on toward a
forest that bounded the valley at the further end, and rose
amphitheatrically up toward the regions of the mountains!

Stephano Verrina still pursued her, though losing ground rapidly; but
still he maintained the chase. And now the verge of the forest is nearly
gained; and in its mazes Nisida hopes to be enabled to conceal herself
from the ruffian whom, by a glance hastily cast behind from time to
time, she ascertains to be upon her track. But, oh! whither art thou
flying thus wildly, beauteous Nisida?--into what appalling perils art
thou rushing, as it were, blindly? For there, in the tallest tree on the
verge of the forest to which thou now art near,--there, amidst the
bending boughs and the quivering foliage--one of the hideous serpents
which infest the higher region of the isle is disporting--the terrible
anaconda--the monstrous boa, whose dreadful coils, if wound round that
fair form of thine, would crush it into a loathsome mass!

CHAPTER XLII.

THE TEMPTATION--THE ANACONDA.

In the meantime Fernand Wagner was engaged in the attempt to cross the
chain of mountains which intersected the island whereon the shipwreck
had thrown him. He had clambered over rugged rocks and leapt across many
yawning chasms in that region of desolation,--a region which formed so
remarkable a contrast with the delicious scenery which he had left
behind him. And now he reached the base of a conical hill, the summit of
which seemed to have been split into two parts: and the sinuous tracks
of the lava-streams, now cold, and hard, and black, adown its sides,
convinced him that this was the volcano, from whose rent crater had
poured the bituminous fluid so fatal to the vegetation of that region.

Following a circuitous and naturally formed pathway round the base, he
reached the opposite side; and now from a height of three hundred feet
above the level of the sea, his eyes commanded a view of a scene as fair
as that behind the range of mountains. He was now for the first time
convinced of what he had all along suspected--namely, that it was indeed
an island on which the storm had cast him. But though from the eminence
where he stood his view embraced the immense range of the ocean, no
speck in the horizon--no sail upon the bosom of the expanse imparted
hope to his soul.

Hunger now oppressed him; for he had eaten nothing since the noon of the
preceding day, when he had plucked a few fruits in the groves on the
other