The Captain got up, and placing the point of his bayonet against his
shoulder, flung him into the fiery element that raged behind him. He
uttered one wild and terrific cry, as he fell back, and no more. After
this nothing was heard but the crackling of the fire, and the rushing of
the blast; all that had possessed life within were consumed, amounting
either to eight or eleven persons.
When this was accomplished, those who took an active part in the murder,
stood for some time about the conflagration; and as it threw its red
light upon their fierce faces and rough persons, soiled as they now were
with smoke and black streaks of ashes, the scene seemed to be changed to
hell, the murderers to spirits of the damned, rejoicing over the arrival
and the torture of some guilty soul. The faces of those who kept aloof
from the slaughter were blanched to the whiteness of death: some of them
fainted, and others were in such agitation that they were compelled to
lean on their comrades. They became actually powerless with horror:
yet to such a scene were they brought by the pernicious influence of
Ribbonism.
It was only when the last victim went down, that the conflagration shot
up into the air with most unbounded fury. The house was large, deeply
thatched, and well furnished; and the broad red pyramid rose up with
fearful magnificence towards the sky.
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