All stared at one another open-eyed,
Or at Giannolo—just as if some power
Before unknown in life had seized on them
With a tremendous sense of dire amaze,
Not knowing what the devil it could mean;
When all at once they took—and from them all
There rose a roar of laughter like a crash
Of thunder, and so near it that one seemed
To miss the lightning—or, as I might say,
’Twas like a flash of sound—and then again