the sails and sweep the vessel on smoothly

y came out in crimson flame, till the vivid host appeared to have stepped forward. The shadows on the snow-fields deepened to purple below an irradiation of rose and pink and dazzling silver. There of all the world you might imagine Gods to sit. A crowd o

, shining ledges, domes and peaks, all the towering heights were in illumination from Friuli into farthest Tyrol; beyond earth to the stricken senses of the gazers. Colour was stedfast on the massive front ranks: it wavered in the remoteness, and was quick and dim as though it fell o

ighted beneath that transfigured upper sphere, it was possible to think the scene might vanish like a view caught out of darkness by lightning. Alp over burning Al

at his mercy; and had he said then, 'Over to the other

e her brother and madame, so tha

to be disturbed, Nevil Beauchamp chose to think; and Rosamund Culling,

nee. 'I fancied it when I begged he

she could yield her hand to another; and it was the critical instant. She was almost in his grasp. A word of sharp entreaty would have swung her round to see her situation with his eyes,

ing quarters, expecting momently a campanile to signal the sea-city over the level. Renee waited for it in suspense. To her it stood for the implacable key of a close and stifling chamber, so different from this brilliant boundless region of air, that s

t tha

' he whispered. 'We will have ano

one hour! and next one minute!

Have you forgotten that

hand to m

it to me

d not; it i

ne,' said

ed lines and isolated columns of th

t her with the fiery zeal of eyes intent on minutest signs

the pledge of the hand

how weak a cr

me. And say, would you not rather coa

confessing that she would b

her,' said Beauchamp, to whose conception i

d, my friend, help me. Should you not help me? I have not once actually disobeyed my father, and he has indulged me,

s not too late,

e his command intelligible to that portly capitano, and went on to Roland, who was p

nor Beauchamp,' said Roland. 'The

ked the Frenchman's shout of laughter, 'I think of making for Trieste.

feet, stared, and w

d Culling, 'do you kn

to her. She is a girl, and I

d met

ou in a state of delu

a catastrophe. I see it as plainly as those Alps. Th

to remind you that you have others

he loves me, and

as sai

more than

are all in a nightmare. Can you suppose I will let my sister be carried away the deuce knows wh

p simply

e to