ty of the latter had necessarily
imparted to his address, there was much in it highly offensive to the
less adventurous ruffian. A few moments sufficed to effect the
lightening of the woodman's purse of the earnings which had been so
essential a feature in his dreams of cottage happiness; and while
engaged in this transfer, the discontent of the landlord with his
colleague in crime, occasionally broke out into words--

"He carries himself highly, indeed; and I must stand reproved whenever
it pleases his humor. Well, I am in for it now, and there is no chance
of my getting safely out of the scrape just at this moment; but the day
will come, and, by G-d! I will have a settlement that'll go near
draining his heart of all the blood in it."

As he spoke in bitterness he approached his horse, and flinging the
bridle over his neck, was in a little while a good distance on his way
from the scene of blood; over which Silence now folded her wings,
brooding undisturbed, as if nothing had taken place below; so little is
the sympathy which the transient and inanimate nature appears, at any
time, to exhibit, with that to the enjoyment of which it yields the
bloom and odor of leaf and flower, soft zephyrs and refreshing waters.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FATES FAVOR THE FUGITIVE.

Let us now return to our young traveller, whose escape we have already
narrated.

Utterly unconscious of the melancholy circumstance which had diverted
his enemies from the pursuit of himself, he had followed studiously the
parting directions of the young maiden, to whose noble feeling and
fearless courage he was indebted for his present safety; and taken the
almost _blind_ path which she had hastily described to him. On this
route he had for some time gone, with a motion not extravagantly free,
but sufficiently so, having the start, and with the several delays to
which his pursuers had been subjected, to have escaped the danger--while
the vigor of his steed lasted--even had they fallen on the proper route.
He had proceeded in this way for several miles, when, at length, he came
upon a place whence several roads diverged into opposite sections of the
country. Ignorant of the localities, he reined in his horse, and
deliberated with himself for a few moments as to the path he should
pursue. While thus engaged, a broad glare of flame suddenly illumined
the woods on his left hand, followed with the shrieks, equally sudden,
seemingly of a woman.

There