I know
not why he should send us on this business. Hark! how it rattles above,
there! I could almost find in my heart to turn priest, and pray. Ugo,
hast got a rosary?'

'No,' replied Ugo, 'I leave it to cowards like thee, to carry
rosaries--I, carry a sword.'

'And much good may it do thee in fighting against the storm!' said
Bertrand.

Another peal, which was reverberated in tremendous echoes among the
mountains, silenced them for a moment. As it rolled away, Ugo proposed
going on. 'We are only losing time here,' said he, 'for the thick boughs
of the woods will shelter us as well as this chesnut-tree.'

They again led the mules forward, between the boles of the trees, and
over pathless grass, that concealed their high knotted roots. The rising
wind was now heard contending with the thunder, as it rushed furiously
among the branches above, and brightened the red flame of the torch,
which threw a stronger light forward among the woods, and shewed their
gloomy recesses to be suitable resorts for the wolves, of which Ugo had
formerly spoken.

At length, the strength of the wind seemed to drive the storm before it,
for the thunder rolled away into distance, and was only faintly heard.
After travelling through the woods for nearly an hour, during which the
elements seemed to have returned to repose, the travellers, gradually
ascending from the glen, found themselves upon the open brow of a
mountain, with a wide valley, extending in misty moon-light, at their
feet, and above, the blue sky, trembling through the few thin clouds,
that lingered after the storm, and were sinking slowly to the verge of
the horizon.

Emily's spirits, now that she had quitted the woods, began to revive;
for she considered, that, if these men had received an order to destroy
her, they would probably have executed their barbarous purpose in the
solitary wild, from whence they had just emerged, where the deed would
have been shrouded from every human eye. Reassured by this reflection,
and by the quiet demeanour of her guides, Emily, as they proceeded
silently, in a kind of sheep track, that wound along the skirts of the
woods, which ascended on the right, could not survey the sleeping beauty
of the vale, to which they were declining, without a momentary sensation
of pleasure. It seemed varied with woods, pastures, and sloping grounds,
and was screened to the north and the east by an amphitheatre of the
Apennines, whose outline on the horizon w