ent shock I lost
all consciousness.

CHAPTER XXIII

CONCLUSION

Thus ends the voyage under the seas. What passed during that
night--how the boat escaped from the eddies of the maelstrom--how Ned
Land, Conseil, and myself ever came out of the gulf, I cannot tell.

But when I returned to consciousness, I was lying in a fisherman's hut,
on the Loffoden Isles. My two companions, safe and sound, were near me
holding my hands. We embraced each other heartily.

At that moment we could not think of returning to France. The means of
communication between the north of Norway and the south are rare. And
I am therefore obliged to wait for the steamboat running monthly from
Cape North.

And, among the worthy people who have so kindly received us, I revise
my record of these adventures once more. Not a fact has been omitted,
not a detail exaggerated. It is a faithful narrative of this
incredible expedition in an element inaccessible to man, but to which
Progress will one day open a road.

Shall I be believed? I do not know. And it matters little, after all.
What I now affirm is, that I have a right to speak of these seas, under
which, in less than ten months, I have crossed 20,000 leagues in that
submarine tour of the world, which has revealed so many wonders.

But what has become of the Nautilus? Did it resist the pressure of the
maelstrom? Does Captain Nemo still live? And does he still follow
under the ocean those frightful retaliations? Or, did he stop after
the last hecatomb?

Will the waves one day carry to him this manuscript containing the
history of his life? Shall I ever know the name of this man? Will the
missing vessel tell us by its nationality that of Captain Nemo?

I hope so. And I also hope that his powerful vessel has conquered the
sea at its most terrible gulf, and that the Nautilus has survived where
so many other vessels have been lost! If it be so--if Captain Nemo
still inhabits the ocean, his adopted country, may hatred be appeased
in that savage heart! May the contemplation of so many wonders
extinguish for ever the spirit of vengeance! May the judge disappear,
and the philosopher continue the peaceful exploration of the sea! If
his destiny be strange, it is also sublime. Have I not understood it
myself? Have I not lived ten months of this unnatural life? And to
the question asked by Ecclesiastes three thousand years ago, "That
which is far off and exceeding deep, who can