Noon
The litter of burnt fireworks , limp and crumbling , strewed the streets , and the tri-coloured lanterns and balloons , hanging pathetically from their wires , began to fall to pieces . Never in all the history of man had such a conjunction of events befallen a nation . From the heights of heaven 's rejoicing to be suddenly hurled to the depths of hell in piteous helpless grief ! Noon to midnight without a moment between . A pall of voiceless horror spread its shadows over the land . Nothing short of an earthquake or the sound of the archangel 's trumpet could have produced the sense of helpless consternation , the black and speechless despair . The people read their papers in tears .