he young soldier endeavoured to
reassure his kinswoman's courage, his own confidence remaining still
unmoved; although in secret he felt somewhat surprised at the coincidence
between the girl's recommendations of the by-road and the injunctions of
his morning dream. But while pondering over the wonder, he had arrived at
the quagmire alluded to, through which the difficulties of conducting his
cousin were sufficiently great to banish other matters for a moment from
his mind. Having crossed it at last in safety, he paused to give such
instructions or assistance as might be needed by his two followers; when
Edith, who had halted at his side, suddenly laid her hand on his arm, and
exclaimed, with a visage of terror,--"Hark, Roland! do you hear? What is
that?"

"Heard him, massa!" ejaculated Emperor from the middle of the bog, with
voice still more quavering than the maiden's, and lips rapidly changing
from Spanish-brown to clayey-yellow; "heard him, massa! Reckon it's an
Injun! lorra-massy!"

"Peace, fool," cried Forrester, bending his looks from the alarmed
countenance of his kinswoman to the quarter whence had proceeded the
sound which had so suddenly struck terror into her bosom.

"Hark, Roland! it rises again!" she exclaimed; and Roland now distinctly
heard a sound in the depth of the forest to the right hand, as of the
yell of a human being, but at a great distance off. At the place which
they had reached, the canes and undergrowth of other kinds had
disappeared, and a wide glade, stretching over hill and hollow, swept
away from both sides of the road further than the eye could see. The
trees, standing wider apart than usual, were, if possible, of a more
majestic stature; their wide and massive tops were so thickly interlaced,
that not a single sunbeam found its way among the gloomy arcades below. A
wilder, more solitary, and more awe-inspiring spot Roland had not before
seen; and it was peculiarly fitted to add double effect to sights and
sounds of a melancholy or fearful character. Accordingly, when the cry
was repeated, as it soon was, though at the same distance as before, it
came echoing among the hollow arches of the woods with a wild and almost
unearthly cadence, the utterance, as it-seemed, of mortal agony and
despair, that breathed a secret horror through the breasts of all.

"It is the Jibbenainosay!" muttered the shivering Telie: "these are the
woods he used to range in most; and they say he screams after