We knocked the head out of an empty hogshead and hoisted this hogshead to the flat roof of the chapel,where we clamped it down fast,poured in gunpowder till it lay loosely an inch deep on the bottom,then we stood up rockets in the hogshead as thick as they could loosely stand,all the different breeds of rockets there are;and they made a portly and imposing sheaf,I can tell you.We grounded the wire of a pocket electrical battery in that powder,we placed a whole magazine of Greek fire on each corner of the roof --blue on one corner,green on another,red on another,and purple on the last --and grounded a wire in each.
About two hundred yards off,in the flat,we built a pen of scantlings,about four feet high,and laid planks on it,and so made a platform.We covered it with swell tapestries borrowed for the occasion,and topped it off with the abbot's own throne.When you are going to do a miracle for an ignorant race,you want to get in every detail that will count;you want to make all the properties impressive to the public eye;you want to make matters comfortable for your head guest;then you can turn yourself loose and play your effects for all they are worth.I know the value of these things,for I know human nature.You can't throw too much style into a miracle.It costs trouble,and work,and sometimes money;but it pays in the end.Well,we brought the wires to the ground at the chapel,and then brought them under the ground to the platform,and hid the batteries there.We put a rope fence a hundred feet square around the platform to keep off the common multitude,and that finished the work.My idea was,doors open at 10:30,performance to begin at 11:25sharp.I wished I could charge admission,but of course that wouldn't answer.I instructed my boys to be in the chapel as early as 10,before anybody was around,and be ready to man the pumps at the proper time,and make the fur fly.Then we went home to supper.
The news of the disaster to the well had traveled far by this time;and now for two or three days a steady avalanche of people had been pouring into the valley.The lower end of the valley was become one huge camp;we should have a good house,no question about that.Criers went the rounds early in the evening and announced the coming attempt,which put every pulse up to fever heat.They gave notice that the abbot and his official suite would move in state and occupy the platform at 10:30,up to which time all the region which was under my ban must be clear;the bells would then cease from tolling,and this sign should be permission to the multitudes to close in and take their places.
I was at the platform and all ready to do the honors when the abbot's solemn procession hove in sight --which it did not do till it was nearly to the rope fence,because it was a starless black night and no torches permitted.With it came Merlin,and took a front seat on the platform;he was as good as his word for once.One could not see the multitudes banked together beyond the ban,but they were there,just the same.The moment the bells stopped,those banked masses broke and poured over the line like a vast black wave,and for as much as a half hour it continued to flow,and then it solidified itself,and you could have walked upon a pavement of human heads to --well,miles.
We had a solemn stage-wait,now,for about twenty minutes --a thing I had counted on for effect;it is always good to let your audience have a chance to work up its expectancy.At length,out of the silence a noble Latin chant --men's voices --broke and swelled up and rolled away into the night,a majestic tide of melody.I had put that up,too,and it was one of the best effects I ever invented.When it was finished I stood up on the platform and extended my hands abroad,for two minutes,with my face uplifted --that always produces a dead hush --and then slowly pronounced this ghastly word with a kind of awfulness which caused hundreds to tremble,and many women to faint:
