Nor more furious, swift, and resistless, was the course of the tempest, than that of the gigantic steed which bore Aldorm and his victim through the forest-no raging torrent, nor tangled brake, nor branching trees, nor rocks, nor dells, could impede his passage; while the winds, the howling wolves, and groaning trees, mocked the feeble cries of the hapless Adelé. Thrice did the gaunt ravisher look round on his victim, and each time the moon had burst through the huge masses of swiftriding clouds and shone with pallid light on his ghastly countenance. His iron scull-cap had no visor to conceal those bold and almost fleshless features

those deep-sunken, lurid eyes, and that grim mouth, smiling with unearthly triumph. Adele's eyes closed in horror and her senses fled.

no

When they returned she was longer borne by that swift flying steed,

VOL. V.

but in the arms of the spoiler, who, with long strides, was traversing a passage, hewn out of the solid rock, and lighted, at intervals, by a white blaze, which streamed but for a moment, appearing and disappearing like a meteor from the sky. These instantaneous lights had ceased and all was impervious darkness, when suddenly the sight of Adelé was dazzled by the blaze of a thousand lights, and her eyes again involuntarily closed; but finding that she was no longer held in the arms of the spoiler, she again opened them, and looked around with fear. Her senses were bewildered, her heart bursting its tenement-yet there was relief, for she found that she was alone. But where? Was she in an earthly mansion-in an abode of man, or had she changed her state, and entered the precincts of some nether world? The walls and the groined roof, and the cabinets, the

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