Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/195

Rh to the roads, into the parks, the gardens, every spot where the face of the ground had not yet been torn up, until there was not a square yard of flat surface left. Waves of Ednogen ran over the grass, burning it up and setting fire to any woodwork that happened to lie among the ruins, and soon columns of fire and clouds of smoke rose up from what had, but a few hours before, been the fairest and most splendid city of the Universe. When day dawned it was but a shapeless heap of smoking ruins.

There was a slight pause in the destruction after the bombardment of London, while the hostile fleets retired to the transports for fresh supplies of ammunition, and then they divided into small squadrons and bombarded in turn most of the great cities of the earth. But their course of victory was now nearly run, and they were soon to be overtaken by the terrible vengeance of the enemies whom they thought they had conquered. They were already making preparations to land