being the point whence the old woman
made her weekly sally to the market town, was of so intricate and
labyrinthian a character that none but the colonel understood the
secret of its fastenings; and the bare thought of my venturing with her
on the route by which I had hitherto made my entry into the oasis, was
one that curdled my blood with fear. I could absolutely feel my flesh
to contract whenever I painted the terrible risk that would be incurred
in adopting a plan I had once conceived,--namely, that of lashing your
mother to my back, while I again effected my descent to the ledge
beneath, in the manner I had hitherto done. I felt that, once on the
ridge, I might, without much effort, attain the passage of the fissure
already described; for the habit of accomplishing this leap had
rendered it so perfectly familiar to me, that I now performed it with
the utmost security and ease; but to imagine our united weight
suspended over the abyss, as it necessarily must be in the first stage
of our flight, when even the dislodgment of a single root or fragment
of the rock was sufficient to ensure the horrible destruction of her
whom I loved better than my own life, had something too appalling in it
to suffer me to dwell on the idea for more than a moment. I had
proposed, as the most feasible and rational plan, that the colonel
should be compelled to give us egress through the secret passage, when
we might command the services of the old woman to guide us through the
passes that led to the town; but to this your mother most urgently
objected, declaring that she would rather encounter any personal peril
that might attend her escape, in a different manner, than appear to be
a participator in an act of violence against her parent whose obstinacy
of character she moreover knew too well to leave a hope of his being
intimidated into the accomplishment of our object, even by a threat of
death itself. This plan I was therefore compelled to abandon; and as
neither of us were able to discover the passage by which the deer
always effected its entrance, I was obliged to fix upon one, which it
was agreed should be put in practice on the following day.

"On my return, I occupied myself with preparations for the reception of
her who was so speedily to become my wife. Unwilling that she should be
seen by any of my companions, until the ceremony was finally performed,
I engaged apartments in a small retired cottage, distant about half a
mile fro