"Yes, indeed, sir, very far!" I replied, and nearly fell.
"Hold him!" cried Aurora to Hagen.
The little red Hussar obeyed.
"Look out!" the Grand Duke broke in suddenly. "That's exactly what I feared."
Catching hold of his wife, he had suddenly jumped back a dozen yards or so. We all followed suit, stupefied.
An enormous flame, purple and gold, shot up into the glowing sky, followed by an appalling explosion. We saw the walls of the castle part asunder, totter and then collapse with a crash. A shower of fragments of every kind, wood and plaster, tiles and sparks fell on and around us. Beside us Captain Müller, who had gone forward, was hit by something. We saw him fall to the ground, with his head bleeding.
Professor Cyrus Beck's laboratory had just blown up.
The firemen turned up almost immediately and set to work to localize the fire. In the Great Court behind we could hear the measured, muffled sound of the garrison troops coming up at the double.
By one o'clock the fire had been got under. At half-past they were bringing out the first corpses.
About two the first streaks of gold appeared in the sky and a serene dawn shone forth.