said I would
see the deserted village, so on I went, and presently came on a wide
stretch of open country, shut in by hills all around. Their sides were
covered with trees which spread down to the plain, dotting, in clumps,
the gentler slopes and hollows which showed here and there. I followed
with my eye the winding of the road, and saw that it curved close to
one of the densest of these clumps and was lost behind it.

As I looked there came a cold shiver in the air, and the snow began to
fall. I thought of the miles and miles of bleak country I had passed,
and then hurried on to seek the shelter of the wood in front. Darker
and darker grew the sky, and faster and heavier fell the snow, till
the earth before and around me was a glistening white carpet the
further edge of which was lost in misty vagueness. The road was here
but crude, and when on the level its boundaries were not so marked, as
when it passed through the cuttings; and in a little while I found
that I must have strayed from it, for I missed underfoot the hard
surface, and my feet sank deeper in the grass and moss. Then the wind
grew stronger and blew with ever increasing force, till I was fain to
run before it. The air became icy-cold, and in spite of my exercise I
began to suffer. The snow was now falling so thickly and whirling
around me in such rapid eddies that I could hardly keep my eyes open.
Every now and then the heavens were torn asunder by vivid lightning,
and in the flashes I could see ahead of me a great mass of trees,
chiefly yew and cypress all heavily coated with snow.

I was soon amongst the shelter of the trees, and there, in comparative
silence, I could hear the rush of the wind high overhead. Presently
the blackness of the storm had become merged in the darkness of the
night. By-and-by the storm seemed to be passing away: it now only came
in fierce puffs or blasts. At such moments the weird sound of the
wolf appeared to be echoed by many similar sounds around me.

Now and again, through the black mass of drifting cloud, came a
straggling ray of moonlight, which lit up the expanse, and showed me
that I was at the edge of a dense mass of cypress and yew trees. As
the snow had ceased to fall, I walked out from the shelter and began
to investigate more closely. It appeared to me that, amongst so many
old foundations as I had passed, there might be still standing a house
in which, though in ruins, I could find some sort of shelter for a