among the
people; and as the group moved I moved too, beginning to wish myself
well out of it.

We reached the west door; it led into a small lane or _gasse_, regarding
the geography of which I was quite at sea, for I had only been in it
once before. I stepped from the street into the lane, which was in the
very blackness of darkness, and seemed to be filled with wind and a
hurricane which one could almost distinguish and grasp.

The roar of the wind and the surging of water were all around, and were
deafening. I followed, as I thought, some voices which I heard, but
scarcely knew where I was going, as the wind seemed to be blowing all
ways at once, and there came to me an echo here and an echo there,
misleading rather than guiding. In a few moments I felt my foot upon
wood, and there was a loud creaking and rattling, as of chains, a
groaning, splitting, and great uproar going on, as well as a motion as
if I were on board a ship.

After making a few steps I paused. It was utterly impossible that I
could have got upon a boat--wildly impossible. I stood still, then went
on a few steps. Still the same extraordinary sounds--still such a
creaking and groaning--still the rush, rush, and swish, swish of water;
but not a human voice any more, not a light to be seen, not a sign!

With my hat long since stripped from my head and launched into darkness
and space, my hair lashed about me in all directions, my petticoats
twisted round me like ropes, I was utterly and completely bewildered by
the thunder and roar of all around. I no longer knew which way I had
come nor where to turn. I could not imagine where I was, and my only
chance seemed to be to hold fast and firm to the railing against which
the wind had unceremoniously banged me.

The creaking grew louder--grew into a crash; there was a splitting of
wood, a snapping of chains, a kind of whirl, and then I felt the wind
blow upon me, first upon this side, then from that, and became conscious
that the structure upon which I stood was moving--floating smoothly and
rapidly upon water. In an instant (when it was too late) it all flashed
upon my mind. I had wandered upon the Schiffbrucke, or bridge of boats
which crossed the Rhine from the foot of the market-place, and this same
bridge had been broken by the strength of the water and wind, and upon a
portion of it I was now floating down the river.

With my usual wisdom, and "the shrewd application of a wide experience
so pec