He
said, eagerly--

“It is wonderful!  Hath it always this dread effect?”

“Always, my liege--at least if the woman desire it, and utter the
needful words, either in her mind or with her tongue.”

Tom turned to the woman, and said with impetuous zeal--

“Exert thy power--I would see a storm!”

There was a sudden paling of cheeks in the superstitious assemblage, and
a general, though unexpressed, desire to get out of the place--all of
which was lost upon Tom, who was dead to everything but the proposed
cataclysm.