The coalition on
which the government relied had broken down; the resignation of its
chief, a "transient and embarrassed phantom," was imminent; and it was
practically certain, in the singular dearth of older men on his own
side, since the retirement of Lord Parham, that within a few weeks, if
not days, Ashe would be called upon to form an administration....
The carriage was soon on its way again, and presently, in the darkness
of the superb ravine that stretches west and north from Gondo, the
tumult of wind and water was such that even Ashe's slackened pulses felt
the excitement of it. He left the carriage, and, wrapped in a waterproof
cape, breasted the wind along the water's edge. Wordsworth's magnificent
lines in the "Prelude," dedicated to this very spot, came back to him,
as to one who in these later months had been able to renew some of the
literary habits and recollections of earlier years
"--Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light!"
But here on this wild night were only tumult and darkness; and if Nature
in this aspect were still to be held, as Wordsworth makes her, the Voice
and Apocalypse of God, she breathed a power pitiless and terrible to
man.
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