End of the world -- Fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; Science fiction; Twenty-first century -- Fiction
Our approach to Dover was announced by the loud roarings of the wintry
sea. They were borne miles inland by the sound-laden blast, and by
their unaccustomed uproar, imparted a feeling of insecurity and peril
to our stable abode. At first we hardly permitted ourselves to think
that any unusual eruption of nature caused this tremendous war of air
and water, but rather fancied that we merely listened to what we had
heard a thousand times before, when we had watched the flocks of
fleece-crowned waves, driven by the winds, come to lament and die on
the barren sands and pointed rocks. But we found upon advancing
farther, that Dover was overflowed— many of the houses were overthrown
by the surges which filled the streets, and with hideous brawlings
sometimes retreated leaving the pavement of the town bare, till again
hurried forward by the influx of ocean, they returned with
thunder-sound to their usurped station.
Hardly less disturbed than the tempestuous world of waters was the
assembly of human beings, that from the cliff fearfully watched its
ravings. On the morning of the arrival of the emigrants under the
conduct of Adrian, the sea had been serene and glassy, the slight
ripples refracted the sunbeams, which shed their radiance through the
clear blue frosty air. This placid appearance of nature was hailed as a
good augury for the voyage, and the chief immediately repaired to the
harbour to examine two steamboats which were moored there. On the
following midnight, when all were at rest, a frightful storm of wind
and clattering rain and hail first disturbed them, and the voice of one
shrieking in the streets, that the sleepers must awake or they would be
drowned; and when they rushed out, half clothed, to discover the
meaning of this alarm, they found that the tide, rising above every
mark, was rushing into the town. They ascended the cliff, but the
darkness permitted only the white crest of waves to be seen, while the
roaring wind mingled its howlings in dire accord with the wild surges.
The awful hour of night, the utter inexperience of many who had never
seen the sea before, the wailing of women and cries of children added
to the horror of the tumult. All the following day the same scene
continued. When the tide ebbed, the town was left dry; but on its flow,
it rose even higher than on the preceding night. The vast ships that
lay rotting in the roads were whirled from their anchorage, and driven
and jammed against the cliff, the vessels in the harbour were flung on
land like sea-weed, and there battered to pieces by the breakers. The
waves dashed against the cliff, which if in any place it had been
before loosened, now gave way, and the affrighted crowd saw vast
fragments of the near earth fall with crash and roar into the deep.
This sight operated differently on different persons. The greater part
thought it a judgment of God, to prevent or punish our emigration from
our native land. Many were doubly eager to quit a nook of ground now
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account