en the crag, it was no longer visible: the signal of
safety was lost among a thousand white breakers, which, dashing upon
the point of the promontory, rose in prodigious sheets of snowy foam,
as high as the mast of a first-rate man-of-war, against the dark brow of
the precipice.

The countenance of the old man fell. Isabella gave a faint shriek,
and, "God have mercy upon us!" which her guide solemnly uttered, was
piteously echoed by Sir Arthur--"My child! my child!--to die such a
death!"

"My father! my dear father!" his daughter exclaimed, clinging to
him--"and you too, who have lost your own life in endeavouring to save
ours!"

"That's not worth the counting," said the old man. "I hae lived to be
weary o' life; and here or yonder--at the back o' a dyke, in a wreath o'
snaw, or in the wame o' a wave, what signifies how the auld gaberlunzie
dies?"

"Good man," said Sir Arthur, "can you think of nothing?--of no help?--I'll
make you rich--I'll give you a farm--I'll"--

"Our riches will be soon equal," said the beggar, looking out upon the
strife of the waters--"they are sae already; for I hae nae land, and you
would give your fair bounds and barony for a square yard of rock that
would be dry for twal hours."

While they exchanged these words, they paused upon the highest ledge of
rock to which they could attain; for it seemed that any further attempt
to move forward could only serve to anticipate their fate. Here, then,
they were to await the sure though slow progress of the raging element,
something in the situation of the martyrs of the early church, who,
exposed by heathen tyrants to be slain by wild beasts, were compelled
for a time to witness the impatience and rage by which the animals
were agitated, while awaiting the signal for undoing their grates, and
letting them loose upon the victims.

Yet even this fearful pause gave Isabella time to collect the powers of
a mind naturally strong and courageous, and which rallied itself at this
terrible juncture. "Must we yield life," she said, "without a struggle?
Is there no path, however dreadful, by which we could climb the crag, or
at least attain some height above the tide, where we could remain till
morning, or till help comes? They must be aware of our situation, and
will raise the country to relieve us."

Sir Arthur, who heard, but scarcely comprehended, his daughter's
question, turned, nevertheless, instinctively and eagerly to the old
man, as if their li