nce, our schemes, our projects, our fears;
our dreams vanish back into their cells. One passion only the storm
quells not, and the presence of Love mingles with the voice of the
fiercest storms, as with the whispers of the southern wind. So she felt,
as they were thus drawn close together, and as she strove to smile away
the anxious terror from Trevylyan's gaze, a security, a delight; for
peril is sweet even to the fears of woman, when it impresses upon her
yet more vividly that she is beloved.

"A moment more and we reach the land," murmured Trevylyan.

"I wish it not," answered Gertrude, softly. But ere they got into St.
Goar the rain descended in torrents, and even the thick coverings round
Gertrude's form were not sufficient protection against it. Wet and
dripping she reached the inn; but not then, nor for some days, was she
sensible of the shock her decaying health had received.

The storm lasted but a few hours, and the sun afterwards broke forth
so brightly, and the stream looked so inviting, that they yielded to
Gertrude's earnest wish, and, taking a larger vessel, continued their
course; they passed along the narrow and dangerous defile of the
Gewirre, and the fearful whirlpool of the "Bank;" and on the shore to
the left the enormous rock of Lurlei rose, huge and shapeless, on their
gaze. In this place is a singular echo, and one of the boatmen wound a
horn, which produced an almost supernatural music,--so wild, loud, and
oft reverberated was its sound.

The river now curved along in a narrow and deep channel amongst rugged
steeps, on which the westering sun cast long and uncouth shadows; and
here the hermit, from whose sacred name the town of St. Goar derived its
own, fixed his abode and preached the religion of the Cross. "There
was a certain vastness of mind," said Vane, "in the adoption of utter
solitude, in which the first enthusiasts of our religion indulged. The
remote desert, the solitary rock, the rude dwelling hollowed from the
cave, the eternal commune with their own hearts, with nature, and their
dreams of God,--all make a picture of severe and preterhuman grandeur.
Say what we will of the necessity and charm of social life, there is a
greatness about man when he dispenses with mankind."

"As to that," said Du-----e, shrugging his shoulders, "there was
probably very good wine in the neighbourhood, and the females' eyes
about Oberwesel are singularly blue."

They now approached Oberwesel, anoth