Angels and Women (1924)

204 ANGELS AND WOMEN
painful, awful stillness brooded over all.
The city was aroused. Housetop and towers
became crowded with men gazing at the portentous
heavens. Suddenly, as by a common
impulse, all eyes were turned to the
North, whence had come but shortly before
the chill blast and terrible shudder.
0 sight of horror, before which even the
heart of the boldest Deva must quail l Entirely
across the entrance of the valley,
crowding the very mountaintops, appeared
a mighty wall, tottering, crashing, falling,
pressed forward by some invisible power.
Upon its awful front, in confusion which
dazed the sight, were borne timbers, fragments
of buildings, earth, rocks and mutilated
bodies of animals and creatures of the
sea. But most dreadful of all, tossed in uncertain
motion, were the ghastly corpses of
dead men and women and children.
Beyond and above, heaped against the
lowering sky, were seen oncoming cold,
angry seas, raging breakers, monster water-