Until this moment my soul had been in my eyes only.  I had gazed with wonder, mixed with fear and enthusiasm.  The latter feeling now predominated.  I forgot the distance between us:  “I will go with thee, Raymond!” I cried; but, my eye removed from the glass, I could scarce discern the pigmy forms of the crowd, which about a mile from me surrounded the gate; the form of Raymond was lost.  Stung with impatience, I urged my horse with force of spur and loosened reins down the acclivity, that, before danger could arrive, I might be at the side of my noble, godlike friend.  A number of buildings and trees intervened, when I had reached the plain, hiding the city from my view.  But at that moment a crash was heard.  Thunderlike it reverberated through the sky, while the air was darkened.  A moment more and the old walls again met my sight, while over them hovered a murky cloud; fragments of buildings whirled above, half seen in smoke, while flames burst out beneath, and continued explosions filled the air with terrific thunders.  Flying from the mass of falling ruin which leapt over the high walls, and shook the ivy towers, a crowd of soldiers made for the road by which I came; I was surrounded, hemmed in by them, unable to get forward.  My impatience rose to its utmost; I stretched out my hands to the men; I conjured them to turn back and save their General, the conqueror of Stamboul, the liberator of Greece; tears, aye tears, in warm flow gushed from my eyes—­I would not believe in his destruction; yet every mass that darkened the air seemed to bear with it a portion of the martyred Raymond.  Horrible sights were shaped to me in the turbid cloud that hovered over the city; and my only relief was derived from the struggles I made to approach the gate.  Yet when I effected my purpose, all I could discern within the precincts of the massive walls was a city of fire:  the open way through which Raymond had ridden was enveloped in smoke and flame.  After an interval the explosions ceased, but the flames still shot up from various quarters; the dome of St. Sophia had disappeared.  Strange to say (the result perhaps of the concussion of air occasioned by the blowing up of the city) huge, white thunder clouds lifted themselves up from the southern horizon, and gathered over-head; they were the first blots on the blue expanse that I had seen for months, and amidst this havoc and despair they inspired pleasure.  The vault above became obscured, lightning flashed from the heavy masses, followed instantaneously by crashing thunder; then the big rain fell.  The flames of the city bent beneath it; and the smoke and dust arising from the ruins was dissipated.