Before us nothing at present
visible. We seemed to drift on for about one hundred or one
hundred and fifty yards more. We cannot distinguish a single
point in front of us on which to fix our gaze. But we still
continue our course in silence.
"This mournful darkness, this endless shroud, in which we can
discover neither rent nor spangle, still continues. Where are
we? Over what strange country, possessing neither cities, towns,
nor villages, are we hovering in the tomb-like silence of this
interminable darkness? We seem, indeed, to have been carried by
a puff of wind towards the west.
"But something seems to approach us. What are those pale rays of
light which we can faintly see a long, long way before us--rays
pale and soft, quite unlike those flaming fires we have left
behind us? Surely these do not denote the presence of human
activity! As we continue to advance, these pale flakes of
light--resembling nothing so much in appearance as molten
lead--which at first were scanty and isolated, gradually expand,
and leave only narrow strips of darkness to divide them into
fantastic shapes. By their help we discovered we were passing
over the immense marshes of Holland, which extended to and lost
themselves in the hazy horizon.
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