rushed from various quarters of the heavens towards the great orb; they

whirled round it. The glare of light was intense to our dazzled eyes; the

sun itself seemed to join in the dance, while the sea burned like a

furnace, like all Vesuvius a-light, with flowing lava beneath. The horses

broke loose from their stalls in terror--a herd of cattle, panic struck,

raced down to the brink of the cliff, and blinded by light, plunged down

with frightful yells in the waves below. The time occupied by the

apparition of these meteors was comparatively short; suddenly the three

mock suns united in one, and plunged into the sea. A few seconds

afterwards, a deafening watery sound came up with awful peal from the spot

where they had disappeared.

Meanwhile the sun, disencumbered from his strange satellites, paced with

its accustomed majesty towards its western home. When--we dared not trust

our eyes late dazzled, but it seemed that--the sea rose to meet it--it

mounted higher and higher, till the fiery globe was obscured, and the wall

of water still ascended the horizon; it appeared as if suddenly the motion

of earth was revealed to us--as if no longer we were ruled by ancient

laws, but were turned adrift in an unknown region of space. Many cried

aloud, that these were no meteors, but globes of burning matter, which had

set fire to the earth, and caused the vast cauldron at our feet to bubble

up with its measureless waves; the day of judgment was come they averred,

and a few moments would transport us before the awful countenance of the

omnipotent judge; while those less given to visionary terrors, declared

that two conflicting gales had occasioned the last phaenomenon. In support

of this opinion they pointed out the fact that the east wind died away,

487

The Last Man