midnight
The whole place , except one little region of Galata , was like so much tinder , and in the five hours between 8 P.M. and 1 A.M. all was over . I saw the tops of those vast masses of cemetery-cypresses round the tombs of the Osmanlis outside the walls , and those in the cemetery of Kassim , and those round the sacred mosque of Eyoub , shrivel away instantaneously , like flimsy hair caught by a flame ; I saw the Genoese tower of Galata go heading obliquely on an upward curve , like Sir Roger de Coverley and wild rockets , and burst high , high , with a report ; in pairs , and threes , and fours , I saw the blue cupolas of the twelve or fourteen great mosques give in and subside , or soar and rain , and the great minarets nod the head , and topple ; and I saw the flames reach out and out across the empty breadth of the Etmeidan -- three hundred yards -- to the six minarets of the Mosque of Achmet , wrapping the red Egyptian-granite obelisk in the centre ; and across the breadth of the Serai-Meidani it reached to the buildings of the Seraglio and the Sublime Porte ; and across those vague barren stretches that lie between the houses and the great wall ; and across the seventy or eighty great arcaded bazaars , all-enwrapping , it reached ; and the spirit of fire grew upon me : for the Golden Horn itself was a tongue of fire , crowded , west of the galley-harbour , with exploding battleships , Turkish frigates , corvettes , brigs -- and east , with tens of thousands of feluccas , caiques , gondolas and merchantmen aflame . On my left burned all Scutari ; and between six and eight in the evening I had sent out thirty-seven vessels under low horse-powers of air , with trains and fuses laid for 11 P.M. , to light with their wandering fires the Sea of Marmora . By midnight I was encompassed in one great furnace and fiery gulf , all the sea and sky inflamed , and earth a-flare . Not far from me to the left I saw the vast Tophana barracks of the Cannoniers , and the Artillery-works , after long reluctance and delay , take wing together ; and three minutes later , down by the water , the barrack of the Bombardiers and the Military School together , grandly , grandly ; and then , to the right , in the valley of Kassim , the Arsenal : these occupying the sky like smoky suns , and shedding a glaring day over many a mile of sea and land ; I saw the two lines of ruddier flaring where the barge-bridge and the raft-bridge over the Golden Horn made haste to burn ; and all that vastness burned with haste , quicker and quicker -- to fervour -- to fury -- to unanimous rabies : and when its red roaring stormed the infinite , and the might of its glowing heart was Gravitation , Being , Sensation , and I its compliant wife -- then my head nodded , and with crooked lips I sighed as it were my last sigh , and tumbled , weak and drunken , upon my face . * * * * * * * * * * O wild Providence ! Unfathomable madness of Heaven !