nd.

The broad moonlight had already flooded the recesses of the glen with
light, and all looked fresh and lovely in the dew, which glittered on
tree and leaf, on herb and flower. Catharine, who, though weary with
her fatiguing wanderings, could not sleep, left the little hut of boughs
which her companions had put up near the granite rock in the valley for
her accommodation, and ascended the western bank, where the last jutting
spur of its steep side formed a lofty clifflike promontory, at the
extreme verge of which the roots of one tall spreading oak formed a most
inviting seat, from whence the traveller looked down into a level track,
which stretched away to the edge of the lake. This flat had been the
estuary of the mountain stream, which had once rushed down between the
hills, forming a narrow gorge; but now, all was changed; the water
had ceased to flow, the granite bed was overgrown, and carpeted with
deer-grass and flowers of many hues, wild fruits and bushes, below;
while majestic oaks and pines towered above. A sea of glittering foliage
lay beneath Catharine's feet; in the distance the eye of the young girl
rested on a belt of shining waters, which girt in the shores like a
silver zone; beyond, yet more remote to the northward, stretched the
illimitable forest.

Never had Catharine looked upon a scene so still or so fair to the
eye; a holy calm seemed to shed its influence over her young mind, and
peaceful tears stole down her cheeks. Not a sound was there abroad,
scarcely a leaf stirred; she could have stayed for hours there gazing
on the calm beauty of nature, and communing with her own heart, when
suddenly a stirring rustling sound caught her car; it came from a hollow
channel on one side of the promontory, which was thickly overgrown with
the shrubby dogwood, wild roses and bilberry bushes. Imagine the terror
which seized the poor girl, on perceiving a grisly beast breaking
through the covert of the bushes. With a scream and a bound, which the
most deadly fear alone could have inspired, Catharine sprung from the
supporting trunk of the oak, dashed, down the precipitous side of the
ravine; now clinging to the bending sprays of the flexile dogwood--now
to some fragile birch or poplar--now trusting to the yielding heads of
the sweet-scented _ceanothus_, or filling her hands with sharp thorns
from the roses that clothed the bank; flowers, grass, all were alike
clutched at in her rapid and fearful descent. A lo