it rose, and every star was
hidden in its turn, save only Jupiter near the zenith, Capella,
Aldebaran, Sirius and the pointers of the Bear. It was very white and
beautiful. In many parts of the world that night a pallid halo encircled
it about. It was perceptibly larger; in the clear refractive sky of the
tropics it seemed as if it were nearly a quarter the size of the moon.
The frost was still on the ground in England, but the world was as
brightly lit as if it were midsummer moonlight. One could see to read
quite ordinary print by that cold clear light, and in the cities the
lamps burnt yellow and wan.

And everywhere the world was awake that night, and throughout
Christendom a sombre murmur hung in the keen air over the countryside
like the belling of bees in the heather, and this murmurous tumult grew
to a clangour in the cities. It was the tolling of the bells in a
million belfry towers and steeples, summoning the people to sleep no
more, to sin no more, but to gather in their churches and pray. And
overhead, growing larger and brighter, as the earth rolled on its way
and the night passed, rose the dazzling star.

And the streets and houses were alight in all the cities, the shipyards
glared, and whatever roads led to high country were lit and crowded all
night long. And in all the seas about the civilised lands, ships with
throbbing engines, and ships with bellying sails, crowded with men and
living creatures, were standing out to ocean and the north. For already
the warning of the master mathematician had been telegraphed all over
the world, and translated into a hundred tongues. The new planet and
Neptune, locked in a fiery embrace, were whirling headlong, ever faster
and faster towards the sun. Already every second this blazing mass flew
a hundred miles, and every second its terrific velocity increased. As it
flew now, indeed, it must pass a hundred million of miles wide of the
earth and scarcely affect it. But near its destined path, as yet only
slightly perturbed, spun the mighty planet Jupiter and his moons
sweeping splendid round the sun. Every moment now the attraction between
the fiery star and the greatest of the planets grew stronger. And the
result of that attraction? Inevitably Jupiter would be deflected from
its orbit into an elliptical path, and the burning star, swung by his
attraction wide of its sunward rush, would "describe a curved path" and
perhaps collide with, and certainly pass very close