with his face to the Rhine, a
huge mountain appeared to rise sheer over him, and he had it in his mind
to scale it. He got no nearer to the base of it for all his vigorous
outstepping. The ground began to dip; he lost sight of the sky. Then
heavy, thunder-drops streak his cheek, the leaves were singing, the
earth breathed, it was black before him, and behind. All at once the
thunder spoke. The mountain he had marked was bursting over him.

Up startled the whole forest in violet fire. He saw the country at the
foot of the hills to the bounding Rhine gleam, quiver, extinguished.
Then there were pauses; and the lightning seemed as the eye of heaven,
and the thunder as the tongue of heaven, each alternately addressing
him; filling him with awful rapture. Alone there--sole human creature
among the grandeurs and mysteries of storm--he felt the representative
of his kind, and his spirit rose, and marched, and exulted, let it be
glory, let it be ruin! Lower down the lightened abysses of air rolled
the wrathful crash; then white thrusts of light were darted from the
sky, and great curving ferns, seen steadfast in pallor a second, were
supernaturally agitated, and vanished. Then a shrill song roused in the
leaves and the herbage. Prolonged and louder it sounded, as deeper and
heavier the deluge pressed. A mighty force of water satisfied the desire
of the earth. Even in this, drenched as he was by the first outpouring,
Richard had a savage pleasure. Keeping in motion, he was scarcely
conscious of the wet, and the grateful breath of the weeds was
refreshing. Suddenly he stopped short, lifting a curious nostril.
He fancied he smelt meadow-sweet. He had never seen the flower in
Rhineland--never thought of it; and it would hardly be met with in a
forest. He was sure he smelt it fresh in dews. His little companion
wagged a miserable wet tail some way in advance. He went an slowly,
thinking indistinctly. After two or three steps he stooped and stretched
out his hand to feel for the flower, having, he knew not why, a strong
wish to verify its growth there. Groping about, his hand encountered
something warm that started at his touch, and he, with the instinct
we have, seized it, and lifted it to look at it. The creature was very
small, evidently quite young. Richard's eyes, now accustomed to the
darkness, were able to discern it for what it was, a tiny leveret, and
ha supposed that the dog had probably frightened its dam just before he
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