a troubled light. She knew, yet could not
act upon her knowledge; she knew that she must stop, and yet she still
ran.

She was already near madness, when she broke suddenly into a narrow
clearing. At the same time the din grew louder, and she became conscious
of vague forms and fields of whiteness. And with that the earth gave
way; she fell and found her feet again with an incredible shock to her
senses, and her mind was swallowed up.

When she came again to herself she was standing to the mid-leg in an icy
eddy of a brook, and leaning with one hand on the rock from which it
poured. The spray had wet her hair. She saw the white cascade, the stars
wavering in the shaken pool, foam flitting, and high overhead the tall
pines on either hand serenely drinking star-shine; and in the sudden
quiet of her spirit she heard with joy the firm plunge of the cataract
in the pool. She scrambled forth dripping. In the face of her proved
weakness, to adventure again upon the horror of blackness in the groves
were a suicide of life or reason. But here, in the alley of the brook,
with the kind stars above her, and the moon presently swimming into
sight, she could await the coming of day without alarm.

This lane of pine-trees ran very rapidly down hill and wound among the
woods; but it was a wider thoroughfare than the brook needed, and here
and there were little dimpling lawns and coves of the forest, where the
starshine slumbered. Such a lawn she paced, taking patience bravely; and
now she looked up the hill and saw the brook coming down to her in a
series of cascades; and now approached the margin, where it welled among
the rushes silently; and now gazed at the great company of heaven with
an enduring wonder. The early evening had fallen chill, but the night
was now temperate; out of the recesses of the wood there came mild airs
as from a deep and peaceful breathing; and the dew was heavy on the
grass and the tight-shut daisies. This was the girl's first night under
the naked heaven; and now that her fears were overpast, she was touched
to the soul by its serene amenity and peace. Kindly the host of heaven
blinked down upon that wandering Princess; and the honest brook had no
words but to encourage her.

At last she began to be aware of a wonderful revolution, compared to
which the fire of Mittwalden Palace was but the crack and flash of a
percussion-cap. The countenance with which the pines regarded her began
insensibly to change