The darkness was intense all around him because of the lamp’s paradoxical glow, but farther away things were clearer. The square seemed bathed in a softly radiant moonlight.
He sat gently in the mystery of the square. He sat on his white bed, afloat in limpid moonlight. The palace loomed before him with its impenetrable walls and its massive gate. The great flag and its symbols fluttered in the gentle breeze, sending the hidden meaning of its sign and motto to all the regions of the mysterious land.