They fell like a row of ninepins, blackened in face and hand in
an instant,--in the twinkling of an eye. Dead. The electric flame
licked the life out of seven men in that second; not one moved a
muscle or a finger again. Then followed a wild scene. The crowd,
stupefied for a minute by the thunderbolt and the horror of the
devastation it had wrought, presently recovered sense, and with
a mighty shout hurled itself against the palisade, burst it, leapt
over it and swarmed into the quadrangle, easily overpowering the
unnerved guards. I was surrounded; eager hands unbound mine;
arms were thrown about me; the people roared, and wept, and triumphed,
and fell about me on their knees praising Heaven. I think rain fell,
my face was wet with drops, and my hair,--but I knew no more, for
I swooned and lay unconscious in the arms of the crowd. My rescue
had indeed come, and from the very Heavens!

--Rome, April 12, 1887





Dream-Verses




"Through the Ages"


Wake, thou that sleepest! Soul, awake!