In this manner, he journeyed onward three days and two nights, and came,
on the third evening, to the mouth of a cave, which, at first sight,
reminded him of Elijah's cave at Horeb, though perhaps it more resembled
Abraham's sepulchral cave at Machpelah. It entered into the heart of a
rocky hill. There was so dense a veil of tangled foliage about it, that
none but a sworn lover of gloomy recesses would have discovered the low
arch of its entrance, or have dared to step within its vaulted chamber,
where the burning eyes of a panther might encounter him. If Nature meant
this remote and dismal cavern for the use of man, it could only be to
bury in its gloom the victims of a pestilence, and then to block up its
mouth with stones, and avoid the spot forever after. There was nothing
bright nor cheerful near it, except a bubbling fountain, some twenty
paces off, at which Richard Digby hardly threw away a glance. But he
thrust his head into the cave, shivered, and congratulated himself.

"The finger of Providence hath pointed my way!" cried he, aloud, while
the tomb-like den returned a strange echo, as if some one within were
mocking him. "Here my soul will be at peace; for the wicked will not
find me. Here I can read the Scriptures, and be no more provoked with
lying interpretations. Here I can offer up acceptable prayers, because
my voice will not be mingled with the sinful supplications of the
multitude. Of a truth, the only way to heaven leadeth through the narrow
entrance of this cave,--and I alone have found it!"

In regard to this cave it was observable that the roof, so far as the
imperfect light permitted it to be seen, was hung with substances
resembling opaque icicles; for the damps of unknown centuries, dripping
down continually, had become as hard as adamant; and wherever that
moisture fell, it seemed to possess the power of converting what it
bathed to stone. The fallen leaves and sprigs of foliage, which the wind