of cirrus clouds,
which were tinted with every hue of the rainbow, and spread over all
the western heavens up to the zenith and beyond.

In that low mass of strata clouds which overhung the sunset there was
now a wild convulsion. A storm was raging there, too far away to be
felt, but plainly visible. The fantastic shapes were flung together
in furious disorder; through the confused masses electric flashes
shot forth; sometimes in floods of glory, sometimes in straight lines
of forked lightning, sometimes in rounded lumps of suddenly revealed
fire--the true bolts of Jove. Toward the south the hills lay wrapped
in haze and gloom, and in one part there was a heavy shower, where
the rain streamed down in vertical lines.

The sun went down, leaving behind it a redder splendor by which all
was glorified; the river wound in molten gold; the trees were tipped
with purple lustre; the crests of the mountains took on aureoles of
light. As the sun still descended, the scene was slowly transformed;
the splendor lessened; the clouds broke up into other forms; the
thick strata mass dissipated itself; then came a golden haze over the
wide west; the moon revealed itself over the head of Scorpio, with
Antares beaming from a bright place in the sky.

The scenes shifted rapidly, and twilight deepened, until the clouds
made way for the moon, and, breaking up into thin light masses, swept
away over the sky; while the moon, assuming its proper functions,
looked mildly down, and bathed all the valley in a mellow lustre.

After about half an hour's rest, the priest arose, put his pipe in
his pocket, and resumed his long stride. Up the road he went, without
stopping again, as though he had resolved to cross the Pyrenees in
that one night, and be over in France by morning: of whom it might be
said, in the words of the Chinese poet,

"That young man walkee no can stop."

Another hour brought him a good four miles farther on, and still he
kept up the same pace. He now reached a place where the road took a
somewhat sudden turn, and wound around a rocky projection on the
lull-side. Here, as he turned, he came full upon a figure that was
walking in the opposite direction.

It was the figure of a woman; and in that bright moonshine it was
easy to see that she was young, and graceful, and light, and elastic.
Coming suddenly upon the priest as she did, at the turn in the road,
she was evidently quite terrified. Her attitude was that of a
st