Page:Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, vol. 3 (1826).djvu/315

 broken loose from the menage of the Archbishop of Mentz. But, be it what it might, they pushed after it with the greatest resolution, because, when they had started it from its lurking place, they perceived that it had been tearing in pieces the body of a child.

“The direction which the monster took led them across a small stream, that divided their district from the neighbouring one, and brought them at last into a place dangerous for horsemen, and difficult for the pursuit of game. It was an extensive level, reaching from the rivulet to a distant range of hills, and would have been a plain had it not been covered with huge masses of detached rock, scattered about it, as if a large mountain had been dashed to pieces, and strewed over its surface. Many of the fragments were so large, that they resembled small cliffs, and from their tops and sides grew out and hung down trees and shrubs of every description. Several lay as if fallen against each other, so as to leave caverns and arches between their sides, and the red glare of the sun, setting behind the hills, gleamed through these openings in a wild and beautiful manner. Other pieces were small and plentiful, lying in heaps, as well as separately, amongst the larger masses;