The Valley of Vision | Page 3

calamity fell upon me. I said to myself:
"That was Man! And the other was God! And they have parted!"
Then the multitude of bells hidden in the lace-work of the high tower
began to sound. It was not the aerial fluttering music of the carillon that
I remembered hearing long ago from the belfries of the Low Countries.
This was a confused and strident ringing, jangled and broken, full of
sudden tumults and discords, as if the tower were shaken and the bells
gave out their notes at hazard, in surprise and trepidation.
It stopped as suddenly as it began. The great bell of the hours struck
twelve. The windows of the cathedral glowed faintly with a light from
within.
"It is New Year's Eve," I thought--although I knew perfectly well that
the time was late summer. I had seen that though the leaves on the trees
of the square were no longer fresh, they had not yet fallen.
I was certain that I must go into the cathedral. The western entrance
was shut. I hurried to the south side. The dark, low door of the transept
was open. I went in. The building was dimly lighted by huge candles
which flickered and smoked like torches. I noticed that one of them,
fastened against a pillar, was burning crooked, and the tallow ran down
its side in thick white tears.
The nave of the church was packed with a vast throng of people, all
standing, closely crowded together, like the undergrowth in a forest.
The rood-screen was open, or broken down, I could not tell which. The
choir was bare, like a clearing in the woods, and filled with blazing
light.
On the high steps, with his back to the altar, stood Man, his face
gleaming with pride.
"I am the Lord!" he cried. "There is none above me! No law, no God!

Man is power. Man is the highest of all!"
A tremor of wonder and dismay, of excitement and division, shivered
through the crowd. Some covered their faces. Others stretched out their
hands. Others shook their fists in the air. A tumult of voices broke from
the multitude--voices of exultation, and anger, and horror, and strife.
The floor of the cathedral was moved and lifted by a mysterious
ground-swell. The pillars trembled and wavered. The candles flared and
went out. The crowd, stricken dumb with a panic fear, rushed to the
doors, burst open the main entrance, and struggling in furious silence
poured out of the building. I was swept along with them, striving to
keep on my feet.
One thought possessed me. I must get to my wife and child, save them,
bring them out of this accursed city.
As I hurried across the square I looked up at the cathedral spire. It was
swaying and rocking in the air like the mast of a ship at sea. The
lace-work fell from it in blocks of stone. The people rushed screaming
through the rain of death. Many were struck down, and lay where they
fell.
I ran as fast as I could. But it was impossible to run far. Every street
and alley vomited men--all struggling together, fighting, shouting, or
shrieking, striking one another down, trampling over the fallen--a
hideous melee. There was an incessant rattling noise in the air, and
heavier peals as of thunder shook the houses. Here a wide rent yawned
in a wall--there a roof caved in--the windows fell into the street in
showers of broken glass.
How I got through this inferno I do not know. Buffeted and blinded,
stumbling and scrambling to my feet again, turning this way or that
way to avoid the thickest centres of the strife, oppressed and paralyzed
by a feeling of impotence that put an iron band around my heart, driven
always by the intense longing to reach my wife and child, somehow I
had a sense of struggling on. Then I came into a quieter quarter of the
town, and ran until I reached the lodging where I had left them.
They were waiting just inside the door, anxious and trembling. But I
was amazed to find them so little panic-stricken. The little girl had her
doll in her arms.
[Illustration with caption: The cathedral spire... was swaying and
rocking in the air like the mast of a ship at sea.] "What is it?" asked my

wife. "What must we do?"
"Come," I cried. "Something frightful has happened here. I can't
explain now. We must get away at once. Come, quickly."
Then I took a hand of each and we hastened through the streets,
vaguely steering away from the centre of the city.
Presently we came into that wide new street of mean houses, of which I
have already spoken. There were a few people in