of the departing day; and ever and anon, from the scattered shrubs and
the fragrant herbage, came the vesper music of the birds, and the hum of
the wild bee.

Parched with thirst, and drooping with fatigue, the wanderers sprung
forward with one simultaneous cry of joy to the glassy and refreshing
wave which burst so unexpectedly upon them: and it was resolved that they
should remain for some hours in a spot where all things invited them to
the repose they so imperiously required. They flung themselves at once
upon the grass; and such was their exhaustion, that rest was almost
synonymous with sleep. Falkland alone could not immediately forget
himself in repose: the face of his uncle, ghastly and disfigured, glared
upon his eyes whenever he closed them. Just, however, as he was sinking
into an unquiet and fitful doze, he heard steps approaching: he started
up, and perceived two men, one a peasant, the other in the dress of a
hermit. They were the first human beings the wanderers had met; and when
Falkland gave the alarm to Riego, who slept beside him, it was
immediately proposed to detain them as guides to the town of Carolina,
where Riego had hopes of finding effectual assistance, or the means of
ultimate escape. The hermit and his companion refused, with much
vehemence, the office imposed upon them; but Riego ordered them to be
forcibly detained. He had afterwards reason bitterly to regret this
compulsion.

Midnight came on in all the gorgeous beauty of a southern heaven, and
beneath its stars they renewed their march. As Falkland rode by the side
of Riego, the latter said to him in a low voice, "There is yet escape for
you and my followers: none for me: they have set a price on my head, and
the moment I leave these mountains, I enter upon my own destruction."
"No, Rafael!" replied Falkland; "you can yet fly to England, that asylum