and the most intense and impenetrable darkness,
covering a breadth of about two miles in the direction of its course.
Under some natural or supernatural influence, this vast and overcharged
volume of condensed vapor burst; its fragments contended with
indescribable fury, and huge bodies sometimes ascending toward heaven,
and sometimes precipitated upon the earth, struggled, as it were,
in mutual conflict, whirling in circles with intense velocity, and
accompanied by winds, impetuous beyond all conception; while flashes of
awful brilliancy, and murky, lurid flames incessantly broke forth.
From these confused clouds, furious winds, and momentary fires, sounds
issued, of which no earthquake or thunder ever heard could afford the
least idea; striking such awe into all, that it was thought the end
of the world had arrived, that the earth, waters, heavens, and entire
universe, mingling together, were being resolved into their ancient
chaos. Wherever this awful tempest passed, it produced unprecedented and
marvelous effects; but these were more especially experienced near the
castle of St. Casciano, about eight miles from Florence, upon the hill
which separates the valleys of Pisa and Grieve. Between this castle and
the Borgo St. Andrea, upon the same hill, the tempest passed without
touching the latter, and in the former, only threw down some of the
battlements and the chimneys of a few houses; but in the space between
them, it leveled many buildings quite to the ground. The roofs of the
churches of St. Martin, at Bagnolo, and Santa Maria della Pace, were
carried more than a mile, unbroken as when upon their respective
edifices. A muleteer and his beasts were driven from the road into the
adjoining valley, and found dead. All the large oaks and lofty trees
which could not bend beneath its influence, were not only stripped of
their branches but borne to a great distance from the places where
they grew, and when the tempest had passed over and daylight made the
desolation visible, the inhabitants were transfixed with dismay. The
country had lost all its habitable character; churches and dwellings
were laid in heaps; nothing was heard but the lamentations of those
whose possessions had perished, or whose cattle or friends were buried
beneath the ruins; and all who witnessed the scene were filled with
anguish or compassion. It was doubtless the design of the Omnipotent,
rather to threaten Tuscany than to chastise her; for had the