the river passing below, with a motion
anything but composing for a nervous man to cast a sidelong glance upon.
At all points of peril, however, lines of chain are securely riveted,
affording a dependable holdfast; which after rains is indeed absolutely
necessary, where a single _faux pas_ would be fatal.

A little to our left the water of the river was collected into a basin
of about one hundred yards' diameter; overflowing which, it found a
narrow outlet between two rocks, and thence precipitating itself in a
flood of the colour of amber, was bridged by rainbows dazzling to look
upon, although a person of ordinary nerve has nothing to encounter
really dangerous; yet, at this point, a very few years back, an accident
of a fatal nature did occur, and under circumstances which give to it a
melancholy interest and will ever keep it as a legend of the place.

A family party, consisting of father, mother, son, two daughters, and
the betrothed of one of the latter, a fine girl of seventeen, arrived
in company at the "Retreat," where the parents decided upon remaining
whilst the rest of the company explored the more adventurous route
succeeding.

On went the young people in high glee,--the last fall was at length
achieved; here, after standing for a moment upon the table rock against
which the strength of the fall bursts, one by one the attentive lover
handed the merry girls up the dizzy step: he turned to offer to his
young betrothed the last and dearest act of gallantry, but the rock was
naked; the object of his care, who but the instant before smiled in his
face, was here no longer.

Not a soul of the party had witnessed any movement of their vanished
companion. Absorbed by the scene, they were struggling onward beneath
the overhanging cliff, when the arrival of the distracted lover, his mad
gesticulations and horror-stricken looks, recalled them to hear his loss
and aid his search.

For a few minutes the hope that she had turned back, or concealed
herself to cause a false alarm, held the worst conclusion at bay: but,
on reaching a little cove a few yards lower down, this hope was
crushed, and conviction of her fate placed before them; for here,
quietly floating on the smooth eddy, lay a gaily-trimmed bonnet. It was
at once recognised: the lover sprang into the river, snatched it up, and
found within its hollow the comb of her they sought.

She had, in truth, slipped from off that giddy ledge, and, sinking at
once