The black darkness about him appeared, after an interval, to be dawning
into a dull, misty light, like the reflection on clouds which threaten
a thunderstorm at the close of day. Soon this atmosphere seemed to be
crossed and streaked with a fantastic trellis work of white, seething
vapor. Then the mass of brickwork which had fallen in, grew visible,
enlarged to an enormous bulk and endowed with the power of locomotion,
by which it mysteriously swelled and shrank, raised and depressed
itself, without quitting for a moment its position near him. And then,
from its dark and toiling surface, there rose a long array of dusky
shapes, which twined themselves about the misty trellis work above and
took the palpable forms of human countenances.