roll of the contending elements, made the stoutest
of them tremble, and silenced several loud tongues that were generally
the foremost in jest and banter.

"Well, Norton," said Pilkington, "I reckon you are not in the mind to
try a berth abroad in this rude atmosphere during such an angry and
merciless disposition of your deity. 'Tis a _melee_, I imagine, to
your heart's content."

"Norton is hearkening to these rude tongues that do speak so lustily!"
said Mortimer. "He can, peradventure, interpret their mystic voice."

Norton was in the attitude of intense and earnest expectation or
inquiry; his head slightly turned and depressed on one side, the
opposite ear raised, so as to catch the most distinct impressions of
sound. His eyes might have been listening too, yet his vision was
absorbed, and apparently withdrawn from surrounding objects. He was
standing near the window, and the workings of his countenance
betrayed a strange and marvellous expression of wonder and anxiety.

It grew still darker, and the rain came down in torrents. The
thunder-cloud, as though attracted by the height of their situation,
kept hovering over the hill, and often seemed to coil round, and wrap
them in its terrific bosom. Night, they knew, was about setting in,
but they were still unable to issue forth without imminent danger. The
thick cloud by which they were enveloped would have rendered it a
hazardous attempt to proceed under any circumstances.

"We are in excellent condition for a night's lodging in our good
fortalice," said Pilkington: "it hath stood many a close siege from
the elements, and will abide a stouter brush before it yields."

"But surely the storm is too violent to continue. I hope we may
venture out ere it be long," said Mortimer, anxiously.

"Maybe the clouds will either be driven off or disperse. Should a
breeze spring up from the west, which is not unusual after such a
turbulent condition of the atmosphere, it will clear us rapidly from
these lumbering masses of almost impregnable vapour. I think Norton is
still in close communion with the elements. I can yet see his outline
by the window. I thought the last flash lighted on his visage as
though it would tarry there a while ere it departed!"

The servants were huddled in a corner by the door, sitting on the
ground, with the dogs between their legs; the timid animals, terrified
exceedingly at every thunder-peal, and shivering, as though from cold
and distress. S