rang the
bell and begged to be shown to my chamber, where I soon sank to sleep,
lulled by the pattering of rain against the window and the sound of a
neighbouring cascade.

CHAPTER LXXXIII

Wild Scenery--Awful Chasm--John Greaves--Durham County--Queen
Philippa--The Two Aldens--Welsh Wife--The Noblest Business--The Welsh and
the Salve--The Lad John.

A rainy and boisterous night was succeeded by a bright and beautiful
morning. I arose and having ordered breakfast went forth to see what
kind of country I had got into. I found myself amongst wild,
strange-looking hills, not, however, of any particular height. The
house, which seemed to front the east, stood on the side of a hill, on a
wide platform abutting on a deep and awful chasm, at the bottom of which
chafed and foamed the Rheidol. This river enters the valley of Pont
Erwyd from the north-west, then makes a variety of snake-like turns, and
at last bears away to the south-east just below the inn. The banks are
sheer walls, from sixty to a hundred feet high, and the bed of the river
has all the appearance of a volcanic rent. A brook, running from the
south past the inn, tumbles into the chasm at an angle, and forms the
cascade whose sound had lulled me to sleep the preceding night.

After breakfasting I paid my bill, and set out for the Devil's Bridge
without seeing anything more of that remarkable personage in whom were
united landlord, farmer, poet, and mighty fine gentleman--the master of
the house. I soon reached the bottom of the valley, where are a few
houses and the bridge from which the place takes its name, Pont Erwyd
signifying the bridge of Erwyd. As I was looking over the bridge, near
which are two or three small waterfalls, an elderly man in a grey coat,
followed by a young lad and dog, came down the road which I had myself
just descended.

"Good day, sir," said he, stopping, when he came upon the bridge. "I
suppose you are bound my road?"

"Ah," said I, recognising the old mining captain with whom I had talked
in the kitchen the night before, "is it you? I am glad to see you. Yes,
I am bound your way, provided you are going to the Devil's Bridge."

"Then, sir, we can go together, for I am bound to my mine, which lies
only a little way t'other side of the Devil's Bridge."

Crossing the bridge of Erwyd, we directed our course to the south-east.

"What young man is that," said I, "who is following behind us?"

"The young man, s