She
soon found a sheep-path that wound round the shelving rocks and among
the trees.

Nearly an hour did she struggle with the numerous difficulties that
she was obliged to overcome; when, having been repeatedly exhausted
with her efforts, and, in several instances, in great danger from
falls, she succeeded in gaining the small piece of table-land on the
summit.

No hut nor any vestige of human being could she trace. The idea of her
solitude struck on the terrified mind of the affrighted girl, and
approaching to the edge of a shelving rock she bent forward to gaze on
the signs of life in the vale; when a ray of keen light dazzled her
eyes, and a warm ray diffused itself over her whole frame. Recovering
from her surprise, Frances looked on the ledge beneath her, and at
once perceived that she stood directly over the object of her search.
A hole through its roof afforded a passage to the smoke which, as it
blew aside, showed her a clear and cheerful fire crackling and
snapping on a rude hearth of stone. The approach to the front of the
hut was by a winding path around the point of the rock on which she
stood, and by this she advanced to its door.

Three sides of this singular edifice were composed of logs laid
alternately on each other, to a little more than the height of a man,
and the fourth was formed by the rock against which it leaned. The
roof was made of the bark of trees, laid in long strips from the rock
to its eaves; the fissures[122] between the logs had been stuffed with
clay, which in many places had fallen out, and dried leaves were made
use of as a substitute to keep out the wind. A single window of four
panes of glass was in front, but a board carefully closed it in such a
manner as to emit no light from the fire within. After pausing some
time to view this singularly constructed hiding-place, for such
Frances knew it to be, she applied her eye to a crevice to examine the
inside.

[Footnote 122: clefts or openings.]

There was no lamp or candle, but the blazing fire of dry wood made the
interior of the hut light enough to read by. In one corner lay a bed
of straw with a pair of blankets thrown carelessly over it, as if left
where they had last been used.

In an angle against the rock and opposite to the fire which was
burning in the other corner, was an open cupboard, that held a plate
or two, a mug, and the remains of some broken meat.

Before the fire was a table, with one of its legs fra