The three adventurous companions were surprised and stupefied, despite their scientific reasonings. They felt themselves being carried into the domain of wonders! they felt that _weight_ was really wanting to their bodies. If they stretched out their arms, they did not attempt to fall. Their heads shook on their shoulders. Their feet no longer clung to the floor of the projectile. They were like drunken men having no stability in themselves. Illustration: "AH! IF RAPHAEL HAD SEEN US THUS." Fancy has depicted men without reflection, others without shadow. But here _reality,_ by the neutralisation of attractive forces, produced men in whom nothing had any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves. Suddenly Michel, taking a spring, left the floor and remained suspended in the air, like Murillo's monk of the _Cusine des Anges._ The two friends joined him instantly, and all three formed a miraculous "Ascension" in the centre of the projectile. "Is it to be believed? is it probable? is it possible?" exclaimed Michel; "and yet it is so. Ah! if Raphael had seen us thus, what an 'Assumption' he would have thrown upon canvas!" "The 'Assumption' cannot last," replied Barbicane. "If the projectile passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to the moon." "Then our feet will be upon the roof," replied Michel. "No," said Barbicane, "because the projectile's centre of gravity is very low; it will only turn by degrees." "Then all our portables will be upset from top to bottom, that is a fact." "Calm yourself, Michel," replied Nicholl; "no upset is to be feared; not a thing will move, for the projectile's evolution will be imperceptible." "Just so," continued Barbicane; "and when it has passed the point of equal attraction, its base, being the heavier, will draw it perpendicularly to the moon; but, in order that this phenomenon should take place, we must have passed the neutral line." "Pass the neutral line!" cried Michel; "then let us do as the sailors do when they cross the equator."