The
dead and soothing calm which succeeded this tornado called him back
again gradually to existence. He opened his eyes, and, scarcely daring
to try a sense, immediately shut them; then hearing a deep sigh, he
shrugged his shoulders, and looked as pitiable as a prime minister with
a rebellious cabinet. At length he ventured to lift up his head; there
was not a wrinkle on the face of ocean; a halcyon fluttered over him,
and then scudded before his canoe, and gamesome porpoises were tumbling
at his side. The sky was cloudless, except in the direction to which he
was driving; but even as Popanilla observed, with some misgivings, the
mass of vapours which had there congregated, the great square and solid
black clouds drew off like curtains, and revealed to his entranced
vision a magnificent city rising out of the sea.
Tower, and dome, and arch, column, and spire, and obelisk, and lofty
terraces, and many-windowed palaces, rose in all directions from a mass
of building which appeared to him each instant to grow more huge, till
at length it seemed to occupy the whole horizon.
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