Nothing less, too, than a visit from his Satanic majesty in
person was expected by the terrified rustics.
On gaining the outside, the whole burning mass was before them, one vast
pyramid of flame. Flakes of blazing matter were hurled into the sky,
with short and rapid explosions. The roar of the wind through the
glowing furnace was awful and appalling. Huge and ignited fragments were
borne away with frightful rapidity. They rode on the rolling volumes of
smoke like fire-fiends armed with destruction; but the vast reservoir of
flame still glowed on, apparently undiminished. The curtain of night
seemed to be suddenly undrawn. Objects the most minute were visible as
in the broad view of day. The brown heath, the grey and the mossy stone,
were each distinguishable, but clad alike in one bright and unvarying
colour, red as the roaring furnace. Soon the great magazine of
inflammable matter in the interior caught fire, and rolled out in a wide
mass of light, like the first burst of a volcano.
The stranger stood with apparent unconcern, his back to the flames,
looking from the brink of the mountain northward, as if on the watch for
corresponding signals.
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