Ralph, greatly excited, regained his original stand of survey, and with feelings of unrepressed horror beheld the catastrophe.

The Georgian had almost reached the top of the hill--another turn of the road gave him a glimpse of the table upon which rested the hanging and disjointed cliff of which we have spoken, when a voice was heard--a single voice--in inquiry:-- "All ready ?" The reply was immediate-- "Ay, ay; now prize away, boys, and let go." The advancing troop looked up, and were permitted a momentary glance of the terrible fate which awaited them before it fell.

That moment was enough for horror.

A general cry burst from the lips of those in front, the only notice which those in the rear ever received of the danger before it was upon them.

An effort, half paralyzed by the awful emotion which came over them, was made to avoid the down-coming ruin; but with only partial success; for, in an instant after, the ponderous mass, which hung for a moment like a cloud above them, upheaved from its bed of ages, and now freed from all stays, with a sudden, hurricane-like and whirling impetus, making the solid rock tremble over which it rushed, came thundering down, swinging over one half of the narrow trace, bounding from one side to the other along the gorge, and with the headlong fury of a cataract sweeping everything from before its path until it reached the dead level of the plain below.