rthquake.

In an instant the whole crew were on foot. The fault was the chief
gunner's; he had neglected to fix home the screw-nut of the mooring-chain,
and had so badly shackled the four wheels of the carronade that the play
given to the sole and frame had separated the platform, and ended by
breaking the breeching. The cordage had broken, so that the gun was no
longer secure on the carriage. The stationary breeching which prevents
recoil was not in use at that period. As a heavy wave struck the port-hole
the carronade, weakly attached, recoiled, burst its chain, and began to
rush wildly about.

Conceive, in order to have an idea of this strange sliding, the movements
of a drop of water running down a pane of glass.

At the moment when the lashings gave way the gunners were in the battery,
some in groups, others standing alone, occupied with such duties as
sailors perform in expectation of the command to clear for action. The
carronade, hurled forward by the pitching, dashed into this knot of men,
and crushed four at the first blow; then, flung back and shot out anew by
the rolling, it cut in two a fifth poor fellow, glanced off to the
larboard side, and struck a piece of the battery with such force as to
unship it.

Then rose the cry of distress which had been heard. The men rushed toward
the ladder; the gun-deck emptied in the twinkling of an eye. The enormous
cannon was left alone. She was given up to herself. She was her own
mistress, and mistress of the vessel. She could do what she willed with
both. The whole crew of the corvette, men accustomed to laugh in battle,
trembled now. To describe the universal terror would be impossible.

Captain Boisberthelot and Lieutenant Vieuville, although both intrepid
men, stopped at the head of the stairs, and remained mute, pale,
hesitating, looking down on the deck. Some one pushed them aside with his
elbow and descended.

It was their passenger, the peasant--the man of whom they had been
speaking a moment before.

When he reached the foot of the ladder, he stood still.

The cannon came and went along the deck. One might have fancied it the
living chariot of the Apocalypse. The marine lantern, oscillating from the
ceiling, added a confusing whirl of lights and shadows to the strange
vision. The shape of the cannon was undistinguishable from the rapidity of
its course; now it looked black in the light, now it cast weird
reflections through the gloom.

It kept on its