At eleven he came to me and whispered that if anything
happened to him he depended on me to take his wife
and mother and his father, if possible, with me to
Africa. I grasped his hand and assured him of
my devotion. He then embraced Christina and his
mother and left them, weeping bitterly, in each other’s
arms.
There was a parapet around the roof. I went to
the corner of it, and, leaning over, looked down into
the street. Estella came and stood beside me.
She was very calm and quiet. The magnetic lights
yet burned, and the streets below me were almost as
bright as day. There were comparatively few persons
moving about. Here and there a carriage, or a
man on horseback, dashed furiously past, at full speed;
and I thought to myself, “The Oligarchy have
heard of the tremendous outbreak in Europe, and are
making preparations for another here.”
It was a still, clear night; and the great solemn
stars moved over the face of heaven unconscious or
indifferent as to what was going forward on this clouded
little orb.
I thought it must be nearly twelve. I drew out
my watch to look at the time. It lacked one minute
of that hour. Another instant, and the whole
city was wrapped in profound darkness. Some of
the workmen about the Magnetic Works were members
of the Brotherhood, and, in pursuance of their orders,
they had cut the connections of the works and blotted
out the light.
CHAPTER XXXI.
“SHEOL”
I looked down into the dark street. I could see
nothing; but immediately a confused buzz and murmur,
of motion everywhere, arose from the depths below
me. As it grew louder and clearer I could hear
the march of thousands of feet, moving rapidly; and
then a number of wagons, heavily loaded, creaked and
groaned over the pavements. I surmised that these
wagons were loaded with stones, and were to be used
in the construction of the barricades. There was
no music, no shouting, not even the sound of voices;
but tramp, tramp, tramp, in endless multitude, the
heavy feet went by; and now and then, where the light
yet streamed out of the window of some house, I could
see the glitter of the steel barrels of rifles; and
here and there I caught a glimpse of men on horseback,
officers apparently, but dressed in the rough garb
of workmen. Along the line of the houses near
me, I could see, at opened, lighted windows, an array
of pale faces, looking out with astonishment and terror
at this dark and silent procession, which seemed to
have arisen out of the earth, and was so vast that
one might dream that the trumpet of the archangel
had been blown, and all the dead of a thousand battle-fields
had risen up for one last grand review. And not
alone past our doors, but through all the streets
near us, the same mighty, voiceless procession moved
on; all converging to the quarter where the treasures
of the great city lay, heaped up in safe and vault.
Copyrights
Caesar's Column from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
