Chapter IV
CHAPTER IV.A CONVULSION OF NATURE.
Whence came it that at that very moment the horizon
underwent so strange and sudden a modification, that the
eye of the most practised mariner could not distinguish
between sea and sky?
Whence came it that the billows raged and rose to a
height hitherto unregistered in the records of science?
Whence came it that the elements united in one deafening
crash; that the earth groaned as though the whole
framework of the globe were ruptured; that the waters
roared from their innermost depths; that the air shrieked
with all the fury of a cyclone?
Whence came it that a radiance, intenser than the
effulgence of the Northern Lights, overspread the firmament,
and momentarily dimmed the splendour of the
brightest stars?
Whence came it that the Mediterranean, one instant
emptied of its waters, was the next flooded with a foaming
surge?
Whence came it that in the space of a few seconds the
moon's disc reached a magnitude as though it were but a
tenth part of its ordinary distance from the earth?
Whence came it that a new blazing spheroid, hitherto
unknown to astronomy, now appeared suddenly in the
firmament, though it were but to lose itself immediately
behind masses of accumulated cloud?
What phenomenon was this that had produced a cataclysm
so tremendous in its effects upon earth, sky, and
sea?
Was it possible that a single human being could have
survived the convulsion? and if so, could he explain its
mystery?