On the Siberian Cape, a man on his knees, stretched his arms towards
America, with an expression of inconceivable despair.

On the American promontory, a young and handsome woman replied to the
man's despairing gesture by pointing to heaven.

For some seconds, these two tall figures stood out, pale and shadowy, in
the farewell gleams of the Aurora.

But the fog thickens, and all is lost in the darkness.

Whence came the two beings, who met thus amidst polar glaciers, at the
extremities of the Old and New worlds?

Who were the two creatures, brought near for a moment by a deceitful
mirage, but who seemed eternally separated?




CHAPTER I.

MOROK.

The month of October, 1831, draws to its close.

Though it is still day, a brass lamp, with four burners, illumines the
cracked walls of a large loft, whose solitary window is closed against
outer light. A ladder, with its top rungs coming up through an open trap
leads to it.