of the road hid the city from view; only the
outlying churchyard remained in sight, with its white monuments and
granite crosses, over which the dark yews, wet with the rain and shaken
by the gale, sent showers of diamond-like sprays.

CHAPTER XLV. THE FOREST OF BOULOGNE

Progress was not easy, and very slow along the muddy road; the two
coaches moved along laboriously, with wheels creaking and sinking deeply
from time to time in the quagmire.

When the small party finally reached the edge of the wood the greyish
light of this dismal day had changed in the west to a dull reddish
glow--a glow that had neither brilliance nor incandescence in it; only a
weird tint that hung over the horizon and turned the distance into lines
of purple.

The nearness of the sea made itself already felt; there was a briny
taste in the damp atmosphere, and the trees all turned their branches
away in the same direction against the onslaught of the prevailing
winds.

The road at this point formed a sharp fork, skirting the wood on either
side, the forest lying like a black close mass of spruce and firs on the
left, while the open expanse of country stretched out on the right. The
south-westerly gale struck with full violence against the barrier of
forest trees, bending the tall crests of the pines and causing their
small dead branches to break and fall with a sharp, crisp sound like a
cry of pain.

The squad had been fresh at starting; now the men had been four hours
in the saddle under persistent rain and gusty wind; they were tired, and
the atmosphere of the close, black forest so near the road was weighing
upon their spirits.

Strange sounds came to them from out the dense network of trees--the
screeching of night-birds, the weird call of the owls, the swift and
furtive tread of wild beasts on the prowl. The cold winter and lack of
food had lured the wolves from their fastnesses--hunger had emboldened
them, and now, as gradually the grey light fled from the sky, dismal
howls could be heard in the distance, and now and then a pair of eyes,
bright with the reflection of the lurid western glow, would shine
momentarily out of the darkness like tiny glow-worms, and as quickly
vanish away.

The men shivered--more with vague superstitious fear than with cold.
They would have urged their horses on, but the wheels of the coaches
stuck persistently in the mud, and now and again a halt had to be called
so that the spokes and axles might