Both Uses of

comprehend
in
After the First Death

The full import of what was going on suddenly rushed into full and terrible comprehension.†
Part 2 *

comprehension = the understanding of something

What she was talking about—love, children, family—was beyond his comprehension.†
Part 10

Definitions:

(1) (comprehend)
to understand something -- especially to understand it completely
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

Much more rarely (and more frequently in the past), comprehend can mean to include as part of something broader. That was the first sense of the word listed in Webster's Dictionary of 1828 with this sample sentence: "The empire of Great Britain comprehends England, Scotland and Ireland, with their dependencies."