Ralph,
greatly excited, regained his original stand of survey, and with
feelings of unrepressed horror beheld the catastrophe. The Georgian had
almost reached the top of the hill--another turn of the road gave him a
glimpse of the table upon which rested the hanging and disjointed cliff
of which we have spoken, when a voice was heard--a single voice--in
inquiry:--
"All ready?"
The reply was immediate--
"Ay, ay; now prize away, boys, and let go."
The advancing troop looked up, and were permitted a momentary glance of
the terrible fate which awaited them before it fell. That moment was
enough for horror. A general cry burst from the lips of those in front,
the only notice which those in the rear ever received of the danger
before it was upon them. An effort, half paralyzed by the awful emotion
which came over them, was made to avoid the down-coming ruin; but with
only partial success; for, in an instant after, the ponderous mass,
which hung for a moment like a cloud above them, upheaved from its bed
of ages, and now freed from all stays, with a sudden, hurricane-like and
whirling impetus, making the solid rock tremble over which it rushed,
came thundering down, swinging over one half of the narrow trace,
bounding from one side to the other along the gorge, and with the
headlong fury of a cataract sweeping everything from before its path
until it reached the dead level of the plain below.
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