instant flight, fearing to see open before them some immense abyss,
engulfing the farms and villages for miles around.

The night was very dark. A weight of heavy clouds pressed down upon
the plain. Even had it been day the crest of the mountains would have
been invisible.

In the midst of this impenetrable obscurity, there was no response to
the cries which arose from every side. Frightened groups of men,
women, and children groped their way along the black roads in wild
confusion. From every quarter came the screaming voices: "It is an
earthquake!" "It is an eruption!" "Whence comes it?" "From the Great
Eyrie!"

Into Morganton sped the news that stones, lava, ashes, were raining
down upon the country.

Shrewd citizens of the town, however, observed that if there were an
eruption the noise would have continued and increased, the flames
would have appeared above the crater; or at least their lurid
reflections would have penetrated the clouds. Now, even these
reflections were no longer seen. If there had been an earthquake, the
terrified people saw that at least their houses had not crumbled
beneath the shock. It was possible that the uproar had been caused by
an avalanche, the fall of some mighty rock from the summit of the
mountains.

An hour passed without other incident. A wind from the west sweeping
over the long chain of the Blueridge, set the pines and hemlocks
wailing on the higher slopes. There seemed no new cause for panic;