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Until this moment my soul had been in my eyes only. I had gazed with
wonder, mixed with fear and enthusiasm. The latter feeling now
predominated. I forgot the distance between us: "I will go with thee,
Raymond!" I cried; but, my eye removed from the glass, I could scarce
discern the pigmy forms of the crowd, which about a mile from me surrounded
the gate; the form of Raymond was lost. Stung with impatience, I urged my
horse with force of spur and loosened reins down the acclivity, that,
before danger could arrive, I might be at the side of my noble, godlike
friend. A number of buildings and trees intervened, when I had reached the
plain, hiding the city from my view. But at that moment a crash was heard.
Thunderlike it reverberated through the sky, while the air was darkened. A
moment more and the old walls again met my sight, while over them hovered a
murky cloud; fragments of buildings whirled above, half seen in smoke,
while flames burst out beneath, and continued explosions filled the air
with terrific thunders. Flying from the mass of falling ruin which leapt
over the high walls, and shook the ivy towers, a crowd of soldiers made for
the road by which I came; I was surrounded, hemmed in by them, unable to
get forward. My impatience rose to its utmost; I stretched out my hands to
the men; I conjured them to turn back and save their General, the conqueror
of Stamboul, the liberator of Greece; tears, aye tears, in warm flow gushed
from my eyes--I would not believe in his destruction; yet every mass that
darkened the air seemed to bear with it a portion of the martyred Raymond.
Horrible sights were shaped to me in the turbid cloud that hovered over the
city; and my only relief was derived from the struggles I made to approach
the gate. Yet when I effected my purpose, all I could discern within the
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