struck into a bypath, which
penetrated the depth of the woody marsh through which the Foss Way then
had its course. After a minute or two it became evident, from the
footing, that they were upon the paved work of a causeway overgrown with
weeds and rank herbage; huge mounds showed where fortifications had once
existed, and shortly, broken pillars and ruined walls appeared at
irregular intervals.

They had little time to look around them, for the storm had come rapidly
up, and the glare of the lightning was incessant, while the rain poured
down in absolute torrents. Before them rose a huge ruin covered with ivy
and with the roof partly protecting the interior. It was so large that
they were able to lead their horses within its protection and wait the
cessation of the rain.

Between the flashes the sky was intensely dark, but they were almost
incessant, and revealed the city of the dead in which they had found
refuge. It was an ancient Welsh town, and in the latter years of the
deadly struggle with the English, had been taken after a protracted
resistance. Tradition had not even preserved its name, and only stated
that every living soul had perished in the massacre when the outer walls
were at length stormed and the town given to fire and sword. The
victors, as was frequently the case, had avoided the spot, preferring to
build elsewhere, and, like Silchester or Anderida, it had fallen into
desolation such as befell mighty Babylon.

And now the ignorant rustic peopled its buildings with the imaginary
forms of doleful creatures, and shunned the fatal precincts where once
family love and social affections had flourished; where hearts, long
mouldered to dust, had beaten with tender affection, where all the
little circumstances which make up life--the trivial round, the common
task--had gone on beneath the summer's sun or winter's storm, till the
great convulsion which ended the existence of the whole community.

Dunstan noticed that his whole party crowded closely together, and when
the lightning illuminated each face saw that fear had left its visible mark.

The continuous roar of thunder, the hissing of the descending rain, the
wind which blew in angry gusts, prevented all conversation until nearly
an hour had elapsed, when the strife began to diminish. It was a sad and
mournful sight to gaze upon the remains of departed greatness when thus
illuminated by the electric flash, and easily might the fancy, deceived
by the