Then the candles were relit and he was told that he would see the full light; the bandage was again removed and more than ten voices said together: "Sic transit gloria mundi.
" Pierre gradually began to recover himself and looked about at the room and at the people in it.
Round a long table covered with black sat some twelve men in garments like those he had already seen.
Some of them Pierre had met in Petersburg society.
In the President's chair sat a young man he did not know, with a peculiar cross hanging from his neck.