Page:Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, vol. 3 (1826).djvu/324

 across the boundary stream, and amongst those wildly-scattered crags where it had once escaped before. But as Wolfgang had now more advantage than at that time, both in the freshness of his horse, and in the knowledge of the roads, which he had acquired by visiting the cottage, he was able to keep the boarwolf, (for so the monster was called by the peasantry,) in sight.

“The red glare of the setting sun was now again gleaming through the uncouth archways, and along the narrow passes of the rocks, as the impatient huntsman followed the brute into the centre of the great level. Here, entering upon a small sandy space, scattered over with fragments of stone and dead wood, Wolfgang lost sight of the animal, for, as it had reached the plain before him, he could not decide the way it had taken. His temper, which had long been giving way during the pursuit, now totally forsook him, and throwing himself from his horse, he rolled upon the sand, cursing and blaspheming every thing that came in his mind. He lay thus employed, at last with his face towards the ground, when, fancying that he felt a strange gust of heat pass over him, he turned his head, and beheld the figure of a being some-