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THE DESTROYING ANGEL.

THE DESTROYING ANGEL,

"AND it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle." The destroying angel is here represented under the gigantic form of a human agent hovering over the imperial palace, and scattering from his awful grasp the destruction which was to render every Egyptian parent a mourner, from the sovereign to the slave. The lightning is hurled from his hands with an unerring fatality that raises the wail of sorrow through the devoted city. The capital of the now heart-stricken Pharaoh is partially illumined by the desolating beam that pours along the horizon a stream of lurid light, which only imparts a deeper hue of horror to the surrounding darkness. Thousands of the bereaved inhabitants, in the agony of their sudden desolation, are seen crowding through the gates, spreading over the plain, and "mourning with a sore lamentation." Some are already busy preparing the rites of sepulture, which in so warm a climate, and after a death so sudden in the full energy of health, will not admit of delay. In the fore-ground is a group commencing the process of embalming. The corpse is laid out and the physicians are extracting the brains and intestines, in order to introduce the desiccative drugs which dry up the juices of the body and thus prevent it from putrifying. The whole scene exhibits the appalling activity of funereal preparation and the fearful solemnity of sorrow. The palace of Pharaoh rises conspicuously amid the splendid edifices of the capital in which the hope of the empire lies dead. The pyramids stand on the distant plain, and appear before the luminous horizon as if looking in solemn mockery upon the scene of desolation which is passing so near.

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