untain. He shook his head again when
he thought what consternation he might spread through these dwellings by
dropping at the doors the news of how near the pirate-schooner lay. It
seemed to be out of the people's minds now because it was out of sight,
and the bishop had become visible instead. As for the security which
some talked of from there being so little worth taking in the Nordland
farm-houses,--this might be true if only one house was to be attacked,
and that one defended: but half-a-dozen ruffians, coming ashore, to
search eight or ten undefended houses in a day, might gather enough
booty to pay them for their trouble. Of money they would find little or
none; but in some families there were gold chains, crosses, and
ear-rings, which had come down from a remote generation, or silver
goblets and tankards. There were goats worth carrying away for their
milk, and spirited horses and their harness, to sell at a distance.
There were stores of the finest bed and table linen in the world; sacks
of flour, cellars full of ale, kegs of brandy, and a mass of tobacco in
every house. Fervently did Rolf wish, as he passed by these comfortable
dwellings, that the enemy would cast no eye or thought upon their
comforts till he should have given such information in the proper
quarters as should deprive them of the power of doing mischief in this
neighbourhood.

Leaving the last of the farm-houses behind, he ascended the ravine, and
came out upon the expanse of rich herbage which Erica had trodden but a
few days before. He thought, as she had done, of his own description of
their journeying together to the seater, and of the delight with which
she would leap from the cart to walk with him on the first sight of the
waving grass upon the upland. His heart beat joyously at the thought,
instead of mourning like hers. He was transported with happiness when
he thought how near he was to her now, and on the eve of a season of
delight,--a few balmy summer weeks upon the pastures, to be followed by
his marriage. This affair of the pirates once finished, was ever man so
happy as he was going to be? The thought made him spring as lightly
through the tall grass that lay between him and the Black Tarn as the
reindeer from point to point of the mountain steep.

The breeze blew in his face, refreshing him with its coolness, and with
the fragrance of the birch, with which it was loaded. But it brought
something else,--a transient so