HARMONIES. 



season. Everywhere around are the remains of 

 the glorious city; walls, and gateways, and 

 columns of polished granite of rosy hue, or of* 

 marble that gleams like snow in the bright moon- 

 light; many standing in their desolateness, but 

 many more prostrate and half-buried in the drifted 

 sand. Some of the pillars are but dimly seen in 

 the gloomy shadow of the lofty walls, others 

 stand out boldly and brightly in the soft moon- 

 beams, while here and there a brilliant gleam 

 slants down through the windows of a ruined 

 edifice, and illumines the deep and delicate sculp- 

 ture of a fallen capital, or spreads over a heap of 

 disjointed stones. Under yon dark and gloomy 

 portal the eye wanders over distant funereal 

 towers crowning the eminences, the noble gate- 

 way of the grand avenue, and lines of columns 

 gradually lost in the distance. 



But while you gaze, there is a change. The 

 breeze, which had lifted the sand in playful eddies, 

 drops to perfect calmness. Black clouds are col- 

 lecting over the mountain range that forms the 

 distant horizon. The moon is obscured, and the 

 whole heaven becomes black with tempest. A 

 hurricane suddenly sweeps through the ruined 

 palaces, and fills the whole air with a dense fog of 

 blinding sand. Then a flash of forked lightning 

 shoots between the columns, illuminating themfor 

 an instant, and is instantaneously followed by a 

 bursting crash of thunder, which makes the tot- 

 tering fanes tremble, and huge drops of warm 

 rain, like blood-drops, are spattering the stones. 

 The rain now comes down in one universal deluge, 

 flooding the floors, and pouring off from the old 

 marble platforms in cataracts. Flash follows 

 flash in one continuous blaze of blinding light, 

 bringing out the grim marble towers and pillars 

 47 





