It was as if Nature herself, in supreme anguish and abandonment, had cast herself prone on the earth, and her great heart had throbbed audibly, shaking the world with its beats.

No more thunder followed, but the rain was coming down heavily now in huge drops that fell straight through the gloomy, windless air.
In half a minute I was drenched to the skin; but for a short time the rain seemed an advantage, as the brightness of the falling water lessened the gloom, turning the air from dark to lighter grey.

This subdued rain-light did not last long: I had not been twenty minutes in the wood before a second and greater darkness fell on the earth, accompanied by an even more copious downpour of water.

The sun had evidently gone down, and the whole sky was now covered with one thick cloud.

Becoming more nervous as the gloom increased, I bent my steps more to the south, so as to keep near the border and more open part of the wood.