ing son, and cast an eye, that
still lowered with deep resentment upward; but which, the instant it
caught a view of the object that now attracted the attention of all
around him, changed its expression to one of astonishment and dismay.

A female stood on the spot, from which Ellen had been so fearfully
expelled. Her person was of the smallest size that is believed to
comport with beauty, and which poets and artists have chosen as the beau
ideal of feminine loveliness. Her dress was of a dark and glossy silk,
and fluttered like gossamer around her form. Long, flowing, and curling
tresses of hair, still blacker and more shining than her robe, fell
at times about her shoulders, completely enveloping the whole of her
delicate bust in their ringlets; or at others streaming in the wind.
The elevation at which she stood prevented a close examination of
the lineaments of a countenance which, however, it might be seen was
youthful, and, at the moment of her unlooked-for appearance, eloquent
with feeling. So young, indeed, did this fair and fragile being appear,
that it might be doubted whether the age of childhood was entirely
passed. One small and exquisitely moulded hand was pressed on her heart,
while with the other she made an impressive gesture, which seemed to
invite Ishmael, if further violence was meditated, to direct it against
her bosom.

The silent wonder, with which the group of borderers gazed upward at so
extraordinary a spectacle, was only interrupted as the person of Ellen
was seen emerging with timidity from the tent, as if equally urged,
by apprehensions in behalf of herself and the fears which she felt on
account of her companion, to remain concealed and to advance. She spoke,
but her words were unheard by those below, and unheeded by her to whom
they were addressed. The latter, however, as if content with the offer
she had made of herself as a victim to the resentment of Ishmael, now
calmly retired, and the spot she had so lately occupied became vacant,
leaving a sort of stupid impression on the spectators beneath, not
unlike that which it might be supposed would have been created had they
just been gazing at some supernatural vision.

More than a minute of profound silence succeeded, during which the sons
of Ishmael still continued gazing at the naked rock in stupid wonder.
Then, as eye met eye, an expression of novel intelligence passed from
one to the other, indicating that to them, at least, the appea