wreathing itself in lurid spires around the huge crag that now rose in
sight; and again, as the thunder rolled onward, darting its vain fury
upon the rushing cataract, and the tortured breast of the gulf that raved
below low. And the sounds that filled the air were even more fraught with
terror and menace than the scene;--the waving, the groans, the crash of
the pines on the hill, the impetuous force of the rain upon the whirling
river, and the everlasting roar of the cataract, answered anon by the yet
more aweful voice that burst above it from the clouds.

They halted while yet sufficiently distant from the cataract to be heard
by each other. "My path," said Aram, as the lightning now paused upon the
scene, and seemed literally to wrap in a lurid shroud the dark figure of
the Student, as he stood, with his hand calmly raised, and his cheek
pale, but dauntless and composed; "My path now lies yonder: in a week we
shall meet again."

"By the fiend," said Houseman, shuddering, "I would not, for a full
hundred, ride alone through the moor you will pass. There stands a gibbet
by the road, on which a parricide was hanged in chains. Pray Heaven this
night be no omen of the success of our present compact!"

"A steady heart, Houseman," answered Aram, striking into the separate
path, "is its own omen."

The Student soon gained the spot in which he had left his horse; the
animal had not attempted to break the bridle, but stood trembling from
limb to limb, and testified by a quick short neigh the satisfaction with
which it hailed the approach of its master, and found itself no longer
alone.