Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-06-10

sne was always spoken OF as the Ciaz-
"a.
The grandmother sent me. How
I've run !''-and the quick painting of
her young lungs confirmed this.
Make the best of your way to Catania
before it catches YOU" .....
"Before what catches me2" asked I,
astonished. 1-g s'' -- .a..ar.rr.. ... r.
"The gulf-the gulf of fire'' return
ed the girl, impatiently. "She wishes
you naught but good, signor, so she
sent me, but don't tell those hounds
with the heads of swine" and she shook
her fist, with stealthy hate, at q carous-
ing group of our sulphur seekers, and
then before could demand an explana-
ton was gone. . ...... ..- -.--.-
What did this portend9 ..rf.
turned my eyes toward the barren
track that lay, cinder strewn, beyond
the greenery of the forest, and saw
something like fiery serpent come
slowly creeping along the ground, in an
irregular course, the black and gray ash
heaps reddening as it advanced.
Slow and silent, on it crept, and pres
emily ] saw the dry moss and dead leaves
on the outskirts of the wood suddenly
take fire, as though the flaming breath
of the giant serpent had kindled them.
And then l felt that mischief WAS in
deed at hand, and uplifted my voice to
the utmost to give the alarm.
A mightier voice than mine drowned
my feeble accents. There was roar
as if Thousand cannon had been fred
at once, and then there scared up to the
l,oA Fo1 -.
fiery rain on lawn and wood, while
moss, grass, and brush, and even entire
trees, begun to blaze and crackle. Nor
was this all, for the treacherous crust of
the volcanic mountain heaved and
cracked. opening out into flaming fis-
sures which, in the form of circle rude
ly traced, seemed threatening to sur
round us.
An indescribable period of panic en-
sued. The gay picnic party broke up,
and its members, mixed pell-mell with
the terrified sulphur workers, hurried
headlong down the hillside, some on
mules, but most on foot, abandoning
the late scene of festivity, and absorbed
in the one impulse of self-preservation
1t was to no purpose that endeavored
to preserve something like discipline
among our own men. Fear was too
strong for my efforts to be availing, and
inspector and visitors, guides, servants
and miners seemed to contend in the
frantic race for safety.
{" The gulf!-the gulf of fire !'-such
were the words that repeatedly reached
me as the crowd hurried down the steep
and winding road, and / knew the
phrase to indicate one of those occa-
below by which fresh crater is estab-
lished.
My first intention had been to pre-
serve the money and stores which be-
long to government, but already the
huts were burning, and the disorder SO
general that none needed my summons.
Lshould have followed the retreating
mob, when, turning my head, beheld
q spectacle which caused my very heart
to cease beating, so great was the horror
of it. Some fifty yards off, on the other
side of fiery chasm, that scanned the
earth like the gaping mouth of some
monstrous beast of prey, stood alone the
pretty English child, with golden hair
hanging in wavy ringlets, who had pre-
yiously attracted my notice. She had
strayed, doubtless, from her friends i'll
the confusion, and now stood to all ap-
pearance amused, but not alarmed, as
she gazed at the bright hues of the in
candescent sulphur, now cherry red,
now saffron, then palest pink or darken-
ing amethyst, that bubbled at her feet.
1t was fearful to see the innocent young
thing, SO unconscious of her danger,
smiling as it were in the very jaws of
death.
Had the risk been greater one, I
could not have resisted the impulse
which prompted me; and almost before
I had time to realize what was doing,
1 had bounded across the glowing fis-
sure and snatched up the child in my
arms.
Then for the first time she began to
cry aloud:
"Oh, mamma, mamma, help me !"
Hastily I did my best to soothe her,
and the sound of the familiar English
words and voice, and my assurance that
l had come to take her to her mother,
quieted her; but as turned to retrace
my steps, dense cloud of suffocating
smoke arose, cutting off all view of the
plateau, and when it dispersed l found
the chasm had widened to an extent
such as precluded all hope of striding
or leaping across it, while another roar,
and shower of hot ashes mixed with
blocks of pumice-stone warned me that
to hnger was as perilous as to fly. Only
one mode of escape seemed practicable,
and accordingly L skirted the chasm,
making for spot some three hundred
yards away, where rock appeared to
form a natural bridge over the red-hot
fissure. Wrapping my shaggy sailors
jacket around the child, to screen her as
far as possible from the hot ashes that
fell at intervals, pushed resolutely on.
shall never, to my dying day, forget
what I underwent in the passage of
those three hundred yards. Gasping
and half suffocated by tho pestilential
vapors, blinded by the smoke, and with
eyes scared by the glare, and feet
scorched by the almost intolerable heat
of the earth, 1 staggered on with my
burden in my arms. Twice the thin
crust that heaved beneath me seemed to
be breaking under our weight, and L
gave myself up for lost; but at length,
dizzy and breathless, reached therock,
and saw beyond it a broad space cleared
by woodcutters, probably, for only the
stumps of trees long since felled pro-
truded from the soil. AS [ did SO, with
crash the rock fell in, and the flames
leaped up like splashing water; but I
managed to plant one foot upon cor
ner of the great stone, and, with des-
perate bound, cleared the chasm, with
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