away in hoarse murmurs.

Morning began to dawn, and spreading upon the mountains of the opposite
shore, shed a soft light over their misty sides. All was tranquil and
full of beauty. That element, which so lately in its rage had
threatened to ingulf them all, now flowed by the rocks at the foot of
the cave in gentle undulations; and where the spiral cliffs gave a
little resistance, the rays of the rising sun, striking on the bursting
waves, turned their vapory showers into dropping gems.

While his companions were still wrapped in sleep, Wallace stole away to
seek some knowledge respecting the part of the Isle of Arran on which
they were cast. Close by the mouth of the cave he discovered a cleft
in the rock, into which he turned, and finding the upward footing
sufficiently secure, clambered to the summit. Looking around, he found
himself at the skirt of a chain of high hills, which seemed to stretch
from side to side over the island, while their tops, in alpine
succession, rose in a thousand grotesque and pinnacled forms. The
ptarmigan and capercailzie were screaming from those upper regions; and
the nimble roes, with their fawns, bounding through the green defiles
below. No trace of human habitation appeared; but from the size and
known population of the island, he knew he could not be far from
inhabitants; and thinking it best to send the boatmen in search of
them, he retraced his steps. The morning vapors were fast rolling
their snowy wreaths down the opposite mountains, whose heads, shining
in resplendent purple, seemed to view themselves in the bright
reflections of the now smooth sea. Nature, like a proud conqueror,
appeared to have put on a triumphal garb, in exultation of the
devastation she had committed the night before. Wallace shuddered, as
the parallel occurred to his mind, and turned from the scene.