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Rh through the grove—the children came back, radiant with surprise and pleasure at the parting gift of the English traveller. It is worth while to travel, if it be only to enjoy the excitement of some entirely new species of natural beauty. Late as it was, Edward reined up his horse to gaze around him. The plain where he was riding was one immense thicket of the gum cistus, whose frail white leaves, just veined with the faintest pink, fell in showers at the least movement of the passer-by. What a prodigality of blossom!—for the gum cistus, born and withered in an hour, is the most ephemeral of flowers. Behind was a range of mountains, composed mostly of huge masses of granite; and the small sparkles on its surface glittered in the moon, which shone directly against them. Before him was a dense shade—the wood through which he had to pass; and over all was a sky so clear, as to be rather light than colour. The thickets gradually gave way to an open space, where the soft grass seemed unusually fragrant, perhaps from the quantity of thyme that grew among it. Soon a few gigantic trees, of the fir and cork kind, stood forth, like the advanced guard of an army; and Edward was