so long as life is left in us." I
believe they spoke thus feelingly because they thought I must fall
shortly dead upon the ground. I went immediately to inspect the
furnace, and found that the metal was all curdled; an accident which
we express by "being caked." I told two of the hands to cross the
road, and fetch from the house of the butcher Capretta a load of young
oak-wood, which had lain dry for above a year; this wood had been
previously offered me by Madame Ginevra, wife of the said Capretta. So
soon as the first armfuls arrived, I began to fill the grate beneath
the furnace. Now oak-wood of that kind heats more powerfully than any
other sort of tree; and for this reason, where a slow fire is wanted,
as in the case of gun foundry, alder or pine is preferred.
Accordingly, when the logs took fire, oh! how the cake began to stir
beneath that awful heat, to glow and sparkle in a blaze! At the same
time I kept stirring up the channels, and sent men upon the roof to
stop the conflagration, which had gathered force from the increased
combustion in the furnace; also I caused boards, carpets, and other
hangings to be set up against the garden, in order to protect us from
the violence of the rain.

When I had thus provided against these several disasters, I roared out
first to one man and then to another, "Bring this thing here! Take
that thing there!" At this crisis, when the whole gang saw the cake
was on the point of melting, they did my bidding, each fellow working
with the strength of three. I then ordered half a pig of pewter to be
brought, which weighed about sixty pounds, and flung it into the
middle of the cake inside the furnace. By this means, and by piling on
wood and stirring now with pokers and now with iron rods, the curdled
mass rapidly began to liquefy. Then, knowing I had brought the dead to
life again, against the firm opinion of those ignoramuses, I felt such
vigor fill my veins that all those pains of fever, all those fears of
death, were quite forgotten.

All of a sudden an explosion took place, attended by a tremendous
flash of flame, as though a thunderbolt had formed and been discharged
among us. Unwonted and appalling terror astonied every one, and me
more even than the rest. When the din was over and the dazzling light
extinguished, we began to look each other in the face. Then I
discovered that the cap of the furnace had blown up, and the bronze
was bubbling over from its source beneath. So I