He was stunned with the awfulness of it all, and yet he was not afraid.
Until then, he had imagined fear in a very different form. He felt an
agonizing vacuum in his stomach. He staggered violently all the time, as
though some force were pushing him about, giving him first a blow on the
chest, and then another on the back to straighten him up.
A strong smell of acids penetrated the atmosphere, making respiration
very difficult, and filling his eyes with smarting tears. On the other
hand, the uproar no longer disturbed him, it did not exist for him. He
supposed it was still going on from the trembling air, the shaking of
things around him, in the whirlwind which was bending men double but was
not reacting within his body. He had lost the faculty of hearing; all
the strength of his senses had concentrated themselves in looking. His
eyes appeared to have acquired multiple facets like those of certain
insects. He saw what was happening before, beside, behind him,
simultaneously witnessing extraordinary things as though all the laws of
life had been capriciously overthrown.
An official a few feet away suddenly took an inexplicable flight. He
began to rise without losing his military rigidity, still helmeted, with
furrowed brow, moustache blond and short, mustard-colored chest,
and gloved hands still holding field-glasses and map--but there his
individuality stopped.
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