Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/401

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the emperor julian.
365

Julian.

All, all—from first to last!

Jovian.

I arrived at Jerusalem with the architects and soldiers, and the two thousand workmen. We went to work at once to clear the ground. Mighty remnants of the walls remained. They fell before our pickaxes and crowbars so easily that it seemed as though some unseen power were helping us to efface them——

Julian.

You see! What did I tell you!

Jovian.

In the meantime immense heaps of mortar were being brought together for the new building. Then, without any warning, there arose a whirlwind, which spread the lime like a cloud over the whole region.

Julian.

Go on; go on!

Jovian.

The same night the earth shook repeatedly.

Voices in the Crowd.

Hear that! The earth shook.

Julian.

Go on, I say!

Jovian.

We were nothing daunted by this strange event. But when we had dug so deep into the ground as to open the subterranean vaults, and the stone-hewers went down to work by torchlight——