communicated the glad intelligence.
Their proximity to Venus had been close enough to demonstrate that beyond a doubt that planet has no moon or satellite such as Cassini, Short, Montaigne of Limoges, Montbarron, and some other astronomers have imagined to exist. "Had there been such a satellite," said Servadac, "we might have captured it in passing.
But what can be the meaning," he added seriously, "of all this displacement of the heavenly bodies?""What is that great building at Paris, captain, with a top like a cap?"asked Ben Zoof.
"Do you mean the Observatory?"
"Yes, the Observatory. Are there not people living in the Observatory who could explain all this?""Very likely; but what of that?"
"Let us be philosophers, and wait patiently until we can hear their explanation."Servadac smiled. "Do you know what it is to be a philosopher, Ben Zoof?" he asked.
"I am a soldier, sir," was the servant's prompt rejoinder, "and Ihave learnt to know that 'what can't be cured must be endured.'"The captain made no reply, but for a time, at least, he desisted from puzzling himself over matters which he felt he was utterly incompetent to explain.
But an event soon afterwards occurred which awakened his keenest interest.
About nine o'clock on the morning of the 27th, Ben Zoof walked deliberately into his master's apartment, and, in reply to a question as to what he wanted, announced with the utmost composure that a ship was in sight.
"A ship!" exclaimed Servadac, starting to his feet. "A ship!
Ben Zoof, you donkey! you speak as unconcernedly as though you were telling me that my dinner was ready.""Are we not philosophers, captain?" said the orderly.
But the captain was out of hearing.