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Rh suited the oracles of old—an articulate though unknown language,—and ever and anon rushing from its depths till the slight bark was hidden by the driven waters; while overhead hung one dense mass of cloud—a gathered storm, heavy as the woods it overshadowed. The banks on the other side were as those of another world; there arose rocks covered with coloured lichens, or bare and showing the rainbow-stained granite, and between them small open spaces of long soft grass, filled with yellow flowers; and here and there slight shrubs yielding to the wind, and one or two stately trees which defied it. Still the tempest was evidently rolling away in the distance; a few large drops of rain seemed to be the melting of the light which was now breaking through its cloudy barrier; already the moon, like the little bark beneath, was visible amid surrounding darkness, and at last illuminated, encouragingly, the deck and its youthful master, whose noble and romantic style of beauty suited well a scene like this.

The excitement of the moment had given even more than its ordinary paleness to his cheek, while its character of determination redeemed, what was almost a fault, the feminine delicacy of his mouth; the moonlight above