"Signor," said their decurione or chasseur, riding up to the window which I had let down for the admission of air, "in three minutes we shall have a tremendous storm: perhaps la capitanessa would wish to seek a place of safety."
"But where?"
"Madonna only knows, excellency. The earth shakes, the air is thick. I am an old man, and remember with dread when last I saw such signs. Fly to the shore—the sea may ingulph you; to the hills—they may fall down and overwhelm you; to the plains—and the solid earth may yawn beneath your feet."
"Pleasant!" I said, considerably startled; "what do you advise? to seek Seminara? The spire of the Greek cathedral rises yonder above the pine woods and vapour of the marshes."
"No, signor, we are safer on the mountains or in the marshes: here let us remain and trust to Madonna for protection."
"In God alone is all my trust!" said the Scottish sergeant, whose knowledge of Latin enabled him to understand the sbirro; "but as for your Madonna——" he snapped his fingers without concluding.
The blackness was increasing fast, and we sought the shelter offered by a thick pine wood to escape the pelting rain; which rushed down in a torrent, every drop larger than a pistol bullet. As it would have been unsoldier-like to remain in the calesso while our escort were exposed to the storm, I passed the time under the trees rolled up in my military cloak, after securing the carriage doors to protect Bianca and her attendant; who drew their veils close to shut out the flashes of vivid lightning which every instant illumined the darkest dingles of the forest. A terrible noise, such as I had never heard before, rumbled in the earth and air. I looked to the sbirro; he was crossing himself and muttering an ave, while a sour presbyterian smile curled the lips of Gask, who leaned on his pike beside him. The chasseur, or decurione, ordered the horses to be unharnessed from the carriage; and I had soon reason to thank him sincerely for his forethought.
We saw the flames of distant Etna casting a light across the western sky; but in every other direction the heavens were involved in gloom or dark grey twilight. The whole atmosphere, however, soon began to assume an aspect so fiery, that over Seminara the dense clouds seemed as if rolling in flames; and we beheld the tall façade of the Greek abbey, the dark mountains and the arches of a ruined aqueduct between them, standing in bold outline and strong relief on the red and luminous background. The scene was wild and magnificent; but the drenching rain, and the roaring wind, which shook the strongest pines like ostrich feathers, and almost blew us away with the branches, leaves, and stones which it swept over the waste, the sulphureous state of the atmosphere, and the ground trembling beneath our feet, made us feel, altogether, too uncomfortable to enjoy the splendid aspect of the heavens and earth agitated by such a storm.
It was truly Calabrian! Our horses snorted and pranced, their manes bristled, their prominent eyes shot fire; and it required all our efforts to calm them, and keep them from breaking the bridle-reins which we had buckled to trees. Suddenly a most appalling clap of thunder burst over our heads, like the broadside of a fleet. A lofty and precipitous cliff of volcanic rock, which reared up its rugged front not far from us, heaved and reeled like some mighty animal convulsed with agony: shaken to the base by some tremendous subterranean throe, it rocked visibly, and the foliage on its summit was tossed like raven plumage on a hearse by the motion.
Anon a cry of dismay burst from the sbirri. An enormous mass became detached from the highest peak; rolling from its perpendicular front and rebounding from cliff to cliff it came thundering into the plain below, bringing with it a mighty ruin of shattered stones, dust, trees and soil, which fell like the fragments of a mountain, and with a force that shook the ground we stood on. The crash was deafening; a storm of leaves, small stones, and dust flew past us, and for a minute the air was fearfully dense, gloomy, and palpable. I reeled, and clung to the carriage-wheels for support; Bianca swooned; Gask was praying devoutly with his grenadier cap off, and the sbirri muttered their aves aloud: above us the thunder rolled on from peak to peak, and the lightning shot between them, while the air grew darker and more sulphureous.