to
Spain for the night. For the first time in his life Major Flinders
really punished his horse, lifting the tired beast along with whip and
rein. Carlota's kept easily beside him under her lighter weight, and
they rapidly neared the barrier. Just as they passed it, a stream
of flame shot from the rock, illumining objects like a flash of
lightning;--then came the heavy report of the gun--another minute and
the drawbridge at Landport would be lifted; but they were upon it.
They dashed across somewhat in the style of Marmion quitting Douglas's
castle, "just as it trembled on the rise," and were safe in Gibraltar.

CHAPTER V.

After life's fitful fever, the Major did not sleep well. He had left
Carlota comfortably established at the inn; and he now lay nervously
thinking how his embarrassment with regard to her was to terminate,
especially if Owen did not shortly make his appearance. Then he
was worried by doubts as to the fate of the Fair Unknown and her
passengers. They might have been recaptured, as escaped smugglers, by
a guarda costa--they might be detained in the Straits by adverse winds
or calms--they might have run ashore into some bay, and come on
overland. This last supposition haunted him most pertinaciously, and
he resolved to go up the rock as soon as it should be daylight, to
look out for them along the road from Spain. He lay tossing restlessly
till the morning gun gave the signal of the approach of dawn, and
before the echoes died away he had his breeches on.

Night was at odds with morning when my grandfather, with a telescope
under his arm, sallied forth and began the ascent. Silence was over
the rock, except an occasional sighing of a remnant of night wind that
had lost itself among the crags. At first, the only clear outline
visible was that of the rugged edge of the rock above against the
colourless sky; but as he toiled up the steep zigzag path, the
day kept pace with him--each moment threw a broader light on the
scene--blots of shadow became bushes or deep fissures, and new shapes
of stone glided into view. The only symptoms of animal life that he
beheld were a rabbit that fled silently to his hole, and a great white
vulture that, startled from his perch on a grey crag, sailed slowly
upward on his black-tipped wings, circling higher and higher, till his
breast was crimsoned by the yet unrisen sun.

The path led diagonally to the summit; and, turning a sharp level
corner, my grandfather looked