of flame across the pile, which lighted at the touch; and when they reached the spot, the flying pair were opposed by the surly roaring of a body of fire, as if a furnace were glowing in their path. They recoiled from the heat, and stood on a point of the rock, gazing in a sort of stupor at the flames, which were spreading rapidly down the mountain, whose side soon became a sheet of living fire. It was dangerous for one clad in the light and airy dress of Elizabeth to approach even to the vicinity of the raging element; and those flowing robes, that gave such softness and grace to her form, seemed now to be formed for the instruments of her destruction.
The villagers were accustomed to resort to that hill in quest of timber and fuel; in procuring which, it was their usage to take only the bodies of the trees, leaving the tops and branches to decay under the operations of the weather. Much of the hill was, consequently, covered with such light fuel for the flames, which, having been scorching under the sun for the last two months, ignited with a touch. Indeed, in some cases, there did not appear to be any contact between the fire and these piles, but the flame seemed to dart from heap to heap, as the fabulous fire of the temple is represented to relumine its neglected lamp.
There was beauty as well as terror in the sight, and Elizabeth and the youth stood viewing the progress of the desolation, with a strange mixture of horror and interest. Edwards, however, shortly roused himself to new exertions, and, drawing his companion after him, they skirted the edge of the smoke, the young man penetrating frequently into its dense volumes in search of a passage, but in every instance without success. In this manner they proceeded in a semicircle
