And in the midst of these various noises there was the young thawing spring, the muddy pools on the meadows, the trees of the squares which had suddenly become black.

From the sea a warm breeze was blowing in broad, moist gusts.

It was almost as if one could have seen the tiny fresh particles of air carried away, merged into the free, endless expanse of the atmosphere--could have heard them laughing in their flight.
At night the street grew quiet in the lonely light of the large, electric sun.

And then, the enormous fortress, within whose walls there was not a single light, passed into darkness and silence, separating itself from the ever living, stirring city by a wall of silence, motionlessness and darkness.

Then it was that the strokes of the clock became audible.