e battle which the brightness of lightning and the old
night waged untiringly about it. A thousand glowing arms embraced the
tower with such ardor that it seemed as if it would be consumed in
their glow; like a great surging sea the light broke upon its walls,
only to fall back again before the power of night which engulfed all
in its dark flood. The mass of pale faces, pressed close together at
the foot of the tower, flashed into view during momentary gleams of
light but were soon lost again in dreary blackness. The storm tore at
their hats and coats, blew hair into their faces, struck them with
flapping garments and pelted them with glistening drops of snow, as if
it wanted to make them atone for the wounds it received when it beat
as rain on the rocky ribs of the tower. And as the people now
appeared, now disappeared in alternating light and darkness, so also
their confused attempts at conversation were drowned at every turn by
storm and thunder.

Somebody called out in self-consolation: "It was a harmless flash;
though it struck, nothing caught fire." Somebody else thought that the
flame might still break out. A third became angry; he took this
suggestion as a wish that the flame might break out. He had been
comforted by the first thought; he had to avenge himself for the
uneasiness which the suggestion created in his mind. Trembling with
cold and anxiety, many stared up stupidly with blinded eyes into space
and knew not even why. A hundred voices explained what misfortune
would befall the town, must befall it, if the lightning had really
struck and the tower had caught fire. Some told of the nature of
slate, how it melts in fire and is carried as slack through the air,
often setting fire to a whole city at the same time. Others lamented
that the storm would further a possible fire, and that there would be
no water with which to extinguish it. Still others said that if there
were any water it would freeze in the engines and be of no avail. Most
of them depicted with fearful eloquence the course that the fire would
take. If the burning truss should fall the storm would blow it right
where there was a thick cluster of houses, quite near the tower. This
was the most dangerous place in the whole town in case of fire, for
there were numberless frame verandas in narrow courts, boarded gable
roofs and shingle-covered sheds, all crowded so closely together that
it would be impossible for a fire-engine to be squeezed in amon