of limestone, utterly barring all further progress save in a
single spot to the left, where the vast grey wall was split, giving a
glimpse of another glen beyond. This great natural cleft was the
limestone gate which they had come to see, and which was rendered the
more wonderful by a tall pinnacle of rock, which stood in the centre of
the gap about 300 feet in height, not unlike one of the same kind in
Dovedale.

"I don't think I ever saw anything so beautiful," said Alice. "How fine
that spire of rock is, shooting up from the feathered shrubs at the
base! I will come here some day and try to draw it."

"Wait a minute," said Jim; "you have not seen half yet."

He led them through the narrow pass, among the great boulders which
lined the creek. The instant they came beyond, a wind, icy cold, struck
upon their cheeks, and Alice, dropping her reins, uttered a cry of awe
and wonder, and Sam too exclaimed aloud; for before them, partly seen
through crowded tree stems, and partly towering above the forest, lay a
vast level wall of snow, flecked here and there by the purple shadow of
some flying summer cloud.

A sight so vast and magnificent held them silent for a little; then
suddenly, Jim, looking at Alice, saw that she was shivering.

"What is the matter, Alice, my dear?" he said; "let us come away; the
snow-wind is too much for you."

"Oh! it is not that!" she said. "Somebody is walking over my grave."

"Oh, that's all!" said Jim; "they are always at it with me, in cold
weather. Let 'em. It won't hurt, that I know of."

But they turned homeward nevertheless; and coming through the rock
walls again, Jim said,

"Sam, what was that battle the Doctor and you were reading about one
day, and you told me all about it afterwards, you know?"

"Malplacquet?"

"No; something like that, though. Where they got bailed up among the
rocks, you know, and fought till they were all killed."

"Thermopylae?"

"Ah! This must be just such another place, I should think."

"Thermopylae was by the sea-shore," said Alice.

"Now, I should imagine," said Sam, pointing to the natural glacis
formed by the decay of the great wall which they had seen fronting them
as they came up, "that a few determined men with rifles, posted among
those fern-trees, could make a stand against almost any force."

"But, Sam," said Jim, "they might be cut up by cavalry. Horses could
travel right up the face of the slope there. Now, suppose a gang of
bu