g valley, the serpentine meanderings of
the slender current might be traced, glittering like silvery threads in
the moonshine. The mild beams of the queen of night, then in her
meridian, trembled upon the topmost branches of the tall timber,
quivering like diamond spray upon the outer foliage; and, penetrating
through the interstices of the trees, fell upon the light wreaths of
vapor then beginning to arise from the surface of the pool, steeping
them in misty splendor, and lending to this part of the picture a
character of dreamy and unearthly beauty.

All else was in unison. No sound interrupted the silence of Luke's
solitude, except the hooting of a large gray owl, that, scared at his
approach, or in search of prey, winged its spectral flight in continuous
and mazy circles round his head, uttering at each wheel its startling
whoop; or a deep, distant bay, that ever and anon boomed upon the ear,
proceeding from a pack of hounds kennelled in a shed adjoining the pool
before mentioned, but which was shrouded from view by the rising mist.
No living objects presented themselves, save a herd of deer, crouched in
a covert of brown fern beneath the shadow of a few stunted trees,
immediately below the point of land on which Luke stood; and although
their branching antlers could scarcely be detected from the
ramifications of the wood itself, they escaped not his practised ken.

"How often," murmured Luke, "in years gone by, have I traversed these
moonlit glades, and wandered amidst these woodlands, on nights heavenly
as this--ay, and to some purpose, as yon thinned herd might testify!
Every dingle, every dell, every rising brow, every bosky vale and
shelving covert, have been as familiar to my track as to that of the
fleetest and freest of their number: scarce a tree amidst the thickest
of yon outstretching forest with which I cannot claim acquaintance; 'tis
long since I have seen them. By Heavens! 'tis beautiful! and it is all
my own! Can I forget that it was here I first emancipated myself from
thraldom? Can I forget the boundless feeling of delight that danced
within my veins when I first threw off the yoke of servitude, and roved
unshackled, unrestrained, amidst these woods? The wild intoxicating
bliss still tingles to my heart. And they are all my own--my own!
Softly, what have we there?"

Luke's attention was arrested by an object which could not fail to
interest him, sportsman as he was. A snorting bray was heard, and