thou
didst gird me with strength unto the battle, thou didst enlarge my
steps under me, that my feet did not slip. He was wounded that he was
not able to rise. He fell under my feet. It was Thy doing, O Lord,
because thou hadst respect unto the supplications of thy servant.
Therefore my lips shall greatly rejoice, when I sing unto Thee, and my
soul which thou hast redeemed."

After this expression of his thanks, he clambered with some
difficulty, by the assistance of the shrubs that grew in the crevices
along the sloping platform, until he had attained to the top of the
rock whence he had fallen. He cast his eyes below, but nothing was to
be seen but the wild torrent: no sign, no trace of the Indian. Holden
shuddered as he thought of Ohquamehud, cut off in his atrocious
attempt, and breathed a prayer that his savage ignorance might
palliate his crime; then exhausted and sore, and pondering the
frightful danger he had escaped, slowly took his way towards the
village.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

But is there yet no other way besides
Those painful passages, how we may come
To death, and mix with our connatural dust?
"There is," said Michael, "if thou will observe
The rule of _not too much_, by temperance taught."

MILTON'S PARADISE LOST.

Till oft converse with heavenly habitants,
Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal.

COMUS.

The shades of evening were falling as Holden entered the village. He
proceeded straight to the house of Mr. Armstrong, whom he had seen
twice or thrice already since his return from New York, though we have
made no mention of the visits.

He found Armstrong thinner and paler than ever. The constitutional
melancholy with which he was afflicted appeared to have deepened, and
there was something now in the tones of his voice so sad and tender,
that they moved Holden to an extraordinary degree. Other friends of
Armstrong were affected by them, but, with the exception of Faith,
there was no one who seemed to lay these signs of unhappiness so much
to heart as the Solitary. This, perhaps, may account, in a measure,
for the increased frequency of his visits.

A smile like sunshine stealing from behind a wintry cloud over the
pure snow, welcomed Holden. As he took the offered hand of Armstrong,
he found it extenuated and cold, and pressed it with more than
o