Kenkenes, with many others, looked back and saw that the pillar,
illuminated, but no longer illuminating, had halted above a solitary
figure of seemingly super-human stature in the morning gray, standing
on an eminence, overlooking the sea.
The arm was uplifted and outstretched, tense and motionless.
From his superior height, Kenkenes saw, over the heads of the immense
concourse, two lines of foam riding like the wind across the sea-bed
toward each other. Between them was a great body of plunging horses;
overhead a forest of fluttering banners; and faint from the commotion
came shouts and wild notes of trumpets. Then the two lines of foam
smote against each other with a fearful rush and a muffled report like
the cannonading of surf. A mountain of water pitched high into the air
and collapsed in a vast froth, which spread abroad over the churning,
wallowing sea. The falling wind dashed a sheet of spray over the
silent host on the eastern shore. Sharp against the white foam, dark
objects and masses sank, arose, and sank again.
At that moment the sun thrust a broad shaft of light between the
horizon and the lifted cloud.
It discovered only the sea, raving and stormy, and afar to the west a
misty, vacant, lifeless line of shore.
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