Page:Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, vol. 3 (1826).djvu/333

 cifully than before, and was in an instant close by the hermitage. The beauty, as if fearless of wild beasts, of lightning, or of thunder, stood at the door, waving her hand in encouragement to her lover, and he thought she seemed to enjoy the flashes of fire that glanced along before her; her face was bright, and her eyes shone, her hair floated in the wind. He heard her say, ‘Do you hear Hendrick?’ and in a moment was out of her sight and hearing, for, having turned a corner, the brute led him directly to the centre of the level. All the fury of the storm seemed likewise to tend that way, for the violence of the wind, rain, and hail, behind him, was almost intolerable. His horse rushed along, as if borne by a rapid stream, striving more to keep itself steady than to maintain its speed; the lightning flashed round every crag, and the thunder seemed rolling along upon the earth, and jarring at every instant with the scattered fragments of rock.

“Even these he fancied tottered as he passed them, and shook their crumbling edges on his head;—tittering and grinning whispers seemed to mock his ears, as he listened to the deep mouthings of Hendrick’s blood-hounds; and