soon over. Its fatal cause was soon exhibited, when Roland, awakened by
the sound from the trance, which, during the brief moment of his passage
through the abyss, had chained his faculties, turned, by a violent jerk,
the head of his charger up the stream, in the instinctive effort to
render assistance to his less fortunate followers. A fainter flash than
before played upon the waters, and he beheld two or three dark masses,
like the bodies of horses, hurried by among the waves, whilst another, of
lesser bulk and human form, suddenly rose from the depth of the stream at
his side. This he instantly grasped in his hand, and dragged half across
his saddle-bow, when a broken, strangling exclamation, "Lorra-g-g-gor!"
made him aware that he had saved the life of the faithful Emperor.
"Clutch fast to the saddle," he cried; and the negro obeying with another
ejaculation, the soldier turned Briareus again down the stream, to look
for the canoe. But almost immediately his charger struck the ground; and
Roland, to his inexpressible joy, found himself landed upon a projecting
bank, on which the current had already swept the canoe, with its precious
freight, unharmed.

"If that ar'n't equal to coming down a strick of lightning," cried
Roaring Ralph, as he helped the soldier from the water, "thar's no legs
to a jumping bull-frog! Smash away, old bait!" he continued,
apostrophising with great exultation and self-admiration the river whose
terrors he had thus so successfully defied; "ar'n't I the gentleman for
you? Roar as much as you please;--when it comes to fighting for
anngelliferous madam, I can lick you, old Salt, 'tarnal death to me! And
so, anngelliferous madam, don't you car' a copper for the old crittur;
for thar's more in his bark than his bite. And as for the abbregynes, if
I've fout 'em enough for your satisfaction, we'll just say good-bye to
'em, and leave 'em to take the scalp off old Salt."

The consolation thus offered by the worthy captain of horse-thieves was
lost upon Edith, who, locked in the arms of her kinsman, and sensible of
her escape from the horrid danger that had so long surrounded her,
sensible also of the peril from which he had just been released, wept her
terrors away upon his breast, and for a moment almost forgot that her
sufferings were not yet over.

It was only for an instant that the young soldier indulged his joy. He
breathed a few words of comfort and encouragement, and then turned to
inquire