How I escaped destruction I could not comprehend, but in fact I was unconscious of danger from that source.

I had become in spirit an actual component of the clashing, roaring mass.

Tremendous sparks of electricity, veritable lightning strokes, darted about me in every direction, but I bore a charmed life.

As the comet drew in nearer to the sun, under the terrible stress of the solar attraction, the meteors seemed to crowd closer, crashing and grinding together, while the whole mass swayed and shrieked with the uproar of a million tormented devils.
The heat had become terrific.

I saw stone and iron melted like snow and dissipated in steam.